EPT----- A Guide To Writing Guides -----
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Hello again TL, this guide will be about writing guides(it became a bit longer than expected). It will be how I go about writing them so it’s not the absolute way to do it but maybe you can find some of my thoughts useful when writing your own guide. If you like it or wonder about anything feel free comment and I’ll answer as best I can.
Table Of Contents
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
2.0 Formatting and Organization
2.1 Styles
2.2 Paragraphs
2.3 Proof reading
3.0 Content
3.1 Timings
3.2 Details
3.3 Credentials
3.4 Relevance
4.0 Conclusions and discussion
4.1 The good and the not so good
5.0 Closing Words
1.0 Introduction
Every time I see someone put in a lot of effort into a guide and then it falls short because e.g. it wasn’t properly structured even though the content was good, it makes me feel sad. Sometimes people have written the guide very well but they’ve gone about their content wrong forgetting things like what the opponent’s responses could be to the build in question.
This guide aims to provide a good overview of the different parts to writing a guide both from the perspective of the writer(spelling, structure etc.) and the Starcraft 2 player(content). It will also provide a way of approaching guide writing that can be applied to most subjects.
1.1 Purpose
I wanted to write this guide because hopefully it will help new people looking to write some guides and contribute to the community. I also think that it can aid people already writing guides but that want to improve at it.
2.0 Formatting and organization
I’m going to provide a general overview here of the different main topics that I start to work from. These make a pretty good template to go after and then you can add and remove sub-topics as you add more content.
Table of contents
It’s usually good to start of with a table of contents because then the reader can get an easy overview of the different parts of the guide. The number at the different parts can also be used together with the search function(ctrl+f) to quickly go the part you want to read. However if you are writing a shorter guide or using a lot of spoiler tags(more on that later) then it can be superfluous with a table of contents.
Introduction
In this part you want to give a quick description of you guide, what made you write it, why you wrote it, what it is about(a little more detail then the title) and how you went about writing it. In this section you can also use sub-topics like “purpose” and “method” or just keep it all under the introduction part.
If you explicitly type out your purpose then your readers will clearly understand what the purpose of your guide is which I think can clear up any confusion and let people know if this guide is for them. Also if you start by writing that section, then it helps to keep yourself on track and stay relevant in your guide because you can always look back at your purpose.
The method is the same, it’s equally as much for your self as the people reading the guide, are you using a good method for your guide? E.g. should you acquire information from pro replays or are yours good enough to prove your point? Thinking of problems like these before you’re actually writing the guide will help you solve them before they can become a problem. In this guide I won’t have any method declared because I’m just writing from my own experience.
Content
This will look different for each guide but this is basically where all your data, information, results are gathered. A good idea can be to keep the information in a chronological order, e.g. if you’re writing a guide to a match-up you want to start with early game and then work yourself to the late game instead of just putting everything at different places.
Another thing to think about is relevance, perhaps it’s more relevant to discuss the control of Xel’naga towers in the early game section over the late game section. The point is to think through where you discuss different things in your guide and where it make the most sense to put different topics.
Conclusions and discussion
In this part you want tie up your guide, go back to the introduction and look at what you wanted to accomplish. Refer to your content and show how your guide actually did what it was supposed to do. Draw conclusions from you content section and discuss what these lead and how they can be used.
This might sound very abstract so I’ll give a example that might make it clearer:
Lets say you have been writing a guide on how to 15 hatch in ZvZ.You have described the different timings, what different builds your opponent can do and so on. So all that content is presenting facts and in this section you draw conclusions from those facts.
A thing you could draw as a conclusion would be that it’s very important to have an overlord at your opponents expansion because this way you can tell the difference between a hardcore one-base baneling bust and a speedling expansion with baneling aggression. Then you can discuss how to best make sure that you have that overlord at your opponents natural, are there some maps you must send your overlords differently?
These things might not be clear from just the facts provided in the content but it will greatly help anyone reading the guide to execute your strategy and it just adds more depth to your guide.
References
This is your source material, where you back up the information that you’ve been stating in the guide. For the most part guides are not subjective and if you claim something then the readers of your guide should be able to check your sources too see if this is really the case. E.g. you quote a famous player then you probably want a link to that quote in the this section.
The most used reference in Sc2 guides are replays and these work really well so most of the time you don’t have to have anything else. It’s really important to have several replays(more than 1!) and that they are good enough to prove your point(more on that later). I won’t have any references in this guide because I’m writing from experience.
2.1 Styles
There are many ways to make your text kinder to the eye of your reader and spoiler tags, colored headers bold headers, and pictures are the most common ones.
Spoiler tags
This has been discussed back and forth within the community and there are people who like put every heading in a spoiler, others just use a few spoiler tags and some people just don’t like to use them. I think it comes down a lot to personal preference so you just have to go with what feels best for your guide. If you choose to use many spoiler tags then I would suggest to use one for every section because then they will act like a table of contents(so you won’t need one of those then) which will give the reader a very good overview of the whole guide. With this approach you have to be aware though, because it can easily get out of hand if you start putting more spoiler tag within your already spoiler tagged sections, and it’s my personal opinion that this can get very tiresome to read.
