The Octaguide

[Octavulg]

Octavulg's Guide to Creating an Excellent DIY Chapter That Will Make Even Beautiful Women Go, "Hey, That's Pretty Cool!"

Updated: March 31st, 2010

For a long time, I have had a view on what IAs should and should not be. Over time, that view has been reinforced in many areas and changed in many others. It has changed as I wrote my own IAs, read more and more of others, and was forced kicking and screaming into the role of Lexicanium. And in all that time, some things have not changed. I have noticed that I will repeat the same piece of advice or criticism over, and over, and over, and over. Sometimes it will be a universally applicable anecdote. Sometimes it will be a specific criticism of an aspect of an IA that I end up making a hundred different times to different people. Sometimes it will be a simple observation about spelling. Nonetheless, I say these things a lot, and sometimes I explain them well, but sometimes I just don't have the energy to say the same thing for the hundredth time. That isn't fair to that particular author (who deserves a good explanation for why I'm telling him this), and it isn't fair to me (for when I try and do things without full explanation, people often get snippy).

So now, there is the Octaguide, a simple hundred-and-thirty-nine part program that can help you (yes, you!) know what I would say about your IA were I to read it! You don't even have to necessarily write the IA! You will also find advice on writing IAs: advice on concepts, advice on colors, advice on spelling, grammar, and editing. It's all here. At least when I remember to put it in.

Enjoy the guide, feel free to ask any questions, violently disagree, or send me gushing praise offering to bear my children. However, note two things: Firstly, this guide assumes you care what I think. If you do not, this cannot be helped. Letters and replies to the effect that I am not the boss of you so you don't have to listen to any of this will be dissected for logical inconsistencies and replied to with corrected grammar and spelling.

Secondly, I am sarcastic, occasionally cruel, and a little conceited. However, I strive to compensate for this last by directing the first two at everyone impartially, including myself. I assure you, any success I have attained I have attained because of a combination of hard work and repeated stupidity. I think everyone on this forum has the ability to produce excellent IAs - the only real difference is the amount of work and time it will take in each case. I am not offering this material in an attempt to make you feel stupid.

A Note on Guides
No guide can be absolute (though most try their very best). Consider what any guide has to say carefully before ignoring it - anything in a guide was something someone felt was worth including. However, they are general tools, and can often miss specific flaws. A guide is no substitute for caution, good planning, and a willingness to improve – but an obvious component of caution would be reading all the guides you could get your hands on.

With that out of the way, the guide proper will now commence.

On criticism

This first section, as the title suggests, covers the idea of criticism of your IA, whether it be the individualized criticism of someone responding directly to you, or the more impersonal (but somehow more aggravating) criticism of a guide or article.

Everyone is the boss of you
Firstly, anyone can criticize anything. You need not have written an IA to understand when one is bad, much like you do not need to be an author to tell if a book is bad. However, the more a criticism can be justified, the better it will be received, and it is never wrong to ask someone to further explain and support what they have said about your IA.

But you are not a unique and beautiful flower who deserves to be protected from the world. You are writing about a universe where millions are routinely slaughtered by ravening horrors from a dimension inconceivable to man - you should have a certain strength of character by now. Stiffen your spine, bite your lip, and try not to take it personally. Even if people are telling you everything about your IA is wrong, remain calm and collected. Be polite to them. Feel free to point out inconsistencies in their logic, of course, but do not stick your fingers in your ears and start singing "I'm So Lonely" just yet.

At minimum, every person on Liber knows what they, personally, hate to see in an IA, and generally speaking, they post because they feel this IA has redeeming qualities that can be improved. You posted your IA here in the hopes of making it better and finding help with the development of your ideas (OK, so you posted it to show off how awesome you are and have people praise you, just like everyone else did. Fixing it to their standards is the quickest route to that). When you ask for a response, you will often get one. Take advantage of it. Find out what they object to. Find out why. Consider their opinions objectively - are they right? If you saw this in someone else's IA, would you agree with it? Do not let your affection for your ideas blind you to their flaws. These opinions are being offered because the people in question think that your IA can be improved. It is important to listen to them and treat them with respect.

No one is the boss of you
It is also important to remember that these criticisms are the opinion of others (though sometimes they can be the opinions of a lot of others). No one can force you to change your IA. It is yours and you must be happy with the final result, or your time was wasted. These people are usually telling you what they would do - but what matters is what you will do. You must determine for yourself what advice to follow and why.

The two kinds of criticism
There are two kinds of criticism of an IA, and each should be treated somewhat differently. The first, and most important, is criticism based on conformity with the 40K universe – does something fit within the fluff? One of the primary goals of any IA should be to fit well into the existing 40K universe – and if people are telling you that what you are doing violates some particular tenet of fluff, or is chronologically inconsistent, or creates an organization that would have been mentioned, or goes against various in-universe precedents, this is important. Other things can be handwaved away easily be personal taste, but if your IA doesn't fit in the universe you have lost. Consider very, very, very carefully any possible inconsistencies with the universe people point out – especially if multiple people point them out and no one seems to disagree. At a barest of minimums, you must justify why what you're doing isn't really inconsistent with the universe.

The other kind is more general – criticism of everything else about the IA. Color choices, writing, story progression, word choice, names, characters – all of this is far more subjective than the admittedly hazy 40K fluff. Criticism in this area will likely be far more a product of personal taste, and can be considered less seriously (though, as always, the more something is pointed out, the greater the chance it really is a problem). Presumably you do want to satisfy the audience, and this kind of advice can be a valuable guide to doing so.

Reacting to criticism
Acting on criticism can be difficult to do. The mechanics of revision are dealt with later in this guide, but this section will try to cover how you should deal with critics and treat criticism generally. Determining which ideas are good and which are bad is simultaneously a matter of suppressing and listening to your instincts. Sometimes you will think an idea is good and it will be bad, sometimes you will think an idea is bad and it will be good, and just as often you'll be right on the money. The most important thing to do is this: in any circumstance where you are uncertain, ask for more information. No Liberite can resist the opportunity to pontificate. People will almost always be willing to try to explain their ideas further and explain to you why they say what they have said, even if they did not initially.

It is important to remember that many Liberites often don't comment on things that are good - there are only so many quote tags available, and it is generally seen as more important to get the whole house together before trying to hang the wallpaper. I subscribe to this view myself. Pointing out individual flaws does not mean that the whole is flawed, and it is important to remember this. Do not throw out whole sections because someone criticized a sentence - that is an overreaction, and now they have to read something new and check that for flaws, too, which they will not appreciate.

It is also important to remember that, while most Liberites will provide criticism for a while, having no idea what changes have been made, why, or what the goals for the IA are can be disheartening to the critic. Most Liberites post in expectation of a dialogue with the author - it is best to reply to people explaining what you think of their ideas and why. This will both ensure you get criticism that is helpful to you and allow those who expect something different from your IA to bow out gracefully and not waste their efforts.

Try not to completely revise the IA too frequently. When the IA changes every few hours, it can feel like an overwhelming task to reread it each time. Take it a little slowly, and make only minor revisions at first - sentences, misspelled words, removing things that are completely ridiculous. Save the big revisions for the next draft - that's what drafts are for.

Make sure you do not take the criticism too seriously, or too lightly. Just because someone is joking around a little doesn't mean they're not taking your IA seriously, and just because they're treating it with seriousness doesn't mean they're putting too much importance on it. Different people have different styles of criticism and different standards for what they think IAs should be - responses will be varying in character.

Under no circumstances whatsoever take someone to task for not knowing something about your chapter that was not in the IA. Not only is it your responsibility to convey the information you wish people to know, acting as though you're more intelligent than they are for knowing something you came up with but didn't tell them is incredibly rude, and is one of the fastest ways I can think of to earn yourself an enemy on these boards.

When the time comes and you flat out don't want to take advice, explain why. Not only is it polite, it will make it clearer to people where you want to go with the IA and what your assumptions are.

Of course, all that assumes you get criticism in the first place.

What to do when you get no responses
Life is not fair, and neither is the Liber Astartes. Sometimes perfectly good IAs get ignored, while their contemporaries are deluged in responses and advice. Such are the vagaries of the forum.

When you get no responses, ask yourself a few questions:

Have I been posting too often? If your IA has been revised twice daily for five days and people have been posting each time, you've likely tired the denizens out. Take a break for a week or two (or even a little longer) before asking for more help.

Have I participated in the community? Often, participating in the community will draw attention to your DIY thread (it is generally best to include a link to it in your sig). The link by itself will draw attention. Making yourself visible in the forum will help draw attention to any project you attempt. This, however, means real participation. If your post is clearly just an attempt to draw attention to your own chapter, people will be less likely to help, not more. Provide honest, sincere criticism without strings attached and you will receive attention.

