Learning From Writer Sunbaes: MDL Articles Revisited Part 5

INTRODUCTION

Since I subscribed to the Forum Discussion [MDL Writers] Article Ideas & Discussion, I have seen a surge of new/future writers posting their article topics as well as questions. Although the questions asking about their article whereabouts in the editing process were replied that writers have time to write due to staying home during the pandemic, I also have a feeling that the backlog was also caused by my doing of throwing a bunch of article ideas to write in the series. So, sorry to every writer and editor for the inconvenience caused!

I have read/replied to comments in the previous parts as well as direct messages asking for information or help on writing articles. Due to privacy reasons, I cannot mention the new/future writer's names here, as some of their articles are not published yet. I am glad this series has motivated new writers to step out to write, as well as 'the writer sunbaes' who stopped writing have started again! Therefore:

Good luck in writing and now check out more articles/ideas below!

Just in case you missed previous parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 

In this part, I compiled unique articles that are either reflective, informative, or entertaining from JustJackieB, amrita828, DreamingKoreanBallad, heart-ereki, Abzzski, Nymphadora, Greenlemon, Nana87, Ankita, and salimasakura_rri.

Clicking on the picture or the title takes you to the article. Clicking on "Writer's articles" takes you to a list of the articles they wrote. Clicking on the writer's name takes you to his/her profile. Any linked source is in italic. The ideas I came up with for future writers are underlined. This article can also be read in Dark Mode.

Informative by JustJackieB Writer's articles

A Stalker's Guide to  Crown Prince Sado "This article lists my actors who played the Crown Prince". A Stalker Guide article, now called an Ultra Fan Guide, usually is a type of article about the life and career of a writer's favorite actor/actress. However, in this article, the writer wrote about a drama character that is a Korean historical figure. She also wrote a similar article with a different character: A "Stalker's Guide" to King In Jo The writer is a true fan of both characters, as she watched every drama/movie depicting the characters and could compare the acting skills of the actors who played those characters. Articles written on historical figures or fictional characters in MDL are rare. Fans of certain historical figures, like the writer, or fictional characters may be able to write about the favorite one(s). that have been depicted in many remakes from different countries or chronological remakes of a certain country (many Thai lakorns are remade every 5 to 10 years or so). On a side note, there are still many actors/actresses whom we haven't had any fan guide article written about them. If you're a fan, why not write about them? You can tell if there was already an appreciation article about them by checking their profile page, and below their works, there may or may not be articles mentioning their names.

Entertaining by amrita828 Writer's articles

Test: What Drama Are You? "Amrita828's drama test - You know you're curious about which drama you really are. " So I took the test. Actually, it was pretty hard as the options in each question are incomparable, so we cannot choose the best answer like taking a school test. After tallying, I found out that 2 options have the same highest numbers. To my surprise: both options actually represent my preferences in watching a drama! How true! Now I'm suspicious that the writer is either a fortune teller (shown in the cover image) or a psychiatrist (like Lucy)... Who said we could not write a fun article, which purpose would be none other than just to purely amuse the readers? So far, there are only three quiz articles in 10 years of MDL. Being this article is the first, the others are: Which Classic Asian Drama Character Are You? What Type of Drama Lover Are You? It was fun taking those quizzes (I did all three), but I bet it was more fun creating/ writing the quizzes and reading all answers from amazed readers. I'm quite sure you don't need to be a psychologist to be able to create quizzes like above, though a broad collection of dramas watched is a must knowledge to be able to connect the quiz with certain dramas/characters. If you want to make a quiz article like above, I advise you to contact the writers for some suggestions.

Informative by DreamingKoreanBallad Writer's articles

The Korean War: Background, Films, Dramas & Documentaries "Many have either never heard of or simply have forgotten about this great war. And yet, this is a war that should never be forgotten. " Other articles on wars in Korea by the same writer: Japanese Occupation of Korea Part 1 and Part 2 Korea - Turbulent Times Following the Korean War It seems the writer is the only one who has written MDL articles on dramas/movies on the Korean war above, along with Old_Anime_Lady  with her article on Japanese war Human Lives Shaped By War. Although we may not like it, however reading articles on war or watching dramas/movies on war makes us appreciate how precious life and people whom we know, since we see the best and worst in humans. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lessons in those articles above. I wonder if there will be articles like those above for China and its dramas/movies, as the country has a long history of both internal and external wars and battles as listed in Wikipedia. For our reader's information, we don't have to look for any from Thailand, as the country has never been occupied by either European or other Asian countries.