The other way to do it is just to not use spoiler tags or very seldom e.g. if there is slightly off-topic or optional section in the guide. Here you will have a table of contents to give the reader an overview whilst instead of clicking the the section they have to scroll to it.
Using spoilers gives you easier access to specific parts while going the non-spoiler route will give the reader more flow if the want to read the whole guide in one go. There is no absolute way to go but if you want to go the spoiler one then don’t go crazy with them, use it moderately so it enhances your guide instead of making it harder to read.
Colored headers
This is not that common in guides but it can be a very good way to give a nice visual structure to the guide. Instead of putting every header in bold you can give them different colors, e.g. early topics = green, mid game = blue and late game = red. The same applies here as to spoilers, don’t go crazy with colors keep it to a few. Remember to also have continuity and relevance so that you don’t just arbitrarily give topics colors because that might just confuse your reader.
Bold headers
This is something you’ll see in almost any guide and it’s a very basic thing to do to greatly increase visibility and readability. Don’t be afraid to use bold headers, it doesn’t have to before anything major like a whole section like “the early game” it can be for some a lot smaller like “gas timing” which might end up with one line of text under it. That is ok, it’s a lot better to have to have structure and an airy text instead of a wall of text.
Pictures
A picture or banner on the top is a nice final touch for your guide, makes it look a bit cooler other than that try to only use picture if they a purpose. It can be a bit over the top if you just put in a picture of e.g. an overlord only to make the guide look nicer, then it’s much better to e.g. have a flowchart(can be easily made in paint) of your strategy instead. The point is if you have pictures to use then that’s great but don’t try to force them in to your guide.
2.2 Paragraphs
There is not much to say here except that you absolutely have to divide your text into paragraphs, a big wall of text is not reader friendly at all. It’s better to have too many paragraphs than too few, so if you look at a part that you’ve just written and think it looks like it’s too much text then find a good place in the middle and hit enter. A good place can be where you start to talking about something new but you’re still within the same subject or just when your are switching subjects.
2.3 Proof reading
This is the part which easily gets overlooked and that’s bad because reading through your whole text just once will help you find mistakes that are otherwise hard to see. I have to emphasize that it’s really important to re-read everything atleast once(the more the better).
This can be tiresome, especially if you’ve written a long guide and what I’ve found best is to read through a part when you’re done with it(~10 lines). There is another way to do it and that is if you have a really nice friend then you can ask him or her to read through it, a fresh couple of eyes can be a great way to catch factual, spelling or other sorts of errors.
3.0 Content
This section will be general advice since it differs a lot depending on what sort of guide you are writing.
Build order
This depends on who the guide is aimed for but in many cases it’s good to write out the generic opening build orders, everyone might not know for example how a speedling expand is done.
3.1 Timings
Timings are really important because they give the reader a very easy way to follow a build or strategy, they can also be compared to pro replays to back-up for what you are writing. The best way to keep track of timings is the in-game clock but as the game progresses, more and more things can happen and then you can combine elements in your strategy och with opponents responses or with the in-game clock to keep the time.
E.g. If I put down my spine crawler at ~5.00(depends slightly on maps/positions) then it will finish just in time when the first 2 hellion, from a reactor/hellion expand, arrives at my base.
You can also use timings without the in-game clock e.g. once your mutas pop take your third, because then you have the map control to chase away hellions.
How to get timings
Replays are great and the best way to get timings, you can use your own or pro replays. If you want to use timings from pro replays I suggest that you play with them yourself to get a better understanding as to why they e.g. sacrifice an overlord or take an expansion at a particular time. I won’t help much to just state when you should do something if you don’t know the why and what risks and benefits it has to other alternatives.
3.2 Details
Details are key to a good guide, it’s what separates them from the bad ones. They enhance the understanding of the game for the reader instead of giving them a template to follow without understanding.
The What
This is not only what you are doing or what you should build but it’s also what your opponent is doing. You have to approach everything you write from different angles that means you to investigate how an opponent can respond to you and then how you should respond to that, you should always know what you are supposed to do in different situations.
An example if you want to use roch/speedling pressure early-mid game vs a toss then you can’t just write: “At 7.30 make 7 roches, reinforce the next 2 injects with speedlings then drone behind, if you don’t kill him then start teching and take your third.”
Even though this is pretty detailed on the first level of thinking, the correct way would be to the investigate what my opponent could do, dts, phoenix, robo or what? From there you can have your own response explained for every branch of strategy your opponent could have responded with.
The Why
If you now have many precise timings combined with very detailed instructions how to handle all responses then why do you need to know why instead of you just doing what the guide tells you(the one writing it probably knows more about that subject than you anyway)? It’s simple, knowing why will make you a better player by deepening your understanding of the game. It will also help you handle situations not covered by the guide, because you can follow the same reasoning as in the guide when making decision outside of it.