Do I look pathetic enough? If all else fails, play the sympathy card. Continue improving and editing the IA on your own. Make the occasional post (about once every three days to once every week) explaining what changes have been made. Eventually, sheer pity will motivate someone to provide feedback. If you are forced to do this, however, give extra weight to what they say - almost any criticism they make is likely shared by others who could not be bothered to post.

On IAs and the philosophy behind them

What we write
An Index Astartes is described in the Vocabularia Octavulgia (i.e. my head) as a third-person article written from a semi-omniscient in-universe perspective about a Space Marine chapter, with the chief goal as the exploration of the Chapter's character and history. Now, what, exactly, does that mean? And why do we write them, anyway?

A third-person article is an article written about "them" (a first-person would be written about "I" and a second-person one about "you"). All GW IAs follow this format, much like real-world history books. Why? Because they're frequently in-universe histories.

A semi-omniscient in-universe perspective means that it's written as though the writer lives in the 40K universe, but often with information that such a person would not have access to. IAs are frequently written as though they are being compiled by Imperial historians, but this is applied with varying degrees of thoroughness, and the IA will sometimes reveal secrets no historian could be aware of (like the existence of the Fallen). Still, if you pretend to be a pedantic Imperial historian while writing your IA, you're unlikely to go far wrong.

Indices Astartes (it's the only logical plural form. Hence why we say IAs all the time.) are about Space Marine chapters because they have Astartes in the title. Sometimes, life is simple.

Why we write
The chief goal of an IA, however, is more complicated. People set out to write IAs for various reasons - some want to explore a different belief structure, some a different command structure, some a different home world, and some just want to show off their cool and different ideas. The key word here is "different". All of these people want to explore what makes their chapter different. And when you get down to the basics of writing an IA, the only thing that really can separate Chapters from each other is their character. Most Chapters are Codex Ultramarine successors. What this means is that they fight the same and they come from the same background - initially, they will have been virtually the same. Under those circumstances, a well-written IA which justifies its changes will have to change the chapter's character in order to make their chapter particularly unique - and that means exploring what made that character change and what the chapter is like now. All real changes flow from changes to the Chapter's character.

The exception to this, of course, can be IAs which instead explore what happens to a chapter (a pseudo-narrative IA, if you will). In this case, the interest is created by what the chapter does, not necessarily what they are like (though it can be both). In this case, it can be more reasonable for a chapter to greatly resemble their progenitors - though it is not always so, and the best pseudo-narrative IAs will create an interesting chapter and an interesting narrative, intertwining both.

GW IAs are generally somewhere in between - usually, they explore what the Chapter did to explain why the Chapter is the way it is today, but there are varying degrees of emphasis on each depending on the IA. The Imperial Fists are fairly balanced, the Ultramarines IA is more like a narrative exploration of the life of Roboute Guilliman than an IA, and the Salamanders IA is more about what the Chapter is like than anything else - it doesn't even bother to tell us what happens to Vulkan after he joined the Great Crusade. However, you have an advantage GW's authors did not, in that you have no deadline for the finalization of your work. Make the best of that, and fulfill the goals you have set out to complete to the best of your abilities.

Why you should be the best you can be
By the time you even have a good IA, you will have spent hours of your life on it. Many other people will have done so as well. There will be thousands of words about your chapter, each one of which will have been scrutinized repeatedly to determine whether it works. There is the real possibility that it may, on a word-for-word basis, be the thing in your life you spend the most time on, certainly the most effort for something you write for fun.

You may want to write another IA. You may not. In either case, why are you stopping now?

If you're going to move on to another IA, you clearly enjoy writing. You enjoy using your skills and expressing your ideas. You likely like your ideas quite a bit. Why would you betray them by doing anything other than developing them to the full extent of your abilities? And why should you expect people to take you seriously as a writer if you don't do as good a job as you can? Quantity is not the same thing as quality – take the time and do all your ideas justice, even if it takes a while.

If you're not going to...why stop? Take a break. Do something else. Then come back. After all, you're not going to write another IA - this one is your chance. It is the public face of your chapter. If you don't do it to the best of your abilities, people's opinion of your chapter will be that little bit lower. If you're only going to do one thing, might as well make it a good one.

Either way, think back to all the people who have helped you on this IA. They poured work into it as well. They gave you their time when they did not have to, and offered ideas they could have used themselves. They did not have to help you - they did it because they wanted to, and thought you would produce something good if they did.

Prove them right. Standards are minimums, not maximums, and the only limit on your IA is you. In those circumstances, the only good enough is as good as you can.

On the Process of Writing an IA

Later sections will provide more specific tips for the various stages of writing an IA, but this section will attempt to walk you through the process of writing your IA. I doubt much of this will be revelatory to anyone, but leaving it out feels wrong.

First, you need an idea. It doesn't have to be a big idea. The Ice Lords stemmed (mostly) from a desire to have a Dark Angels successor who felt the way I did about Lion El'Jonson. The Bronze Prophets stemmed from a throwaway comment about a bunch of screaming lunatics imprisoned beneath a fortress-monastery in someone's thread. The idea for an IA does not have to be big.

Once you have an idea, flesh it out. Write a brief outline of an IA in point form – go over the various sections, filling in important information about the Chapter. This doesn't have to be in order – begin where the idea fits best, then follow the implications of that idea to their natural conclusions in various sections.

Posting this outline for critique would not be a bad idea – you should certainly hang onto it, no matter what. Critiquing an outline is quick, easy, and saves time on both sides – critical flaws can be pointed out immediately, and dealt with far more easily. It lets people see the big picture, even if you don't necessarily have the whole IA written yet. It also shows people what you're most concerned about in the IA. Determining what the overall 'goal' of the IA is would also be a good idea – what concepts are your favorite, and what about them do you want to explore. I have on more than a few occasions suggested changing something the author saw as critical because I thought they valued a number of other things far more than they actually did. Including people in the process from the beginning both invests them in the completion of your IA and lets you deal with problems as they arise, rather than having to go back and fix them all at once.

Once you are comfortable with the ideas you have, begin fleshing them out by writing the various sections of the IA. This may not take very long (though polishing it will likely take longer). Post for C&C, revise, repeat. Take breaks and come back, to give yourself a fresh look at things. When everyone seems to be having a hard time finding flaws, including yourself, you might be done (though don't be too sure...).

On the Conception of an IA

Think it through
Almost every chapter has a gimmick, a quirk, a trait. Something about them that other chapters do not share. And it is important, before you set pen to paper, that you consider the implications, methods and workings of that gimmick fully. Where did this quirk come from? Does that story hang together if you think about it logically? Why did the events that happened then happened? Would there have been a simpler or more practical thing to do instead? What effect has this quirk had on individual marines, on the chapter as a whole, on their beliefs, their relationship with Imperial organizations, the way they fight, the reasons they will fight, on who they fight? Keep asking "Why?" about every aspect of your chapter, and come up with good answers. You should also remember to ask yourself if you've heard this quirk before – there's nothing more embarrassing than accidentally recreating the Ultramarines.

The particular quirks of a chapter are often what people remember most. Thus, it is important that it not fall apart if thought about too hard. Consider it very, very carefully. Not only will this consideration preserve you from mockery and revision, it will also help you write the rest of your IA by showing you the natural consequences of the way your chapter is.

Note that these are not necessarily gene-seed defects. The most prominent unique feature of any chapter is its quirk. The Imperial Fists are tenacious and masochistic. The Ultramarines adhere to the Codex. The Blood Angels have the Black Rage. Space Wolves are Vikings. These can be of varying degrees of complexity and subtlety, but every chapter has one.

Understand what the Codex is and isn't
The Codex is more than a book of organizational advice (though it is that). It's more than general tactical precepts. It's more than accounts of battles. It's more than careful analyses of enemy tactics. It is the life's work of countless Imperial soldiers, philosophers and military scholars. It has been improved for ten thousand years. Your chapter may believe that they know better than it, but it would be virtually impossible to actually create something better - after ten thousand years of development, most of what needs to be added to the codex are reactions to new phenomena.

The Codex can be followed in any number of different ways - any and all parts could be ignored, misinterpreted or considered outdated. The point is that the book is so massive and overwhelming that discarding it wholly would mean discarding almost the entirety of the Imperium's knowledge on warfare and starting afresh. Your chapter might well reject the organizational methods and standard tactics of the Codex, but they'd be unlikely to also throw out the treatises on how enemies fight and the various philosophical perspectives on warfare and combat. Sun Tzu's Art of War has remained relevant even thousands of years later, and the Codex was more complete, thorough and in-depth even when it was first compiled.

