Chronepsis
First Post
Because my good aligned compatriots have been so forthcoming with what we do want, I'll happily share a few things that Dragon most assuredly does not want.
First and foremost, we're not looking for writers who obviously have not read our writers guidelines (http://paizo.com/dragon/about). One would be amazed how many submissions we receive that obviously do not follow the formats, suggestions, and Sacred Laws therein. We're not trying to make every article in every issue a template or aggrandized Mad-Lib, but if you're a first timer looking to break in, it might be a good idea to follow the rules of what works. Also, if nothing else, Jason, Mike, and I largely wrote those guidelines. We think we're smart people. When we see an article by a new writer that doesn't follow the guidelines we put our blood, sweat, and Mike's tears into (yes it was that messy) it makes us sad. Sad editors are grumpy, vindictive, rejectful editors.
Speaking of time and tears, a major part of those guidelines lines discuss sending us proposals. Just little write-ups saying "Hi there, I'd like to write an article on Sky Surfing in Eberron. Here's what I was thinking...." If we're interested, we'll ask for more, if not, we'll say no thanks or that Keith Baker is already writing that (No! Not really, please close your e-mail windows). Overall, this just saves everyone time and tissues when we receive a 6,000 word opus Ecology of the Kobold or 8,000 words on new Eberron dragons that we have to reject because we've got it already (although the question here really is which one of these is really coming up?).
That's right. Mike can't speak for me because he is in fact a mute robot. "Bidi Bidi" to you too Mike.
What our little robot friend can't say is that I'm the first line for decisions regarding Dragon's Ecology, Spellcraft, First Watch, Dragon Talk, and the new Divine Inspiration (a merger of Novel Approach and Silicon Sorcery, but with movies, T.V., anime, manga, comics, DVDs, CDs, performance art, kabuki theater, street mime and all other forms of relevant media thrown in). While Ecologies can be just as hard as features (and are not recommended for new authors) and Spellcraft requires a true mastery of the rules, Divine Inspiration especially is looking for queries on previously uncovered media, TV series, DVD collections, and the like. This is one of the experiments going on at Dragon right now, so we'll see how it works. Feel free to help out if you have any ideas by e-mailing queries to Dragon@paizo.com. The only tricky bit with these is that it the topic has to be relevant, and in the best case not just new but releasing in the same month as our magazine hits the shelves. Since we operate with a lead time of about three months (we're working on June's issue right now) this could be tricky, but best of luck to you. What we don't want to see is "So, this game King's Quest II came out a decade or so ago, I think that would make a good Divine Inspiration." Yeah, not so good.
Ways to get Wes to put in his rare good words for you:
Scare me, horror is good, in all things (in my opinion and adventure is just a chore unless the PCs really fear for their lives).
Bending the rules in a cool way, like spellbooks for Spellcraft that are really ancient runes on mummy wrappings or patterns of scales on living, venomous snakes (Neat! See #330 and #331).
Continuity is also a very good thing. There are exactly three-thousand years of D&D history out there with some uber-obscure bits. If you tie your works into some nostalgic adventure, monster, or idea (i.e. the Far Realm [#330] or Pazuzu [#329]) it makes people (especially the old guys here) happy. Kenkus lost their flight because of a deal with Pazuzu?! Neat! (Read all about in it their ecology in #329.)
Use neat monsters. Ecology of the Goblin... (crickets). Ecology of the Behir (Alright!), Ecology of the Kenku (Cool! [#329]). Ecology of the Will'o'wisp went something like, "Eh, Will'o'wisps (#328)... meh... [reading] Oh... OH... aberrant physiologies and murderous alien intellects... Sold! It's awesome when something out of the Monster Manual surprises you like that.
Going along with the last one, using old ideas in new ways is awesome. Everyone who uses kenku knows they have the mimic ability... but is it that great? Kind of sideline ability in my book. OH NO! Check out the sidebar on mimicry and how kenkus use it in #329. The creatures take a quantum leap in coolness. We try to do something like that in ever ecology, but that same idea can find its way into almost every article. Heck, Class Acts are practically all about that and we regularly run features on similar shticks!
Also, send me ideas for First Watch, if I think its cool, works for the magazine, and I haven't heard of it, I'll see about adding you to my list of First Watch reporters. If I think it's Super cool, doesn't work for the magazine, and I haven't heard of it, I might drop it in Dragon Talk anyway and we'll talk.
