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Guide: Writing Build Order Guides![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UrdZGl.jpg)
Pic not related: I just like headers that look like this.
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Table of Contents
>Introduction
>Necessary Content
>Formatting and Style
>Useful Resources and Guide Template
>Acknowledgements
Introduction [Top]
So, you want to write a build order guide! I'm going to go over, as briefly as possible, what you should do to make your guide sexy and well-liked. This guide won't teach you how to write strategy articles, or guides to things other than build order guides, because I honestly don't know how to write those. However, if you follow the advice here, you almost certainly won't have your thread closed for being terrible, and you may even get some cool replies! I'm going to be talking about what needs to be in a guide, how to present the information in a useful and pretty fashion, and I'll provide you with some resources to do so, such as a "blank" BBCcoded guide you can paste and write into to instantly make a guide, and links to important threads on guide-making.
Necessary Content [Top]
When we take a look at successful guides, such as Cecil's guide to the Modern 3 Stalker PvP (link), iEchoic's 2fact2port TvT (link), or, if I may toot my own horn, my idiosyncratic Thorship TvZ guide (link), and examine what content they have, we see a few important components in common. These components are what every guide needs to have to be successful and to teach.
A good guide includes a build order. This might seem like an appallingly obvious thing to say, but you'd be surprised. A build order is something someone can look at and reproduce the production and macro elements of the guide from. It needs to include things like food counts, timings, or the order of the production of buildings and units, the basic push-out timings, and when to put workers on and off gas. iEchoic's build order begins with food counts then transitions to a pure order after fighting begins. You'll notice CecilSunkure doesn't use food counts at all, whereas my order has them up to 40-- this is all fine. Anything that gives a player enough info to reproduce the build in a vacuum will do. You'll notice all three of us include information about scouting, push-outs and other basic activities in the build order. You'll need this in your build order.
A good guide includes execution help. This is less obvious, but if you think about it, just as true. TangSC, a prolific guide writer, includes execution advice in all his guides, even stuff that may seem obvious to a more experienced player-- in his ZvZ guide, for example, he describes how a player might use individual zerglings to harass unprotected banelings (link). Cecil's guide on PvZ gateway expands includes several sections on sim city, walling, and unit positioning (link), Blade55555's ZvP baneling guide talks about baneling hits and micro rather extensively (link), etc etc. If your build order does any sort of pressure or uses unorthodox units for defense, it's doubly important you describe exactly how it's done.
A good guide includes good replays. If your guide does not include at least 2 replays, you're actually a bad person. Like, objectively bad, on the objective scale of badness. No matter how comprehensively you describe a build order, your scouting, your execution, etc, you will never get as good as a replay. If your guide is for a build order that pros have used, get pro replays and include them alongside yours. If your guide is for a weird or unusual build that pros use more rarely (or not at all), you'll have to make do with generating your own replays. These replays must be of high quality. If you're in gold league and you think you can write a good guide, and your replays are of you, a gold guy, playing your gold league friends, you'll be frowned at, just as much as you'd frown at a bronze player trying to tell you how to play. Just because a build is viable against a weak opponent of the same skill as you doesn't mean it's viable for use between two strong opponents of the same skill. If you can't generate high level replays yourself, there are no pro replays, and you can't get 2 high master friends to play each other and use your build, it could be acceptable to try to use weaker replays (low/mid master), but expect some serious criticism. If you can only find replays from diamond league and below, you'll probably get completely ignored.
A good guide explains itself thoroughly. iEchoic didn't just tell us to make hellions and air units and leave it at that. Spanishiwa didn't just say "4 queens are good" and walk off stage. In fact, when I first saw Husky's (I think it was Husky, at least) guide to the Korean 4 gate, he didn't just describe the build order and the execution. He explained WHY you could warp the pylons into the enemy base. He noted the low army count in PvP at that moment in the game, and talked about the difficulty of killing several warping-in pylons with a single stalker. As important as it is to describe how to build the structures, how to use the units, and as important as it is to provide replays, it's also of some important to offer some analytical insight into what exactly is going on in the games you're playing. Most guide writers weave this in with their regular prose, describe why/how things are happening. This is important because games often go in weird directions, and understanding the underlying principles of the build you use will let you improvise when the unexpected happens.