In short, have a clear idea of what the book is before you decide if you're going to get rid of it, and ensure that the reasons for doing so are justifiable.

The Black Library does not really exist
The Black Library has produced some fine products. Good luck getting agreement on what those are. The Black Library's wildly varying quality and sometimes contradictory claims mean that its status and acceptance varies from canon to toilet paper. Basing your chapter off something in the Black Library risks both rejection by the audience and that you're using something that is flat-out stupid. Be cautious. Consider how the particular piece of information fits into the rest of the 40K universe, and whether you might not be better off leaving the idea out or creating your own, unique version of it. Remember that no matter how much you like it, a significant portion of the audience will hate it for the exact same reasons.

Reasonable innovation is key
It has been said that there is nothing new under the sun. While this is true, this does not mean you should embrace being derivative. When writing an IA, it is important to separate your chapter from the herd while still keeping them a normal chapter. Everything that came from somewhere else, try to present it in a new way. The more places you have seen it, the harder you should try to make it a little unique and integrate it well into the IA. If you've seen it too many other places, consider leaving the idea out. Reduce your chapter to quirk form, and then think of a few other famous chapters - is your chapter too similar? How about your chapter's story, or the plot devices in it? Although IAs are often created using very old parts, it is important to clean the parts first. Otherwise the IA chokes, dies, and has to be sold for scrap at pennies on the dollar. File the serial numbers off, paint them another color, and maybe use parts from several different sources, and you'll be retired in a tropical country before you know it.

Do not overgild the lily
You should also ensure the chapter is not too different. As a general rule of thumb, if their differences cannot be explained simply and quickly, your chapter is too different for easy acceptance by people in the Liber. Notice the way quirks were expressed above - that's a pretty good base to start from. The logical implications of a quirk will fill an IA quite full without any further additions. The chapter should fit into the universe while still being unique. It is a careful balance, and can be difficult to find (not least because it lies in different places for different people). As another good rule of thumb, if you're breaking more than one of the cliche suggestions in the Liber Astartes DIY Guide, you're trying too hard.

A chapter with a dark secret will be able to have more depth and character than a Cursed Founding chapter with a dark secret, five home worlds, a secret weapon, a secret mission from the Inquisition, three battles which nearly destroyed the chapter and lead to massive military reforms each time, a lost Chapter Master, traitor gene-seed, and who worship the Emperor as a Chaos God. Exploring a few ideas well is always a better choice than exploring many poorly.

On Storytelling and Details

Only if you need to
Once you have reached this part of creating an IA, you will be deciding on what you tell the reader, what order you present the information, and the details of the events and people of your chapter and their story. It is at this point that you may discover you have a lot more information than you might have first thought, and also discover that you still have all kinds of neat ideas for how to make your chapter cool and unique!

Don't believe yourself. Remember that time when you were six when you did that stupid thing? You thought that was a good idea, too. When making a decision about something going in your IA, ask yourself, "Do I need this? What does it add to my chapter?" If the answer to that question is "Not really, but it's so cool!" think twice about what you are doing. A little bit of that is fun, but a lot of it will choke the IA and make things worse, not better. Coolness is subject to the law of diminishing returns - and it diminishes fast.

It would be good practice to finalize the important details of your chapter, then start adding the exciting little details you like so much. By the time you get the IA to that point, you likely will have a much better idea of what your chapter is about and your opinions on your original ideas will likely have changed.

Follow the Format
GW has produced, at best guess, about twenty-five IAs. All of them followed this format:

<Title>: <Chapter Name>
<Brief opening blurb about Chapter and how l33t they are>

Origins

History (varying title. Not always present. Usually the history of the Chapter after its founding years)

Then, in varying order:
Home World, Beliefs, Gene-seed, Combat Doctrine, and Organization. (Often in HW->B->CD->O->GS, but hardly always so)

Before closing with Battle-cry.

Any special rules or the like are found after the article.

This is, for better or worse, the structure on which IAs are based. It is the standard IA format, and that means it is what people will expect to see if you call what you are writing an IA. Not only does it make sense to conform to this reasonable expectation, explaining each of these sections comprehensively is a good way of ensuring that the appropriate details about your chapter are provided to the reader. There are, of course, other ways to present the same information about a chapter - but this is what will be expected if you say you are writing an IA about a chapter.

When in doubt, turn to GW
Although not all of GW's IAs were created equal, they all are quality productions. They can provide valuable insight into how to present a story, what details to emphasize, and what will and will not work within the context of the 40K universe. Used carefully, they can provide valuable insight into the process of writing IAs. They are the original examples of IA writing, and what first inspired all this.

Recognize the Limits of GW
GW's writers work under deadlines, are paid poorly, and often do not care as much about their subject as you may about your chapter. This can (and I would say is) reflected in the quality of some IAs - many do not explore the chapter as fully as one might expect, or with any particular sophistication. Sometimes they use cliches frowned upon by the Liber community. Sometimes characters do things simply because the plot commands it. Sometimes the writers apply the chapter's theme with an overly heavy hand. Recognize that just because GW did it that way doesn't always mean it's a good idea.

Use the right amount of mystery
One thing GW does do well is telling the reader the right things and keeping the right things hidden. If your chapter has a secret, the decision of whether or not to tell the reader about it can be a hard one. If your IA relies on the reader getting something, sometimes it's best to bite the bullet and tell them. The various versions of Flintlocklaser's Steel Ghosts, whose absence from the Librarium is one of the great tragedies of our time, show a good example of the tension here, as do the various drafts of the Ice Lords. People will miss things you've told them explicitly - trying for subtlety is even riskier. It can be very difficult to ensure people get it. A decent rule of thumb is that if the point of the IA is the secret, it's probably best to tell people eventually. When you tell them is a good question - my personal recommendation would be to tell them at the point where they're going to start thinking the IA makes no sense if they don't know the secret. If you do not tell them, make sure that enough interesting things are going on that the IA can still be interesting to someone who misses the subtext.

Do not piggyback on the official
Your deep and abiding affection for Logan Grimnar and Dante is understandable. However, they did not personally drag your Chapter Master's wounded body from the fray after he saved their lives. Nor was Calgar your Chapter Master's mentor, or his secret godfather. Your chapter should stand on its own - dragging in official characters so your chapter can show off only makes it seem like you can't write interesting and exciting characters without relying on someone else's work.

You don't need ten thousand years of history
There is no need for your Chapter to be a a lost member of the Second Founding, or Third Founding. The entirety of recorded human history spans less than ten thousand years - you will be using several thousand words at a maximum in your IA. Not only is that much time not necessary, it could not be fully utilized even in the best of circumstances, which less than one word per year most certainly is not. Make your chapter part of an early founding only if it's necessary. Otherwise, just be part of some other Founding.

Do not destroy the shared universe
Try not to do things that narrow down grey areas of the fluff (like pinning down founding dates, setting a number on something previously un-numbered, or explaining what an official organization's view is in regard to something not immediately related to your chapter). Half the fun of writing an IA is making it fit into the existing GW universe and, speaking personally, half the fun of that is making it fit with everyone else's attempts to do the same thing. The more things you dictate about the way the universe works that conflict with someone else's preconceptions, the harder it becomes for other people to see your chapter and theirs running through fields of flowers together. And if I can't see your boys and mine cleansing a Space Hulk together (or swearing to eternally hate each other), why would I want to comment?

Battles are boring
Like the book says, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. By the time anyone gets to your IA, they'll have read about a lot of battles. All writing about a battle does is provide them with something they've seen before, countless times, and distract from the points that are unique about your IA. Read GW IAs, and note how they talk about battles - they set the scene, explain briefly what happens, and talk about the aftermath and what that meant. The battle is important because of what it meant, not what happened in the battle itself. There is no point in planning out a blow-by-blow description of how your Chapter Master fought his archenemy - that's not what's important about that fight. What's important is why they were fighting, who won, and what that meant to later events.

Devastate your chapter uniquely
Devastating the chapter and having them try to deal with the effects is a versatile and powerful storytelling tool. It is also done unto death, for exactly that reason. Everyone uses it, and it's completely understandable. Just remember that everyone does this when you're writing your IA, and devote an appropriate amount of effort to ensuring it stands out.

Focus on the differences, not the similarities
Really. Your Space Marines use bolters. How exciting.

Everyone knows what the Imperium is. Everyone knows how a Codex chapter works. Everyone knows more-or-less how Space Marines fight. There are assumptions that can and will be made about any Space Marine chapter. Unless you're violating those assumptions, simply saying briefly that your Chapter is codex in their tactics and equipment will make it clear what they do. Even if you are violating them, explaining what is different will be a lot shorter than explaining both what is different and what is the same. People know the basics of the 40K universe and of Space Marine chapters – you do not need to introduce them in your IA. Dedicate that same space to exploring what it is that makes your Chapter unique.