Don't try to make up new rules for topics that are already well covered. Like I just mentioned, new uses for kenku mimicry, awesome. But saying that kenkus mimic creatures by going to the ethereal plane and stealing their voices, no. Don't change what's already in WotC books, which makes game designers sad and makes it impossible for future products to adhere to every obscure bit of continuity in existence. Again, carrion crawlers that spit purple acid when they're young, no good, ideas for a chuul lairs and the trophies they collect, okay, cool.
Most of all, know the rules. Nearly everyone who reads this will probably immediately think they know the rules, but there's a different between knowing what spells are in the Players Handbook and knowing why a spell is the school, level, and duration it is. For example, a Necromancy spell that lets you fly by riding around on a ghost... no good. Why? Because the spell fly exists. But this is different. Visually and in game, yes. In rules, not really (That and Necromancy spells don't make things fly, even if it is dealing with a corpse). We look for ideas that fill the stray gaps in published materials or push the envelope in ways other publishers can't (i.e. using WotC ideas like beholders, mind flayers, warlocks, D&D minis, St. Vecna, Eb-eberron, etc). The best ways to learn what we're looking for is to read the boring chapters in the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide (ie. the PHB Magic chapter and sections on things like magic item pricing). Also, be sure to know what’s out there, check out WotC books, look at what we've published recently, and read the similar articles in Dragon. Chances are we're not going to radically change what we're looking for in an article from one month to the next, so reading the most recent issue of Dragon is most likely going to show you exactly the style, format, and caliber of ideas and writing we're looking for.
Lastly. Know how to write (passive voice is the mind killer! If you don't know what that is, please find out) and how to write D&D. Check out what we capitalize, italicize, how stat blocks are laid out, how spells are presented, how monsters are formatted. Here's a tricky one, can you figure out the difference between the words "to" and "on" in rules writing. I assure you there is one. We might not expect you to know what it is or get even it right (we have to assure that we have jobs somehow), but there’s a lot of little tricky bits like that in writing for D&D. We spend a good deal of time reformatting submissions, but the more a writer watches out for little style things like that the more time we have to say nice things like "Accepted."
So that's it from me for the next month or so (I'm sure this will get me banned from looking at message boards again). Best of luck to everyone submitting. Oh and like Mike said...
Same goes for me. If you don't like the way Ecologies, Spellcraft, First Watch, or Divine Inspiration have been going feel free to complain directly to Mike. Thanks! He values your input.
First and foremost, we're not looking for writers who obviously have not read our writers guidelines (http://paizo.com/dragon/about). One would be amazed how many submissions we receive that obviously do not follow the formats, suggestions, and Sacred Laws therein. We're not trying to make every article in every issue a template or aggrandized Mad-Lib, but if you're a first timer looking to break in, it might be a good idea to follow the rules of what works. Also, if nothing else, Jason, Mike, and I largely wrote those guidelines. We think we're smart people. When we see an article by a new writer that doesn't follow the guidelines we put our blood, sweat, and Mike's tears into (yes it was that messy) it makes us sad. Sad editors are grumpy, vindictive, rejectful editors.
Speaking of time and tears, a major part of those guidelines lines discuss sending us proposals. Just little write-ups saying "Hi there, I'd like to write an article on Sky Surfing in Eberron. Here's what I was thinking...." If we're interested, we'll ask for more, if not, we'll say no thanks or that Keith Baker is already writing that (No! Not really, please close your e-mail windows). Overall, this just saves everyone time and tissues when we receive a 6,000 word opus Ecology of the Kobold or 8,000 words on new Eberron dragons that we have to reject because we've got it already (although the question here really is which one of these is really coming up?).
MKMcArtor said:
That's right. Mike can't speak for me because he is in fact a mute robot. "Bidi Bidi" to you too Mike.
What our little robot friend can't say is that I'm the first line for decisions regarding Dragon's Ecology, Spellcraft, First Watch, Dragon Talk, and the new Divine Inspiration (a merger of Novel Approach and Silicon Sorcery, but with movies, T.V., anime, manga, comics, DVDs, CDs, performance art, kabuki theater, street mime and all other forms of relevant media thrown in). While Ecologies can be just as hard as features (and are not recommended for new authors) and Spellcraft requires a true mastery of the rules, Divine Inspiration especially is looking for queries on previously uncovered media, TV series, DVD collections, and the like. This is one of the experiments going on at Dragon right now, so we'll see how it works. Feel free to help out if you have any ideas by e-mailing queries to Dragon@paizo.com. The only tricky bit with these is that it the topic has to be relevant, and in the best case not just new but releasing in the same month as our magazine hits the shelves. Since we operate with a lead time of about three months (we're working on June's issue right now) this could be tricky, but best of luck to you. What we don't want to see is "So, this game King's Quest II came out a decade or so ago, I think that would make a good Divine Inspiration." Yeah, not so good.