Formatting and Style [Top]
Typically, guides are formatted in a fairly straight-forward fashion. At the top, you want a title, along with maybe banner image and whatever introductory words you want to say, maybe a changelog, recent updates, and really anything often not directly related to the build itself. You don't need any of this, but if it's gonna be somewhere, it should be at the top, and separated from the body of your guide.
The typical guide structure begins with an overview or introduction, giving some background information and maybe a summary of what the build is about. This is followed by a section for the build order, which is often formatted with indents or list formatting or other prettiness. Typically, the next sections talk about execution, transitions, and reaction to scouting. Finally, at the bottom of the guide, there's replay and VoD links.
Each of these segments will have a bold title, and will either be relatively short, or in spoilers, or anchor-linked (my favorite). This will let people easily navigate the guide. Typically, you want to avoid using mass spoilers OR having an unnavigable guide, so you'll want to use anchors to divide things up. Try to avoid using weird font sizes, and don't use big font except for headers.
Useful Resources and Guide Template [Top]
There are a few things you should reference when writing a guide. First off, I'd recommend you check out the Sc2 Strategy rules for guide writing: (link) as well as the guides linked in the Sc2 Strategy Recommended Threads (link)-- this will give you an idea of what a good guide should look like. I also highly recommend wo1fwood for his article on TL BBCode (link)-- his knowledge helped me format this post, as well as every guide I've written.
If you want things to go more quickly, I'd recommend you use the template I have below for your guide writing. It's in a Code block, so you'll be able to copy and paste it, then fill in your own information. It's what I used to write my Thorship Guide ((link), my TvP 2 Rax Guide (link), and my TvP 1 Rax Guide (link). Guides written using this template use anchor-links, come out looking clean and present their data neatly. Here's what the template looks like:
+ Show Spoiler [Empty Template] +
Guide: Guide NamePut an image here, usually 640x370, a screenshot is good.
Put a tagline here, like "make protoss cry" or something.
Table of Contents
>Introduction
>Build Order
>Variations and Transitions
>Execution
>Pro Replays, VoDs, and Write-ups
>Q&A
>Acknowledgements
Introduction [Top]
Talk over what makes this build order unique. What it's for. where it fits in the metagame. If there are some times it's good or bad to use this build, or if it should only be used in series play, or whatever, talk about that here. This is a pretty flexible space.
Build Order [Top]
10 Depot
12 Barracks
Feel free to include un-indented lines in which you describe things that need to be done in detail.
15 Barracks
16 Marine (when Barracks Finishes)
16 An indented line like for short commands, like "scout with drone"
17 Orbital Command (when Barracks Finishes)
Variations and Transitions [Top]
Variations: A description of different variations on the build, if they exist.
Transitions: A guide on what to do after the build order ends, depending on who was attacked, what happened, etc.
Execution [Top]
In-depth description on how to execute the build. Several paragraphs, typically outlining possible responses and describing how to tackle them.
Pro Replays, VoDs, and Write-ups [Top]
Author's note: The images are used to show whether it's a VoD or Replay, and if there's a description.
Replay: Foo vs Bar on Steppes of War [IPL4]
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/3/30/Writers_Icon.png/15px-Writers_Icon.png){kind=icon}
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/dl.gif)
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/6/6d/YouTube_red.png)
+ Show Spoiler +
VoD: Day[9] Daily #xxx - Foo vs Bar
+ Show Spoiler +
Replay: Blazinghand vs Yoshi Kirishima on Dark Shines [IPL3]
+ Show Spoiler +
Replay: Foo vs Bar on Entombed Valley [Ladder]
+ Show Spoiler +
Replay: MKP vs SaSe on Dual Sight [IPL4]
+ Show Spoiler +
Replay
http://drop.sc/xxxxx
http://drop.sc/xxxxx
Q&A [Top]
Q: Question?
A: Answer
Q: Question?
A: Answer
Acknowledgements [Top]
I'd like to thank Jon, Bob, and Mary.
Closing Words.
And here's a copy/pasteable version:
+ Show Spoiler [Template Code] +
[anchor]top[/anchor][b]
[center][img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/c/c7/Ticon.png[/img][img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/d/d1/Picon.png[/img][img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/3/31/Zicon.png[/img] Guide: Guide Name[/center][/b]
[center][IMG][/img]Put an image here, usually 640x370, a screenshot is good.[/center]
[center][i]Put a tagline here, like "make protoss cry" or something.[/i][/center]
[big][b]Table of Contents[/b][/big]
[url=#intro]>Introduction[/url]
[url=#build]>Build Order[/url]
[url=#variation]>Variations and Transitions[/url]
[url=#execution]>Execution[/url]
[url=#pro]>Pro Replays, VoDs, and Write-ups[/url]
[url=#faq]>Q&A[/url]
[url=#ack]>Acknowledgements[/url]
[hr]
[anchor]intro[/anchor][b][big]Introduction[/big][/b] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
Talk over what makes this build order unique. What it's for. where it fits in the metagame. If there are some times it's good or bad to use this build, or if it should only be used in series play, or whatever, talk about that here. This is a pretty flexible space.
