If you're coming to Bitmob from 1UP or another site you may be wondering what you should write about, and how to write it.  Like at 1UP, Bitmob writers can post whatever they want, but with the possibility of getting our articles posted on the front page and the specter of Dan Hsu and other game journalists hovering over us we try to make our work as professional as possible. 

However, this can be rough on new writers. It’s easy to get discouraged if it seems like no one is reading your story, or you can get so obsessed with making the perfect article that you lose the point of the piece. My first full story about amnesia in video games is definitely not my favorite.

Fortunately, you already wrote your first story.

The Prompt

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

Shirley Hufstedler, United States Secretary of Education

Whether you frequent 1UP or Bitmob, you’ve probably left a comment on one of the site’s stories.  Sometimes it’s simply to say “good job,” but some of them could also be behemoths that you put so much thought into that you may as well write an article yourself. Or maybe there's a response to your comment you wanted to answer, but didn't.

So go do it.  Take the comment and expand it into a full article, even if the comment is "good job." Aside from giving you an article it’ll also get you used to Bitmob’s posting system, and I’ll post all the articles on a collected post after the exercise so that more readers can see your work.

1. Find a comment you did for Bitmob, 1UP, or any other site. It could be the video games forum of a Jpop fansite for all I care.

2. Write a 200-500 word article expanding that comment and fine-tuning it into a professional piece.

3. Include a second page that has the original comment, a link to the article or topic it came from, and any other relevant posts. You can use as much or as little of the comment as you want, but you NEED an actual comment to base this off of.

4. Post the article by Wednesday, May 19th by 12:00 midnight PST.  Include “Expanded Commentary” in the tags so that I can find it. 

I've posted an example in case anyone needs more help. I look forward to reading the results.