Present things in order, and explain yourself well
If you mention something, make sure you've explained what it is first. This is a basic rule of almost anything, and yet, it is violated. Often. People read IAs in order, and if you mention things without explanation, people will start to think they've missed something, and go looking for it in the bit they've already read. If they don't find it, they're not going to be happy. Likewise, explain things well - do not describe a battle against Orks and then mention "and then the mountain which they'd been fighting next to this whole time fell on their heads". People will wonder why this mountain wasn't mentioned before.

On the Sections of an IA

This section of the guide will provide guidance on what to put in each section, what not to put in each section, and the various possibilities offered by each.

The Chapter Name
Chapter names take four forms – the unduly-mocked adjective-noun (Stone Hearts, Iron Hands, Doom Eagles), the Blanks of X (the Sons of Orar, Angels of Absolution), the X Chapter (Aurora Chapter, Genesis Chapter, Mentor Legion) and the less-common one-word (Marauders, Rampagers, Praetors of Orpheus (Orpheus is their HOME WORLD. They're the Praetors who LIVE ON ORPHEUS)).

All of these have their merits and disadvantages. The important thing is that the Chapter name is often used to encapsulate the Chapter's character in a nutshell – Space Wolves? Space Werewolves. Blood Angels? Angels with a thing for blood. Dark Angels? Allusion to a poem about a deep, dark secret. Angels of Absolution? Dark Angels who believe they are absolved of spiritual guilt for the Fallen. It's fine to just choose something you like the sound of, but a name that says something about the chapter's character is another opportunity to present the themes of your chapter and draw the reader's interest. Your choice of name is either the first or second thing people will encounter about your Chapter (the other is your color scheme). You should put as much thought into it as any other aspect of your IA.

The Title
GW IAs have a lot of things to teach the aspiring IA writer. One of the most easily overlooked is that the title of an IA is never simply Index Astartes: [Chapter Name]. There's almost always some nice, evocative title like “The Lost and the Damned” (Death Guard), “Masters of Forbidden Knowledge” (The Thousand Sons), “Promethean Warriors” (the Salamanders), or “Warriors of Ultramar” (three guesses). Some chapters just use their chapter name, of course, but a lot have these phrases as titles. It shows the character of the Chapter in a few short words, and piques the reader's interest.

Note that your thread or article title should most definitely be some variant of Index Astartes: [Chapter Name]. Keeps things simple and clear. But the title within the article itself (and possibly the Librarium article subtitle, when you get that far) both lend themselves to something like the old GW IA titles. It is by no means a requirement, but it is always nice to see.

Introductory Paragraph
Typically, before any IA, there is a brief statement of the Chapter and who they are – almost an abstract of the Chapter. It sums up the IA very briefly, focusing mostly on their history and any particular quirks. It ends, as all such paragraphs in 40K fluff do, by assuring the reader that the Chapter is totally awesome and dangerous. Or alluding to doom in the near future. Take your pick. They're only a few lines long – don't get carried away. These are easier to write after the IA as a whole has come together, but writing them beforehand can help you focus your ideas.

Origins
The 'Origins' section is less than inventively named. Nonetheless, it is important – a poor Origins section can turn people against the rest of an IA (assuming they stick around to see it after a poor Origins section, of course).

Traditionally, the Origins section deals with when the Chapter was founded, how, why, and possibly who the Chapter's original leaders were, as well as some of the Chapter's early history. The home world is often introduced here, as well. It will then usually then set up the information needed for the next section of the Chapter's history. The Origins section can be as long or as short as is necessary to do this, depending on how important the Chapter's founding was to its modern identity – Chapters are not all defined in the first days of their creation.

A good Origins section hits the above points in a relatively creative fashion and strives to make a very old formula new again (which can be very, very difficult). Be aware that people have seen much of this before – one Chapter's founding is much like another. There are two options to take – move past as quickly as possible to get to the interesting parts, or try and add interesting and (relatively) unique details to make the more repetitive elements palatable to the jaded Liber-ite. Both are valid, and I have used both in my time with varying degrees of success. The important thing is not to bore the reader with repetitive details of a Chapter founding that are common to every single Chapter ever founded. Move past these, and get to the bits that make the Chapter unique.

Usually, the closing paragraph(s) of the Origins section lead into the next section, generally by introducing the influential characters, places and events of the Chapter's later history and setting the stage for what they will do. Again, this has been done to death by almost everyone, and it is important to either be unique or to be quick. Preferably both. Unique presentation is good, but unique characters, places and events are better. Both is, as always, the best.

If a Chapter's founding is not important to its modern character, do not be afraid to skip over such information and begin dealing directly with the events that shaped the Chapter into its modern form. Advice for that sort of thing and what will be expected is dealt with in the next section – just be aware that you can deal with it here.

Later History
This can actually be more than one section, but all are much the same. This covers, well, the Chapter's later history up to the present day. Often, one encounters the dilemma of events taking place on a home world that has not yet been introduced – bite the bullet and introduce as much detail as is necessary for the events in question, but save everything else for the Home World section.

Generally, if an IA has a plot, it really gets going here. Remember – be unique. Every Space Marine chapter will fight great and decisive battles throughout the Imperium. Unless there is something particularly unique which takes place in them that is critical to the Chapter's development, there is no need to describe every engagement of your Chapter in this section. Especially not in paragraph long description of each thrust of your Chapter Master's power weapon. Use this section to explore the events that have made your Chapter what they are today. Explain the character of the people who were involved and the nature of the places (except the home world, as previously mentioned). Then, bring events up to the modern day and use the rest of the IA to explain how things are now in relation to the various sections (with occasional reference to how things were historically in relation to each of the various sections). It's traditional to stop just before or just after something exhilarating happens to the Chapter, allowing people to either dream of how exciting the hinted at event will be or how horrifying the hinted at consequences will be.

The rest of the IA is sections dedicated to specific aspects of the Chapter's character. Any information not directly related to one of those sections which must be included in the IA for a proper understanding of the Chapter should be dealt with here, if possible. The only exception I can think of are things directly related to the Chapter's history whose inclusion in the main text would somehow hurt the overall tone of the IA. Anything of that nature would work well in a sidebar in this section (or in Origins). An obvious example would be the secret of the Ice Lords, which is dealt with in a sidebar in the History section. This presents the information to the reader but doesn't interrupt an otherwise fairly normal account of a Chapter's history with a prolonged tale about a bunch of Fallen Angels and their skulduggery. While it is important to an understanding of the Chapter, it did not fit well in the progression of the Chapter history – so to a sidebar it went.

The important thing to remember about an IA plot is that it generally doesn't end – they usually stop just before or just after a climax, leaving either the eventual conflagration or the consequences of the just-happened conflagration to the imagination of the reader.

Home World
The Home World section can be of varying degrees of importance to an IA. If the Chapter in question is fleet-based, this space can often be used to talk about the recruitment planets used by the Chapter.

Exploring a home world can be tricky. Most people simply pick a geographical quirk or culture they like and run with it, and there's nothing wrong with that (though exploring it in too much detail can be dangerous – no one reads IAs for physics, chemistry, biology or history lessons).

But simply grabbing an ancient culture, smacking them down on a death world and knocking off for lunch is poor craftsmanship. The home world is one of the most important parts of an IA – the chapter draws its recruits from there. In many ways, the home world is the Chapter. Look at what happened to the Night Lords when their home world changed its character. The home world and the chapter will each exert an influence upon each other, and the possibilities in that are so obvious it would be easier not to explore them.

Think about how your chapter and their character would have interacted with the home world you're thinking of. What sort of world would your chapter want? What would its people be like? Its government? Its cities and way of life? How would your Chapter go about producing this society? What would they actually get if they did?

The home world can also be an excellent opportunity to explore a particular cultural or psychological trait – Commissar Molotov's Castigators, for example, have a tidally-locked home world populated by xenophobic religious fanatics who violently root out any trace of mutation. Fun stuff. His Home World section devotes a lot of time to exploring the population's xenophobia and intolerance and what it means for them and the Chapter.

Most important of all, however, is that the home world must produce the sort of people who make good Space Marine recruits. Tough, hardy, gentically pure adolescents who can pass the strenuous, dangerous tests required (and my, doesn't it sound creepy when it's put that way). Your home world must have some way of producing them. If the home world doesn't produce these recruits, there must be somewhere that does, and it should be mentioned and properly explained.

Regardless of what direction you take to inspire the character of your home world, you should take the time necessary to consider how that world would interact with your Chapter and ensure that the relationship between the two is plausible. If you have any existing needs for how the Chapter should interact with its home world, its best to build the home world around them rather than try to force the issue.