This is why it’s very important as a guide writer to explain the whys of your decisions so that both someone unfamiliar with the strategy understands the reasoning behind it and also because of newer players trying to learn the game will greatly benefit from it. It can also be good to draw parallels to other options and compare them, and write why you chose your way.
E.g. I chose to only put down one spine crawler vs terran because I get gas earlier and therefore have speedlings in time to defend hellion aggression with just one crawler. This way I have to build some speedlings earlier than with 2 crawlers to cover my entrance. However the quicker speed gives me more flexibility with scouting expansion timing and all-ins because it’s a lot easier get a speedling past hellions patrolling outside your base.
3.3 Credentials
This depends on what kind of guide you are writing but you need to know what you are talking about to write a guide about something. To write about strategies you will need to have a pretty high understanding of the game otherwise the guide won’t have the depth a guide needs.
On the other hand for example, writing a guide a about how to arrange your hotkeys in a smart way can be done anyone as long as you put thought and effort into it. There is always something you can write a guide about, if you really want it.
3.4 Relevance
First of all only include content that’s relevant to your guide, this might seem obvious but it’s not to everyone.
E.g. If you’re writing a guide about how to open gas-less expand vs Toss and how to follow that up then stick with that and don’t try to squeeze in alternative openings with gas just because you happen to know them also.
Secondly, when writing(both headers and content) try to keep the text relatively objective and keep to what the guide is about because it will seem much more professional this way.
A few examples(they are a bit over the top just to prove my point):
1. “Toss are really imba late game so you have to be skilled as zerg and flank their deathball.”
2. “Toss can be hard to engage straight up for zerg late game, so a flanking is must to engage efficiently.”
1. [G] 100% Unbeatable GM ZvP Strat
2. [G] ZvP Roch/speedling timing attack
See the difference? Other things to not have in your guide is e.g. a section with how funny different people’s bm were when you won, so as previously stated try to stay relevant and your guide will look more professionally written.
4.0 Conclusions and discussion
The conclusion to draw from this is that it takes a lot of time and effort to write a guide, both to actually write it and do your research. So if you are planning to write a guide be prepared to do some work and appreciate all the great guide writers on TL who put so much effort into helping people. I also want to say that this is just how I approach it, there are many different ways to do it depending on what you’re writing about and what you yourself feel comfortable with.
4.1 The good and the not so good
How to write a guide can be very personal so a good guide might not look exactly like how I write them but it’s pretty easy to tell a good one from a bad one anyway.
The good:
These are just the first ones I could grab, there are a ton of good guides on TL and there isn’t too much to say about them since, well, they are the good ones.
[G] PvP : Modern 3 Stalker - Very well written and it also good depth with detailed discussion on how to micro your stalkers, variatons and follow-ups. It also has both replays form the author and the pros.
[G] PvT 16 Nexus: A Second Look - Great detail and in-depth on all responses and also very good structure and format with a cool touch on how to use spoilers to put replays in every variation.
[G] ZvP Roach Ling Muta - The use of spoilers gives a good overview and it discusses very well how to play this style, opening, when to make mutas and how to use them together with your roach/ling. Since this guide is aimed to higher level players(as stated in the op) you won’t see as much detail more general concepts how to play the style described.
The not so good:
[G] Zerg: “The basics with the 3 Key Elements!” - To start off, it needs more air more paragraphs and if you are counting stuff make it into a list or increment. I also think the subject is too big for the guide, I mean I could probably write a whole guide for just one of those “key elements” but this one just brushes lightly on them.
The biggest problem I have with this guide is that it doesn’t explain why anywhere and that’s really important for the people reading to understand. It says you should have map control because you when you do you are in good shape. But why are you in good shape? It also says send your first drone to scout at 13 supply then you will be safe for a few minutes. How does that explain anything?
There’s nothing bad written in the guide but it simplifies everything too much, and there isn’t enough depth and detail and think this would be just as confusing as helpful to lesser skilled players reading the guide. This would ofcourse take a whole lot more time but that is what it take to write a good guide.
[G] ZvX Pseudo Gasless Guide - This is by no means a horrible guide I just think it falls short where a lot of other guides do as well, the details and depth. First of all why is the ZvZ part in there, the author himself even says that his style(that the guide is about) is not applicable to ZvZ, so what is that doing in the guide?
Which are the most common strategies your opponent can throw at you, and how do you defend them while taking really late gas? How do you defend +1 zelots? How do you take your third against 6 hellions outside your base? The guide is about utilizing minerals so then the main focus should be at the early and really look at different responses instead of just saying “drone to 55 and take a third quickly, if he is aggressive sink minerals into spores and spines”.
5.0 Closing Words
If you’ve come this far then thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it, if you wonder about anything just comment and I’ll answer.