[hr]
[anchor]build[/anchor][b][big]Build Order[/big][/b] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
[indent]10 Depot
[indent]12 Barracks
Feel free to include un-indented lines in which you describe things that need to be done in detail.
[indent]15 Barracks
[indent]16 Marine (when Barracks Finishes)
[indent]16 An indented line like for short commands, like "scout with drone"
[indent]17 Orbital Command (when Barracks Finishes)
[hr]
[anchor]variation[/anchor][big][b]Variations and Transitions[/b][/big] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
[b]
Variations:[/b] A description of different variations on the build, if they exist.
[b]Transitions:[/b] A guide on what to do after the build order ends, depending on who was attacked, what happened, etc.
[hr]
[anchor]execution[/anchor][b][big]Execution[/big][/b] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
In-depth description on how to execute the build. Several paragraphs, typically outlining possible responses and describing how to tackle them.
[hr]
[anchor]pro[/anchor][big][b]Pro Replays, VoDs, and Write-ups[/b][/big] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
Author's note: The images are used to show whether it's a VoD or Replay, and if there's a description.
Replay: Foo vs Bar on Steppes of War [IPL4] [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/3/30/Writers_Icon.png/15px-Writers_Icon.png[/img] [img]http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/dl.gif[/img] [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/6/6d/YouTube_red.png[/img]
[spoiler][b]Description[/b]
[b]
Replay[/b]
[url=http://drop.sc/xxxxxx]http://drop.sc/xxxxxx[/url]
[b]
VoD[/b]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxx[/url]
[/spoiler]
VoD: Day[9] Daily #xxx - Foo vs Bar [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/6/6d/YouTube_red.png[/img]
[spoiler]
[b]VoD[/b]
Link: [url=http://blip.tv/day9tv/xxxxxxx]http://blip.tv/day9tv/xxxxxxx[/url]
[b]Embedded:[/b]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxx[/url]
[/spoiler]
Replay: Blazinghand vs Yoshi Kirishima on Dark Shines [IPL3] [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/3/30/Writers_Icon.png/15px-Writers_Icon.png[/img] [img]http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/dl.gif[/img] [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/6/6d/YouTube_red.png[/img]
[spoiler][b]Description[/b]
herpa derpa derp
[b]
Replay[/b]
[url=http://drop.sc/xxxxx]http://drop.sc/xxxxx[/url]
[b]
VoD[/b]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxx[/url]
[/spoiler]
Replay: Foo vs Bar on Entombed Valley [Ladder] [img]http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/thumb/3/30/Writers_Icon.png/15px-Writers_Icon.png[/img] [img]http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/dl.gif[/img]
[spoiler][b]Description[/b]
herpa derpa derp
[b]Replay[/b]
[url=http://drop.sc/xxxxx]http://drop.sc/xxxxx[/url]
[/spoiler]
Replay: MKP vs SaSe on Dual Sight [IPL4] [img]http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/maps/dl.gif[/img]
[spoiler][b]Replay[/b]
[url=http://drop.sc/xxxxx]http://drop.sc/xxxxx[/url][/spoiler]
[hr]
[anchor]faq[/anchor][b][big]Q&A[/big][/b] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
[b]Q: Question?[/b]
A: Answer
[b]Q: Question?[/b]
A: Answer
[hr]
[anchor]ack[/anchor][b][big]Acknowledgements[/big][/b] [url=#top][b][small][Top][/small][/b][/url]
I'd like to thank Jon, Bob, and Mary.
[hr]
Closing Words.
Acknowledgements [Top]
Thanks to wo1fwood for his article on TL BBCode (link)-- his knowledge helped me format this post. Thanks to everyone who writes guides for the TL Strategy section! I hope this can help everyone write better guides in the future. If anyone has questions or contributions I'd be glad to add them to this guide.
this guide is written using the guide template that's included! 
