The Kingdom Key Forums: Submitting an Article - The Kingdom Key Forums

We welcome articles from ALL members, not just staff! If you're interested in writing for us, please follow these submission guidelines. If you would like to become a part of the article staff, please see the announcement in the article sections for more information.

What to Write?
This is the most important part of the process, so think carefully about what you'd like to write. Good topics will be things that interest both the writer and the reader (if you're enthusiastic about your subject, that will show through your writing). Your articles should fit into one of the following categories:

Community- This section is for articles that relate to TKK and our community. Things like community events and community interest articles go here.
Art- Any kind of articles relating to art belong in this section- art features, tutorials, or anything else you can think of.
News- Articles that relate to current events go in this section.
Media- This section includes any kind of multimedia: movies, games, TV, books, etc. Reviews and such belong here as well.
Odds and Ends- This category is pretty open. It gives pretty free reign as to what you can write about. Any articles that don't belong in other categories will go here. Things involving internet happenings, funny videos, or just about anything else you can think of.

TKK's purpose isn't as much to inform as it is to entertain. Keep your articles fun so that people enjoy coming here and seeing what we've got to say. Informative articles are fine as long as they're entertaining to read! However, be sure to write your article so that someone who might not know what you're talking about can easily get a basic idea. There should be a good balance between informing and entertaining.

So pick a fun topic and write about it- if you're having fun, hopefully your article will show that.


Article Guidelines
There are some basic guidelines you should keep in mind when writing articles.

• Use common sense when it comes to swearing and potentially offensive language. There's no need to cut out swearing completely or to censor words you do use, but excessive swearing will not be acceptable and may be edited out of your article at the discretion of the editors. Just be reasonable with the amount of swearing and this shouldn't be a problem.
  
• Please do not use emoticons (text based or forum images) in your article. We would like to avoid these (unless for some reason they REALLY add something special to your article) as much as possible, as they seem very unprofessional in an article.
  
• Try to avoid the use of common internet memes in your articles. Like emoticons, if they REALLY add something special to your article, they can slide- but for the most part, try to be more original than just throwing in an OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND or Mudkip reference. We can be funny on our own!
  
• Use proper spelling and grammar to the best of your ability. Editors-in-chief will be proofreading your article before it will be posted on the main site, but try to make our jobs a little easier! If your writing ability seems to be a big issue, your articles may not be posted to the main site. If your article is denied for this reason, the editor-in-chief who reads over your article will let you know what to work on.
  
• If you want to use images in your article, you are more than welcome (and in fact encouraged) to do so- but if you do, please be sure that they're adding something to the article and are related to your subject. Any images that are larger than 550px will be automatically sized down when posted on the main site.
  
• Speaking of images, please find at least one image related to your topic to place at the beginning of your article. Images grab interest. Plain blocks of text look boring on the main site, so start off with an image early in your article (somewhere in the first 1000 characters, preferably at the VERY beginning).
  
• Credit your source! If you have found your article subject through another website, please credit that website. It's perfectly fine to repost content that other websites have posted (provided you wrote the whole article on your own and did not plagiarize!). We usually type this like this:
  (via Websitename), with the website's name linking to the post.
  
• Proof read your article on your own at least once before submitting. This may save the editors time by catching simple mistakes you may have made.

Again, more may be (and probably will be) added to this list of guidelines over time. Please check back from time to time to see if anything has changed.

Posting Your Article
Posting your article for approval is a simple process. Once you've written up your article and proof read it for mistakes, simply post it in the "Submit an Article" section. You are only able to see your own topics in this section, but editors-in-chief are able to see all topics. Simply make a new topic, and an editor-in-chief will read it over as quickly as possible.

It's in the Editors' Hands Now
Now that your article has been submitted, you've done your part. The rest is up to the editors-in-chief. We are:
Miss Ninja
Straxton
Osaka

One of us will read over your article. If it is content that we find suitable for the main site (following all of the guidelines above, an interesting and entertaining subject, etc), we will proofread your article. Please do not be offended if spelling, grammar, or phrasing are changed in your article; it's the editors' job to make your article as good as possible! After proofreading, the editor will promote your post to an article, and it will appear on the main site. Your post in the forums will be replaced with a link to your article, locked, and moved to the Member Articles section.At this time, it will show up on the main site as being written by the editor who promoted it; an administrator will have to edit the author manually through the admin control panel. We will get to this as soon as possible, but we do ask for some patience!

Didn't Make It? Don't Worry.
If your article was not accepted, don't worry. It will still be seen by members! Whether or not your article is promoted, it will be moved to the appropriate article forum. Members will still be able to read and comment about your articles on the forum. If something's wrong with your article that keeps it from being posted, the editor who reads your article will let you know what to improve upon next time. You're always welcome to try again another time!


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Just have fun with this, guys! If we're having fun, hopefully our audience will be, too! Thanks for your contributions!