Informative by Abzzski Writer's articles

Talents Under Jaywalk Studio "Everything you need to know about Jaywalk Studio. "  The writer wrote two articles, this one, and Talents Under Huanyu Film, on two Chinese talent agencies that represent many popular actors and actresses we often see in dramas and movies. By reading these two articles, we got to understand how many of Jaywalk talents we saw in Eternal Love, and many of Huanyu talents were in Arsenal Military Academy and The Legends. From reading these articles, we come to understand why we keep seeing some actors and actresses act together in certain C-dramas. It will be interesting to read about actors and actresses from different countries, if their talent agencies are also production companies, or they are under contract from certain TV channels. For example: in Thailand, actors/actresses usually sign with one channel which is also a production label (the most common Thai channels are: Channel 3 and Channel 7), and continue with it until the end of their career unless they decide not to renew their contract (see article Introducing Thai Lakorns), and become freelancers. The limitation of they can only act within their label company, resulted in us seeing the same pairings in many Thai dramas that are popular with the term koo-jin couples (meaning shipped/fantasy couples), for example as listed in this article: 5 Hot Koo-Jin Pairings in Lakorns! I have not known how other talent agencies in South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines work. All I know the latter country also has their favorite pairings called 'Love Team'. (Source: Wikipedia)

Reflective by Nymphadora  Writer's articles

Guaranteed Tips For Coming Out of A Drama Slump "We have all been there, the dreaded slump. Here are some tips for when nothing catches your attention, or you cannot concentrate on a story for more than five seconds. " First of all, I can vouch that the writer's claim in her article is 'guaranteed'. When I started my journey with MDL in dramaland in the middle of 2019, I read this article. Though as a newbie who at first I ooh-and-aah-ed K-dramas and followed some actor/actress's work, I follow the writer's prescribed tips #1 and #2 (if you want to know what they are, just read the article), and after 300+ dramas later I haven't fallen into drama slump yet. So I can say it's a prevention regimen. It's always great to read from fellow MDLers sharing their journeys in dramaland and this site in the form of articles. For example: how to pick or drop dramas, how to get your family and friends to watch dramas, how to rate or review in MDL, are just a few ideas that have been written now and then. But still, many ideas are waiting for you to share with us. Understandably, you may think that your journey is personal and nobody else experiences the same thing as you did. But hey, as the writer stated at the beginning of her article: "if they help at least one drama-sis (or bro) out there, it will be worth it."

Informative by Greenlemon Writer's articles

Khun Mae Suam Roy: A Cluedo Murder Mystery "A look at recently aired Thai drama Khun Mae Suam Roy! " For this section, I won't talk about the specific drama/article per se, but about two unique features I found after reading this and her other articles: First: Catchy titles This article title and others the writer wrote (Cubic, Princess Wei Young, Listening Snow Tower, Dreaming Back to Qing Dynasty, My Dear Lady, all link to the articles, not the dramas), have titles tending to attract the reader's interest. Catchy titles, along with attractive cover images, are two important front features to get readers to click into your article, even when initially they are not interested in the topic, drama, genre, or country of the article. Like window display of a fashion store, a large crowd in front of a restaurant, or curbside appeal of a house. Second: Unique presentations Per my observation, most articles written in MDL recommended readers to watch certain dramas/movies. Most writers (preview, Currently Watching, review/recap, or compilation article types) follow the basic format: introduction, story, cast/character, OST, and conclusion. Only a few writers tweak the normality by presenting their recommendation articles differently. In this article, the writer only summarized the drama and explained the characters. She connected the story to the Cluedo board game to attract the readers to the murder mystery plot and eventually recommend them to watch to find the answer to the whodunit question.

Entertaining by salimasakura_rri Writer's articles

Kick-Ass Fighting in Dramaland "Writer Otakusk reveals the secrets to the most epic drama heroes in battle... " The last article discussed in Part 5 is a writer's first article that I thought it's unique as it was not thought to be. At an initial glance at the cover image as well as reading the title and the summary, we may think that this article analyzes the fighting scenes from dramas watched. Wrong. Indeed the writer explained about the fighting scenes of each drama, the hero(ine)s with their weapons and skills (and I did not know before that swearing, lying, musical talent, and bad boy fighting are considered fighting skills, lol). We are also entertained by seeing a bunch of action-packed gif animations on fighting scenes. But the most interesting part is toward the end of the article... voting time! What??? Who will win? Just read the article to find out, especially the comments ;D. Anyways, this is an entertaining article type that a first-time writer can come up with. Just think outside-the-box, of course, after reading the writing guideline you know that the topic is approvable, you can basically materialize your idea into a fun article. This idea and many more ideas I already discussed in the other parts of this series, as well as other past articles you can find by flipping through the vast collection of this site, are definitely worthy of being refreshed.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 6 (FINAL) WITH DIFFERENT WRITERS

Acknowledgments: Thank you to all the writers who gave me your consent to use your articles for your support and excitement. Also, to the editors who edited this article.

Credits: I do not own any of the images used. Credits go to the respective owners. The cover image is an official film still of Chicago Typewriter. To honor the writers' effort to search, choose, and reformat pictures, I used their original article's cover images. 

_{Edited by: Yuanwei (1st editor), BrightestStar (2nd editor)}