MKMcArtor said:
Ways to get Wes to put in his rare good words for you:
Scare me, horror is good, in all things (in my opinion and adventure is just a chore unless the PCs really fear for their lives).
Bending the rules in a cool way, like spellbooks for Spellcraft that are really ancient runes on mummy wrappings or patterns of scales on living, venomous snakes (Neat! See #330 and #331).
Continuity is also a very good thing. There are exactly three-thousand years of D&D history out there with some uber-obscure bits. If you tie your works into some nostalgic adventure, monster, or idea (i.e. the Far Realm [#330] or Pazuzu [#329]) it makes people (especially the old guys here) happy. Kenkus lost their flight because of a deal with Pazuzu?! Neat! (Read all about in it their ecology in #329.)
Use neat monsters. Ecology of the Goblin... (crickets). Ecology of the Behir (Alright!), Ecology of the Kenku (Cool! [#329]). Ecology of the Will'o'wisp went something like, "Eh, Will'o'wisps (#328)... meh... [reading] Oh... OH... aberrant physiologies and murderous alien intellects... Sold! It's awesome when something out of the Monster Manual surprises you like that.
Going along with the last one, using old ideas in new ways is awesome. Everyone who uses kenku knows they have the mimic ability... but is it that great? Kind of sideline ability in my book. OH NO! Check out the sidebar on mimicry and how kenkus use it in #329. The creatures take a quantum leap in coolness. We try to do something like that in ever ecology, but that same idea can find its way into almost every article. Heck, Class Acts are practically all about that and we regularly run features on similar shticks!
Also, send me ideas for First Watch, if I think its cool, works for the magazine, and I haven't heard of it, I'll see about adding you to my list of First Watch reporters. If I think it's Super cool, doesn't work for the magazine, and I haven't heard of it, I might drop it in Dragon Talk anyway and we'll talk.
Don't try to make up new rules for topics that are already well covered. Like I just mentioned, new uses for kenku mimicry, awesome. But saying that kenkus mimic creatures by going to the ethereal plane and stealing their voices, no. Don't change what's already in WotC books, which makes game designers sad and makes it impossible for future products to adhere to every obscure bit of continuity in existence. Again, carrion crawlers that spit purple acid when they're young, no good, ideas for a chuul lairs and the trophies they collect, okay, cool.
Most of all, know the rules. Nearly everyone who reads this will probably immediately think they know the rules, but there's a different between knowing what spells are in the Players Handbook and knowing why a spell is the school, level, and duration it is. For example, a Necromancy spell that lets you fly by riding around on a ghost... no good. Why? Because the spell fly exists. But this is different. Visually and in game, yes. In rules, not really (That and Necromancy spells don't make things fly, even if it is dealing with a corpse). We look for ideas that fill the stray gaps in published materials or push the envelope in ways other publishers can't (i.e. using WotC ideas like beholders, mind flayers, warlocks, D&D minis, St. Vecna, Eb-eberron, etc). The best ways to learn what we're looking for is to read the boring chapters in the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide (ie. the PHB Magic chapter and sections on things like magic item pricing). Also, be sure to know what’s out there, check out WotC books, look at what we've published recently, and read the similar articles in Dragon. Chances are we're not going to radically change what we're looking for in an article from one month to the next, so reading the most recent issue of Dragon is most likely going to show you exactly the style, format, and caliber of ideas and writing we're looking for.
Lastly. Know how to write (passive voice is the mind killer! If you don't know what that is, please find out) and how to write D&D. Check out what we capitalize, italicize, how stat blocks are laid out, how spells are presented, how monsters are formatted. Here's a tricky one, can you figure out the difference between the words "to" and "on" in rules writing. I assure you there is one. We might not expect you to know what it is or get even it right (we have to assure that we have jobs somehow), but there’s a lot of little tricky bits like that in writing for D&D. We spend a good deal of time reformatting submissions, but the more a writer watches out for little style things like that the more time we have to say nice things like "Accepted."
So that's it from me for the next month or so (I'm sure this will get me banned from looking at message boards again). Best of luck to everyone submitting. Oh and like Mike said...
MKMcArtor said:
Same goes for me. If you don't like the way Ecologies, Spellcraft, First Watch, or Divine Inspiration have been going feel free to complain directly to Mike. Thanks! He values your input.
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