(no subject)

[nerdflighter]

I want to learn how to write meta. if you have any tips on writing meta (and I do mean like Writing Meta like how do you make it into a readable post) and are willing to share them I would love to hear it

Comments

[fred_mouse]

Are you familiar with the idea of the five-paragraph essay? Because that might well be a good starting point for getting a feel for what kind of meta you want to write.

[sciatrix]

Yeah, good meta is basically an English-class essay, but written in a conversational, informal tone. What's intimidating you about it?

[nerdflighter]

I don't feel as though I have anything worth saying, but I want to say things? and then I feel like I should give people something worth reading and I don't know how to do that?

also, I have never written an English class essay in my life - my education system doesn't have those. I think that hurts my cause

[gaytog]

In my experience the most important thing about writing meta is having something you want to say. (It's analogous to "You can't write a story if you don't know what kind of story you want to write.") If there's a show/game/book/etc. that you think you might have something to say about, but you haven't quite figured out what it is you want to say, try rewatching/rereading it and paying attention to what intrigues you, as well as any lingering questions you might have.

Also, I feel like your style of blogging (at radiqueers, at least) would lend itself to a "note-taking" style of meta. It perfectly okay to notice one (1) thing and then make a short little post about it. In fact, I'd recommend this method; for me, anyway, it just feels *good* to get my thoughts out there and not have to worry about making a perfectly polished longer work. Plus, lots of little note-posts about a single work will eventually build up into a greater understanding of that work; you can, if you want to, communicate that greater understanding in the form of an essay.

Third and final piece of advice is to read other people's meta, so that you can find out what questions/analysis/methodologies are most interesting to you.

[queermermaids]

I'd have to agree with the other commenters, a five paragraph essay is a pretty simple way to do meta, this explains it well: [https://www.jscc.edu/academics/programs/writing-center/writing-resources/five-paragraph-essay.html]

but if that's daunting, just the whole evidence-analysis structure goes really well with organizing meta. Something from canon is the evidence, and the next sentence goes into details about what you found from that piece of canon aka analyzing the evidence, you really don't need to go all out to the full 5 paragraphs

I really don't think your education is going to hurt your cause, but if you are like stuck or confused or something feel free to ask me any questions!! :)