Commentary for Blogging the After Action Reports

[NorseThing]

A kind admin told me this is customary, therefore I'm introducing this thread for anybody willing to comment on what I have to say, should you wish. After all, I plan to stay quite a while longer, so this may as well be done properly.

(copy from Sirloin -- a couple of kind souls hinted -- oops)

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

Hi, NorseThing.

It sounds as if you've been enjoying your time exploring TWC, which is great.

You're absolutely right about there being a lot in the Writers' Study (and elsewhere on TWC!) to read. I think if you keep looking, you'll find that there is a wide range of styles within our AARs - there are certainly many with great numbers of pictures, but there are also many with very few pictures. There aren't any that I know of with writing and video clips, but there are numerous video AARs. We would be happy to have an AAR with writing and video clips, though, if someone wanted to produce one!

I see you've entered TotW. That's a fun way to get into writing here, I think - I hope you'll enjoy it. I also hope you'll feel able to write something else for us at some point. No need for embarrassment - we're all here to help each other out.

I'd also recommend posting on other people's writing. I say that partly because it encourages the writers, which is always nice (and they might feel they want to return the favour when you write something!) but also because you say you'd like to have some interaction here. Commenting on other people's writing can lead to a conversation about that writing. It doesn't always, but it can do. When it does work, I think it's usually much more of a conversation than you find on most blogs - blog posts are generally quite ephemeral, and people stop commenting on them quite quickly, but if people want to talk about their writing, that can be quite a lengthy conversation.

You mentioned having trouble with links. I'm sure by now someone else will have directed you to this extremely helpful thread. It has lots of useful information in it. Please also feel free to ask if there's something you don't know how to do. You're welcome to PM a WS staff member, or to post in the Writers' Study lounge asking for help. (You could either start a new thread or post on the Chat Thread, whichever you think is the most appropriate.)

For promoting your blog, I'd suggest putting a link to it in your sig. If you'd like to, you can ask the Art Staff to make you a sigbar (the things in my sig that advertise the Writers' Study and the Critic's Quill are sigbars - Caligula has some the Art Staff did for him for his personal links). Or, instead of a sigbar, you could have a link that shows the date you last updated your blog.
　
I'll look forward to discovering what 'tangential issues' you decide to cover in your blog, and possibly to hearing how the cats (and family) are doing.

[Owlparrot3]

Your paragraph about your personal life is good enough to put in a professional story.'An old man married with cats'.I could have never guessed you were older than me.

[NorseThing]

Your paragraph about your personal life is good enough to put in a professional story.'An old man married with cats'.I could have never guessed you were older than me.

You charging dog takes a bit out of the sails of any potential and possible future story of my cats and bats. And yes I am quite bit older, but that's ok since we are all really digits in the ether by posting on TWC.

[Alwyn]

I enjoyed reading your 'Variations on a Theme'. I recognise the experiences you describe, such as valuing features of a game more when writing an AAR about it and wanting to enjoy the campaign without feeling the need to rapidly conquer every faction. I can relate to your appreciation of the different victory conditions in the short campaign, since this gives players more freedom to ally with other nations. I agree that, for some of us, playing well can mean fast expansion; for others, it has other meanings - and, of course, there's nothing wrong with either interpretation of 'playing well.'