I’ll start with a big thank you for showing an interest in contributing stories to the Citizen Magazine. I’m really looking forward to reading the content you will create.
You only need to send me the text content of the article, I will handle the design process of integrating the story in the magazine. The page layout will always be influenced and developed around the story you write. I am usually open to layout suggestions as well, if you have a certain idea about how you’d like it to look.
If you’re thinking about contributing, chances are you’ve already written some fan content and have already read the Writer’s Guide articles published by RSI on their website, but if you haven’t I strongly recommend checking them out, as they are very helpful in providing an insight into the Star Citizen universe. The first part in the series is HERE, and you can follow the links from there.
Keep in mind that the stories have to be included in a magazine, so they must have a journalistic feel. I would say that is the only real restriction (apart from being Star Citizen related, obviously). At this point, to start things off, there is no restriction on subject or scope. Subjects can range from news stories, ship or equipment reviews, sports, travel destinations, politics, science, disasters, whatever. As long as the story is interesting and nicely written, go for it.
Consider the Citizen Magazine publication to be UEE-friendly, but not necessarily a propaganda tool of the empire. So while there can be articles that may criticize some aspects of the UEE, I would stay away from conspiracy theories or articles that are openly hostile toward the empire and/or senate.
Don’t feel like the information you provide in the article needs to be 100% correct, with bullet-proof facts and reasoning. Sometimes, journalists just get it wrong, sometimes they are biased and only argue a story from one perspective, or they receive false information and don’t do a great job of vetting it. There are countless reasons why the story may be inaccurate, the industry goes on. Sometimes, that even makes things more interesting from a storytelling perspective. Sorry if I offend any journalists out there, this is all fiction, and present company is excluded 🙂
Don’t be afraid to make stuff up, like cities, space stations, politicians, etc. Whatever you need to tell a cool story. If you do go with something completely made up, I suggest that you keep it small scale so that it makes sense for people not to have heard about it. If you use part of the official lore in your story, make sure not to contradict the things that the RSI writers have set as “facts”.
In order to give you some guidelines on word count for the articles, I will provide some numbers for two contrasting pages. Page 10 of Issue #1 has around 230 words and strikes a nice balance between text content and graphic content. Page 16 has around 500 words and is very heavy on the text content side. So the sweet spot is probably a word count of 300 to 400 per page. A lower number will allow for more graphic content like awesome ship pictures and stuff, should they fit with the story 😀 Feel free to write half page articles as well if you can come up with something interesting in such a short space. I can place magazine ads on the other half of the page. 2 page articles are welcome as well.
Contributors are asked not to write about other player characters or their organizations without their consent. If you find that an article specifically refers to you, your in-game character or organization in a context that you disapprove of, please send me an email titled “RESOLUTION” at suggestions@thecomic.ninja and I will do my utmost to resolve the issue.
Once you have an article you are pleased with, please email me a message titled “CONTENT SUBMISSION” at: suggestions@thecomic.ninja
I will do my best to provide feedback for every submission, time permitting. Thanks!