Note that the results of this can be an ancient culture on a death world – but what matters is that the results be a natural fit with the Chapter, and the consequences of any incompatibilities be plausible. Fenris is hardly complicated conceptually, but it fits perfectly with the character of the Space Wolves. Even if the Home World looks simple, you should have thought it through.

Beliefs
Commissar Molotov, at the slightest provocation, was wont to opine that the Beliefs section was the most important section in the IA. He had a point. The Beliefs section is the one section that gives the reader direct insight into how your Chapter thinks. It is the opportunity to present your Chapter's unique view of the universe and give real insight into their character.

Take advantage of this. A good Beliefs section will lay out what the Chapter believes and clearly link that to the Chapter's history. Most IAs will have already introduced many of the Chapter's basic beliefs at this point – they should be expanded upon and further explained. It also is traditionally used to explain details about their religious practices and the particular quirks by which they express their beliefs. Interesting rituals and ceremonies are conventional in this section, and add greatly to a Chapter's character.

However, what is important here is to get into the meat of how the Chapter thinks and interacts with others. What do they think of the Imperium? The Emperor? Other Chapters? How do they philosophically approach the universe? What really goes on in their heads?

Do not, however, use this section to explore their views toward warfare and combat. That goes in Combat Doctrine.

Gene-seed
The Gene-seed section usually explains where the Chapter's gene-seed originated, how well its purity has been maintained, any unique quirks that have developed in either the gene-seed itself or the Chapter's attitude and practices relating to it, and

It does not need to be long. Indeed, most of the remaining sections should probably top out at two paragraphs. Much of what follows, including in this section, will be common to all Space Marine chapters – do not devote too much time to presenting such information.

Combat Doctrine
This section explores the way the Chapter fights, why the Chapter fights, and any particularly unique things about their views toward both. What do they value on the battlefield – courage, ingenuity, reliability, tenacity? Do they confront the enemy directly, or do they prefer to hang back and wait for opportunities? Are their particular weapons, equipment or methods they favor? Do they venerate or despise any particular part of the Codex Astartes?

In short: generally, how, where, why and what do they fight?

Organization
The Organization section presents the structure of the Chapter's forces. There are two common pitfalls here – a representation of what it means to be a Codex Chapter, and the complete revocation of the Codex in favor of a wildly different system created by the author. Both are bad choices. Re-presenting the Codex, as I am sure anyone reading this has already guessed, violates one of the basic principle of writing a good IA – present the differences. Offering a new system provides the reader with a lot of dry, technical information which relates only to this Chapter. Generally, this organization is adopted from history, usually without explanation. Unfortunately, such information is interesting mostly to the author – it is the rare reader who wants to read a long list of alternative terms for Apothecaries and Sergeants. Furthermore, such systems rarely offer anything appreciably different from the standard Codex nomenclature – it is usually change for the sake of change. Even if you do have such changes, unless they actually change how the Chapter functions, it is usually not worthy mentioning them unless it actually arises in the IA.

Regardless of all that, the Organization section is difficult to use. Most Chapters are, to varying degrees, Codex. The reasons they violate the Codex, if they do so, will be in the Combat Doctrine section. Which means that this section generally ends up rather short. However, the best way to think of the Organization section is as the application of the Combat Doctrine section.

Use this opportunity to explore what the Chapter's Combat Doctrine has meant for the way their Chapter is structured and organized. Offer particular examples of the Chapter's quirks and how they have become institutionalized. The Organization section is a difficult one – both it and the Combat Doctrine section are in direct competition for ideas and concepts. Divide them as equitably as possible.

Battle-cry
The battle cry section, despite rarely needing to be more than a line long, is somehow the one that people most often abuse, misuse and confuse. Whether it be having a battle-cry for every phase of the moon, or putting the battle-cry in Latin, or having the battle-cry be a paragraph long, people find a multiplicity of ways to end their IA with a fizzle, rather than a bang.

Firstly, what is the point of a battle-cry? It is shouted by a group of Space Marines to inspire themselves and terrify the foe. The best battle-cries are thus simple, scary, and roll off the tongue. Wait until your family members have left the house, shut all the windows (and doors), and yell your battle-cry. If you ran out of breath, burst into giggles, or felt a strange and unknowable sense of deep personal embarrassment, your battle-cry needs work. Look at the battle-cries of GW Chapters. Short, memorable, and generally fairly scary. Take some inspiration from them.

Secondly, what is the point of the battle-cry section? This is the last section in the IA. It is the last thing readers (who liked the IA) will read. It is important to close on a strong note. Thus, the battle-cry should be short, memorable, and hopefully provide a little bit of insight into the character of the Chapter. The best example for this, in my opinion, is the battle-cry of the Iron Warriors: “Iron within, iron without!” A little scary, a little inspirational, and a very good summation of the Iron Warriors. Perfect for closing an IA.

Sidebars
Sidebars are good for several things. They are very useful for important information which does not otherwise fit well in a particular section, whether because it would disrupt the flow of the IA, is information from a source that is 'in-universe' outside the IA, or because the information is best presented in a format other than the usual IA 'third-person pedantic'.

They are also good places for narrative accounts. If you want to explore single combat between your Chapter Master and a Champion of Chaos, or if you want to relate a conversation using actual, well, dialogue – whatever it is, if it's not a normal part of an IA, or if it's being done in a fashion out of keeping with the rest of the IA, it goes in a sidebar.

Finally, they are useful for breaking up the IA visually. Adding a few sidebars here and there prevents the IA from becoming a massive wall of text and makes it much easier on the reader's eyes. This is a good thing.

Quotes
Many people have taken to using quotes in their IAs below the various section headers. It adds a lot of character. But it is important to bear some things in mind. Firstly, it is generally expected that the quote will bear some relationship to the section it is tied to – quotes about mercantile practices on the Chapter's home world, for example, do not generally fit well in the Battle-cry section. Secondly, it is best not to give too many quotes to one individual – indeed, the quotes are a good way to provide brief insight into the characters of lots of different Marines of the Chapter. Spread the opportunities to talk around – it will add the appearance of depth to the Chapter and create the impression that the Chapter contains more than just the few marines worthy of mention in its history. Finally, quotes are opportunities to provide insight into the Chapter and occasionally a little amusement – they are not afterthoughts, and should not be treated as such. There is nothing wrong with not having quotes in an IA, and it is better not to have them than to have ones that are simply different variants of “For the Emperor!” and “Burn the heretic!”

On Codex divergence (and changes to a Chapter's character)

So, you hate the Ultramarines and all that they stand for and would rather die than have your precious DIY chapter associated with them in any way beyond the minimum possible? You've changed your geneseed, you've avoided the use of blue, gold, or white, or anything that might possible be construed as an omega, but what else is there to do?

Why, you can diverge from the Codex. Lots of people do it, and there's nothing wrong with it. However, like always, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. And, surprisingly enough, figuring out how to diverge from the Codex can teach you a lot about how to make any change to your Chapter's character.

What is the Codex Astartes?
The Codex is not the Codex: Space Marines. It's the tactical work assembled by Roboute Guilleman from the finest military minds of the era and expanded upon by a long, long list of others. It covers everything from assaults to camouflage to tactics to entrenchment - everything a superhuman military commander could think of. It is a weighty tome, and confusing it with the book you read the statistics for your marines out of is a big mistake. It is, quite literally, the Space Marine holy tome - and keeping that comparison in mind will probably help.

The Space Marines, generally, have no gods - they have warfare. And the Codex Astartes is the holy text of their religion. Of course, the Codex can be interpreted differently by chapters, either from looking at it from a different point of view or just a practical need to go against what it says.

Everything about a Space Marine chapter relies on the Codex Astartes. From their creation to their training to how they conduct their day, the Codex has something to say on the subject. The Codex has been with the Space Marines from their very inception - it's the founding structure for how Space Marine chapters are organized, administered and commanded. At the Second Founding, only two Chapters that we know of were not considered Codex-adherent - the Space Wolves and the Black Templars. This shows us that, from the start, Space Marine chapters were codex-adherent. And many people don’t seem to realise what this would mean about their own chapter’s views on the Codex.

What this means about your own chapter's views on the Codex
Chapters are (according to the surmises of the Liber Astartes' finest minds) founded by taking a group of veterans from one chapter and having them teach a bunch of new recruits. What this means is that all new chapters will be taught tactics and organization very similar to their parent chapters, as well as a similar ideology. What this logically results in is codex chapters producing codex chapters producing codex chapters. Of course, what it also logically results in is codex chapters which change one little thing, and then teach that change to their successors. Who may continue for a few thousand years, and then change something else - which is taught to their successors. It’s been a long time since the Second Founding, and the little changes mount up - even if a chapter only makes a change every two hundred years, that’s still fifty changes, which could easily result in a chapter which was completely unrecognizable from the standard - or in one that simply used different heraldry and camouflage. However, considering how complete the Codex is supposed to be, it is hard to see how even that much change would be necessary.

Remember, the Codex is the product of ten thousand years of addition, revision, and "throw it in, it might be useful." Primarchs have contributed to it. So have generals, Chapter Masters, and likely even Sergeants. This means that most chapters are going to still be using most of the Codex, if only because it’s so ubiquitous and so comprehensive that throwing it out would mean starting from scratch.

Let us return to the religious metaphor for a moment. It usually takes something fairly big to make people question their faith - some great test which their current beliefs are not equipped to deal with. Adherence to the Codex would seem to be similar - the Ultramarines themselves formed a Tyranid hunting company, but it took their near destruction at the hands of the Tyranids to do it (and they’re still not entirely comfortable with it). Meanwhile, the Blood Angels incorporated the favoured tactics of Sanguinius and the needs of the Black Rage without any particular discomfiture, but still adhere to the rest of the Codex. The Dark Angels maintain two entirely non-codex formations, so that they can hunt the Fallen - but still adhere to the rest of the Codex. Large enough problems make people reform around a solution - and Space Marines are no exception. However, as can be seen from these examples, divergence is a slow, gradual process - it took ten thousand years for the Ultramarines to find a situation worth diverging for. The Blood Angels needed to suffer an incurable flaw which drives them mad. The Dark Angels lost half their legion and their Primarch. In each case, the chapter (or legion) underwent some huge event which changed them forever - it was never an idle decision.

In short, divergence from the Codex should be looked at in much the same light as a religious heresy - it takes something big to provoke it, and even then the differences between schismatics and the orthodox may not appear that large to the outside eye. DIYers who want their chapter to be wildly divergent would be best to find some deeply traumatic event to explain it, or to find a series of situations which forced a gradual adaptation to the new organization. It should not be taken lightly - the Space Marines wouldn’t take it lightly. If it is done, it should be done gradually and partially - the idea of discarding the whole thing is quite implausible. The Codex simply has too much to offer.

A further point to keep in mind about Codex divergence is how it looks to the rest of the Imperium - it is non-conformism. Being a unique and beautiful flower in the Imperium gets you crushed under the treads of the dozens of identical tanks. The more divergent a chapter is, the more likely they are to suffer for it (especially since DIY chapters lack the prestige which accompanies First Founding chapters).

Now that the philosophy and feeling behind the Codex is clear, discussing why a chapter would diverge is important. Looking at the divergent chapters previously mentioned, each of them diverged for a reason - a reason which has not gone away. Even the Space Wolves' reason for diverging (Russ said no) hasn’t gone away - Russ is still very much their Primarch (if in doubt, go to the Space Wolf subforum and ask). Thus, when justifying a divergence in a chapter, the situation which forced or encouraged the divergence needs to either have endured for so long as to make it seem natural (i.e. for so long that most of the marines have been taught to do it that way anyway), or to still be enduring now - meaning the divergence is still necessary. Respect for chapter history is not necessarily a bad justification, but whatever caused the divergence needs to have been critically important to the Chapter - one of the events which have made them the Chapter they are today. All the Codex divergences in GW fluff are intrinsically linked to the character of the Chapter - Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Salamanders or Black Templars. Your chapter should be the same way.

When creating a divergent chapter, you will need to tie that divergence to the chapter and make a natural part of them. It should not be possible to look at the chapter and see them without that divergence. When you’ve done that, then you’ve done divergence right.

How to diverge naturally
It's a lot easier not to. The focus of an IA, after all, is not usually on the way the Chapter fights. Divergences from the Codex should flow from your Chapter's character and situation. Ensure that there are sufficient and pressing reasons for the Chapter doing things the way they do. Always ask “is there any way I could do this and still remain within the confines of the Codex?” Diverging is not a sufficiently worthy goal in and of itself to be worth doing – it should happen if it needs to and because it had to. The Chapter should have a clear motivation for what they did and a clear reason why that was the particular course of action that they chose over the others available.

What about other changes?
This same reasoning can be easily applied to changes in a Chapter's character – the question of how and why a Chapter would change from its original nature. For most of the same reasons as above, a Chapter would be close in ideology and viewpoint to its founder.

And again for most of the same reasons, it would take compelling, pressing circumstances to change this. Space Marines take great pride in their heritage. They use strong methods of indoctrination on their recruits. It takes something significant to overcome that.

However, a Chapter's viewpoints and character is more open to change than their adherence to the Codex. The Chapter's character can be greatly influenced by the people of their home world in a way their adherence to the Codex might not be – the people of their home world will have practices, views and superstitions which the Chapter might slowly adopt. This will always be true. The people of their home world are far more likely to have a particular belief about the Emperor, or a particular coming-of-age ritual, or some other belief that the Chapter comes to adopt than they are to have revelatory insights into interstellar warfare. Changing a Chapter's character involves overcoming the Chapter's character, while changing the Codex involves overcoming the collected wisdom of ten thousand years' worth of the Imperium's finest strategists and tacticians.

Nonetheless, many of the points about Codex adherence can also apply to Space Marines' reverence for their history, practices and beliefs. There are more avenues open to change these, but these changes still must be natural, well-justified, and proceed clearly from the Chapter's original beliefs.

On Writing

As a note, a typical IA is between 3000 and 5000 words long. Keeping lower is usually better. It is generally better to leave the reader wanting more than to wear out his patience halfway through an article.

Read it aloud
If you take nothing else away from this section, it should be this. READ YOUR IA ALOUD. You will swiftly discover what sentences you have written badly. You will find when you have repeated the same word sixteen times in three sentences. You will find when the thoughts make no sense. You will find nine-tenths of the flaws in your IA if you attempt to read it aloud. Do it several times if you have to. If you read your work aloud and start changing sentences around so they sound more natural, you will swiftly find your writing improving swiftly.

It also makes it a lot easier to read the same thing for the fifteenth time if you read it aloud. I recommend imitating Sean Connery while you do it.

Learn to spell and to gramm
Good spelling and grammar are critical to good communication and good writing. Anyone who says differently can't do either or likes someone who can't too much. Most people are willing to tolerate a certain level of mistakes in an IA, but in the age of modern word processing there is no excuse for misspelling a word (there are excuses for using the wrong words, of course). If your spelling and grammar are weak read more, use a spellchecker, and read your IA aloud to determine when things just don't sound quite right, then change them until they do.

Don't write in your browser
Use Wordpad or OpenOffice or something. You'll be able to see more as you write, and they're both rather more stable and less prone to memory leakage than most web browsers. Also, you can easily save multiple copies. And if the forum decides to eat half your post you'll be fine. Just remember to put the BBCode in as you go.

However, be self-aware
Anyone who has made it this far in the guide has noticed my tendency to reuse certain words over and over. 'However' is one of these. Reading aloud helps catch this, but so does knowing that you do it. Rereading your work will give you an idea of what words you tend to overuse – try to avoid them, if you can. Variety is the spice of both life and IAs.

Shorter is almost always better
Find extraneous words. Cut them. Find extraneous sentences. Cut them. With every sentence, ask yourself what this adds to the IA. With every word, ask yourself whether you need it, whether you could say it better in fewer words (or as well in fewer words). Don't be afraid to expand every so often, but make sure that everything does something. Look at paragraphs. Ask why they're so long, and what you can do about it.

Some people say it with diamonds. You should be saying it with less.

I will now tell the story of Spider Robinson.

So Spider sends this story to his editor. And his editor calls him and says "It's great. Now cut 1000 words."

Spider explains how he can't do this. The editor tells him to pretend that someone's paying him a dollar for each word he cuts. Spider succeeds in cutting 500 words, but can't do any more. He calls his editor back and tells him so.

The editor suggests that Spider pretend that someone will break a bone (one of Spider's, that is) for each word Spider's over. The joke's on the editor, of course, because Spider doesn't have 500 bones!

Spider cuts another 500, crying inside. Then he rereads it, and discovers that it's a much better story.

You can argue with me. But Spider Robinson has won three Hugos, a Nebula, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Robert A. Heinlein Award. He knows how to write, better than you or me or both of us put together. And cutting down his word count improved his writing.

Draw your own conclusions.

On specific pedantic criticisms in fluff and writing

This sections explores particular mistakes/things that drive me batty that appear often in IA creation but nonetheless do not fit as well with the rest of the guide.

You are not the [blank] Templars
Many DIYers like to have the Black Templars be their training cadre. However, there are a number of both in-universe and out-of-universe problems with this. Why would the High Lords choose the Black Templars? They're headstrong, violate the Codex, and are completely outside Imperial control, even moreso than the usual Astartes independence. The High Lords would not trust them. Nor would they be a good choice for a training cadre, precisely because of their particular quirks – they'd pass them on to the new Chapter, which would provide the High Lords with another problem chapter. Added to this, there's the fact that most people seem to simply take the opportunity to recreate the Black Templars, thus raising the issue of why the exercise was undertaken in the first place. The Black Templars as a Chapter cadre raise far, far more problems than they solve.

Ensure your Curse makes sense
One of the things people occasionally forget when writing about a Cursed Founding chapter is to have the Curse make some sort of sense. Your chapter will have undergone genetic tinkering – and there must have been a reason behind this. What effect were the mad scientists of the Adeptus Mechanicus trying to produce by meddling with your geneseed? What did they get? Why were there differences (if there are)? The Cursed Founding was an attempt to make Space Marines more dangerous – and in all the canon GW examples, it succeeded in some fashion – but carried problems with it. Don't forget to bring problems along, but don't forget the success, either.

On Painting and Colors

Your color scheme is important
Color schemes are often dismissed as an afterthought by serious DIYers with serious IAs. This is a mistake. A color scheme is important even if you never intend to paint a single model in it. It is important for two reasons – recognition, and imagination. A unique and interesting color scheme is key to drawing in some readers, and will help your chapter stand out in the minds of many others. It gives you one more opportunity to make your chapter memorable. Meanwhile, providing an interesting and unique color scheme also makes it easier to imagine your chapter undertaking the various glorious deeds described in your IA. Picturing your chapter cleansing a Space Hulk or patrolling the Eastern Fringe will be more enjoyable if the scheme is a good one. A unique and interesting color scheme makes the experience of an IA a better one, even though it only seems a small touch.

Applying your paint scheme with a shotgun will make people's eyes bleed
Scattering areas of different colors all over the model makes it harder to focus on the model, as the eye is drawn to one different area after another. It also looks more than a little messy. Patterning your scheme after a GW one (in the way the colors are allocated to different parts of the model) is a very good idea - they've been making their minis look good for a long time.

Do not paint your marines' feet in brighter colors unless you want people to stare at their feet
Bright colors draw the eye to them. Putting brighter colors all over the model in various spots will draw the eye to those spots. And the feet should not be the focus of your Space Marine. If you want to paint them a different color, paint them a color darker than majority of the paint scheme. GW doesn't do this, either, and as I said before - they know how to make their minis look good.

You don't need that many color schemes
Many of the costs for the Bolter and Chainsword are provided out of pocket by Brother Argos. It seems hard to justify the bandwidth consumed by eighteen color schemes, one for each specialist, one for each company captain, and one for all the special formations. Do one. Two if you're feeling posh. Brother Argos needs the money, and my mousewheel wears out if I have to scroll by too many images. Again, learn from GW - notice their IAs include one or two color schemes at most - and that they take up relatively little space.

Black and red are not cool and unique
Observe.

Of the twenty founding legions and thirty-four known Second Founding Chapters, we have color schemes for eighteen legions and twenty-eight of their successors (not counting Chaos chapters/warbands/what have you). This gives us a remarkable pool to draw from. Doing some simple calculations (assigning a quartered or halved scheme 50% of a color for each and giving 25%/75% of a color for shoulders and head being one color and the rest another, while silver is counted as grey), this gives us the following results (note that having multiple schemes means they all get counted):

12% of chapters are blue. 2% are purple (that's the Emperor's Children). 23% are red. None are orange. 6% are yellow. 14% are green. 18% are black. 7% are grey. 18% are white. None are brown, and 1% are pink (that's half the Emperor's Children post-heresy). Thus, from most common to least common: Red, black and white, green, blue, grey, yellow, purple, orange.

What does this show us? Red, black and white are inordinately popular colours when GW makes chapters (with red ridiculously common). A little looking around the forums will also show that black and red are inordinately popular colors among DIY chapter creators, too. I would honestly guess that at least a third of DIY chapters are black. Grey is also remarkably popular, though not nearly to the extent of black.

What this means is that red and black are poor choices for creating a memorable chapter scheme that stands out in the crowd of IAs in this forum. Use black or red, and your chapter will start to blend together with dozens of others in people's minds. This can be avoided through the use of other colors, different patterns or particularly interesting badges (though other colors is by far the easiest method). A scheme quartered between black and another color is far more memorable than a plain black one, and so is a red color scheme with a unique and interesting chapter badge and a bit of wargear. Making your color scheme interesting helps make your chapter interesting – especially on the tabletop, where reams of prose can't save them.

A (very) short and eclectic course in grammar and spelling

Use a spellchecker. It will help pick out the one misspelled word out of three thousand. Reading aloud is, surprisingly, not that good for catching spelling mistakes, but it is pretty good for catching homonyms (words that sound the same but which are different).

Errol Flynn was (and played) a rogue. Rouge is what ladies wore to attract Errol Flynn.

A horde is a large group, and a hoard is a treasure trove.

Although no one is sure precisely how, affect and effect mean different things. Try to keep them straight, despite the difficulty. As a general rule, affects cause, effects, well, effect. But it is a minefield.

There is for places, their is for things belonging to the group. They're is a contraction of they are.

Too means also, to means going places, and two can be as sad as one.

Apostrophe-s is used to denote a possessive or a contraction of _____ is. The exception to this is 'it's', which only means it is. The apostrophe and the s are never used together otherwise.

Keep your pronouns (they, he, she, etc) specific. If you say "he", make sure there are no other hes around to get confused about. For example: Bob and Joe went to the store. He paid for everything.

Smack yourself with a ruler, son, because that's vague.

Bob has a lot of money. He and Joe go to the store. He pays for everything.

Also vague.

Bob has a lot of money. He and Joe go to the store. Bob pays for everything.

Wonderful!

Also, color and colour mean the same thing. Accommodate regional differences in spelling.

Supplementary Resources

Recommended Reading
IAs I recommend for reading, in no particular order, and in no particular indictment of other IAs that I do not mention. I picked five that stuck in my memory for various reasons, or seemed particularly worth reading for insight.
The Steel Ghosts
The Ice Lords (I know what I like)
The Castigators
The Astral Hawks
Imperial Castellans

A Brief History of My Own Work
These are the various draft threads of the Ice Lords. When the Bronze Prophets eventually are finished, I'll post their various drafts in their thread and add it here (and so on with the Stone Hearts and Steel Dogs). The idea is to provide some context for the evolution of an IA (and also to point out just how I came to many of my conclusions about IA writing).

Ice Lords, Mark I (with notes)
Ice Lords, Mark II (with notes)
Ice Lords, Mark III & IV
Ice Lords, Mark IV (later version) and Commentary

The Commentary is not yet in existence – I'll add it later. Eventually, I hope to provide an overall writeup and critique of the various stages of the Ice Lords (as well as other Chapters when they're finished).

Changelog

Significantly Revised:
“On the Sections of an IA”

Added:
The two kinds of criticism
Your color scheme is important
A Brief History of My Own Work
Why you are not the [blank] Templars
“On Codex divergence (and changes to a Chapter's character)”
“On the Process of Writing an IA”
“On specific pedantic criticisms in fluff and writing”

[CantonWC]

Understand what the Codex is and isn't

The Codex is more than a book of organizational advice (though it is that). It's more than general tactical precepts. It's more than accounts of battles. It's more than careful analyses of enemy tactics. It is the life's work of countless Imperial warriors, philosophers and military scholars. It has been improved for ten thousand years. Your chapter may think they know better than it, but it would be virtually impossible to create something better - chances are, somebody already thought of that and put it in the Codex.

 

The codex can be followed in any number of different ways - any and all parts could be ignored, misinterpreted or considered outdated. The point is that the book is so massive and overwhelming that discarding it wholly would mean discarding almost the entirety of the Imperium's knowledge on warfare and starting afresh. Your chapter might well reject the organizational methods and standard tactics of the Codex, but they'd be unlikely to also throw out the treatises on how enemies fight and the various philosophical perspectives on warfare and combat. Sun Tzu's Art of War has remained relevant even thousands of years later - the Codex is the same, only with even more information.

 

In short, have a clear idea of what the book is before you decide if you're going to get rid of it.

 

I would like to ask a question.

 

The Codex is a great work, I understand that. But why does GW use language like "rigid adherence," "obey without question," "to deviate from the Codex is tantamount to heresy" etc. heavily implying that adhering to the Codex is a bad thing? Is it because GW are just bad at writing their own fluff?

 

What is the Codex stance on covert operations? Or can I just make something up, say that my Chapter draws heavily on certain portions of the Codex that other Chapters ignore?

 

Looks very good Octavulg. This should be very helpful for aspiring IA writers :drool:

[Codex Grey]

You should change the title to 'Octavulg's Must-Read Guide'

[Ferrata]

As usual Octavulg, a good read for a veteran Liberite with good information. Yet, it needs to be toned down a lot to be a Newbie-friendly post - I can see this scaring them away before they've even started on the Dark Blood Templar Wolves :)

[Grand Master Tyrak]

I've been tempted to do this for a while at least in part because it lets me express a lot of vehemence without directing it at anyone in particular. Which is nice.

 

I think this bit should come out before it goes in the DIY Guide. :lol:

 

The battle is important because of what it meant, not what happened in the battle itself.

 

QFT. It's like the study of military history - you don't cite every battle in known history, you cite a battle because you can draw a principle of warfare from it.

 

Sun Tzu's Art of War has remained relevant even thousands of years later

 

"Art of War" should probably be italicised.

 

(and who would be in if he'd bloody come back and submit them)

 

Swear filter? :lol:

 

Do not destroy the shared universe

 

Again, QFT. A little analogy about the amount of gaps in the 40k fluff: don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole, go and look for a square hole - there will be one.

 

Do not piggyback on the official

I don't give a damn how much you like Logan Grimnar. He wasn't your Chapter Master's mentor, or his secret godfather. Your chapter should stand on its own - no dragging in your favorite official chapters and characters to explain how cool your boys are.

 

A little less vehemence might be useful here. IMO, the problem with special characters is that they're so well documented. If your Chapter has been associated with this character, why haven't GW told us before? They've told us all the other significant things about that character.

 

Think it through

 

I think this section is redundant, if I'm honest - it is very similar to the "Almighty Why" section in Telveryon's Guide.

 

I do not care what affliction follows you through life. Spell correctly. If you have no limbs and must type using your tongue, spell correctly. We all misspell a few words now and again, but if you spell 'the' wrong consistently, it will be a cold day in hell before anyone cares about your IA.

 

Ouch - again a little less vehemence might be useful here. Tie in a little nod to the board rules about leetspeak, and definitely add in what Telveryon's first language is.

 

It also makes it a lot easier to read the same...damn...thing for the fifteenth time if you read it aloud.

 

Again, swear filter.

 

But why does GW use language like "rigid adherence," "obey without question," "to deviate from the Codex is tantamount to heresy" etc. heavily implying that adhering to the Codex is a bad thing?

 

Because not adhering to the combined military wisdom of the Imperium will often result in the Chapter in question getting their backsides handed to them. They're just too valuable for that.

 

What is the Codex stance on covert operations? Or can I just make something up, say that my Chapter draws heavily on certain portions of the Codex that other Chapters ignore?

 

No idea, but don't claim to know what other Chapters do. I can see no problem with preferring one section of the Codex, but that doesn't mean you have to throw out the rest.

[Marshal Renatus]

Let me start by saying...I really look forward to folks like Octavulg shredding into anything I write. They typically have great insight into the 40K world and provide excellent advice on how to structure an IA for better flow and cohesion.

 

Having said that, this article comes off as spiteful and conceited. Were I new to 40K and not moderately versed in its fluff, it would be enough for me to seek assistance elsewhere. Which is a shame, because the B&C and the Liber are the best resources I've found for all things power armor. I look to the B&C first and only search elsewhere as a last resort.

 

Reading this article really leaves a bad taste, and I think its tone is exactly what I see the Mods in the forum steering people away from. The information in the article is very good and I agree with the factual pieces it includes, but we come to the Liber for help, not to get made to feel stupid, unintelligent, or illiterate. For most of the people here their IA is a first outing into creative writing, and I think it would benefit all of us to remember that.

 

**Steps off of soapbox**

Amen.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Seems like Octavulg is the Stelek of Liber. And I mean that with respect ;)

 

It also helps if a friend, who doesn't play Space Marines, to read your Chapter. Chances are, they have a useful, different viewpoint on the 40k universe. They may see a fluff discrepancy that you may have missed regarding an Ork Waagh! or a demonic incursion. All thoughts are worth hearing.

[Ferrus Manus]

Let me start by saying...I really look forward to folks like Octavulg shredding into anything I write. They typically have great insight into the 40K world and provide excellent advice on how to structure an IA for better flow and cohesion.

 

Having said that, this article comes off as spiteful and conceited. Were I new to 40K and not moderately versed in its fluff, it would be enough for me to seek assistance elsewhere. Which is a shame, because the B&C and the Liber are the best resources I've found for all things power armor. I look to the B&C first and only search elsewhere as a last resort.

 

Reading this article really leaves a bad taste, and I think its tone is exactly what I see the Mods in the forum steering people away from. The information in the article is very good and I agree with the factual pieces it includes, but we come to the Liber for help, not to get made to feel stupid, unintelligent, or illiterate. For most of the people here their IA is a first outing into creative writing, and I think it would benefit all of us to remember that.

 

**Steps off of soapbox**

Amen.

 

I can see where your coming from and do think it needs toning down a notch but sometimes writers (and I mean every Liberite, veteran or 'newbie') needs a bit of a slap in the face and a reality check to help them improve their Chapter. I think this delivers that. Also, it is a good reminder of how things should be, especially this bit:

 

A lot of people seem to have confused "the best you can make it" with "when the Lexicanii will let it into the Librarium".

 

Some members tend to think that as soon as they think their Chapter is done it is automatically ready for the Librarium. This isn't always the case. The works in the Librarium need to be of the highest quality, and I think that sometimes we're a bit too nice about allowing things into the Librarium. Granted, it's slightly unfair to fluff based articles when compared to modelling based articles. It takes a lot more work to make a written piece such a high quality. I mean if you look at some of the IAs in the Librarium I know for a fact that the vast majority of those IAs have been through about four major re-draftings each. That's not including the occasional rewording here and there.

 

But anyway, just my two cents.

[Solomon de Gravier]

It may have already been said but when I read this I could hardly believe it was written by a veteran of the Liber.

 

Here are some terrible things I realised as I worked my way through this article:

• You are talking about things as if you know best.
  
• You are making unfair stereo-types. Who are you to decide that red colour schemes aren't as memorable as others? Personally I think that a persons memory of a perticular chapter is influenced by the writting and thought that the author has put in more than it is the colour schemes.
  
• You are giving an example of your own chapter and saying that's what our chapters should look like.
  
• You are bieng boring and negative about new things. Why can't I set up my IA in a different fashion in order to add interest and innovation.
  

 

EDIT: OOPS! This comes across a little harsh. Little accidenta?

[Marshal Renatus]

First, as I said earlier, I think Octavulg is a great resource for any of us. I also think that a lot of the fact-based suggestions in the article are valid and useful. I just think he let his emotions overflow the content of the article. The way it's written right now, I see this article as comparable to the one just close by the Mods called "Adjective Noun Chapters" or whatnot.

 

I can see where your coming from and do think it needs toning down a notch but sometimes writers (and I mean every Liberite, veteran or 'newbie') needs a bit of a slap in the face and a reality check to help them improve their Chapter.

 

I heartily disagree with the second half of this article, lol. I get reality checked and slapped in the face all day here in the really, real world. I go to 40K to escape all that junk. We're here to help people create something meaningful to them, not to us or even the greater Liber community. If we think their finished product sucks but they love it...mission accomplished. One more rabidly interested fan of 40K who now feels rooted in their hobby's universe.

[Grand Master Tyrak]

Some members tend to think that as soon as they think their Chapter is done it is automatically ready for the Librarium. This isn't always the case. The works in the Librarium need to be of the highest quality, and I think that sometimes we're a bit too nice about allowing things into the Librarium.

 

That said, if this is going to be put in then it should be stressed that getting the Lexicanii to like your Chapter is not a requirement for Librarium entry.

 

You are bieng boring and negative about new things. Why can't I set up my IA in a different fashion in order to add interest and innovation.

 

Because it's rarely coherent. I think I've only once seen an IA laid in in such a way that it made complete sense but wasn't at all recognisable as an IA format. It should be pointed out here that GW themselves do variations on the theme of IA structure, and Octavulg touches on it with this:

 

Then, in varying order:

Home World, Beliefs, Gene-seed, Combat Doctrine, and Organization. (Often in HW->B->CD->O->GS, but hardly always so)

 

Would you have to read all the IAs to find the variations? Yes. Should we therefore list every possible variation that GW has done on the IA format? No.

 

If I'm critiquing something for the Librarium and it's not coherently structured, then I'll recommend restructuring it in such a way that there is a consistent thread running through the whole article that doesn't jump around abruptly from piece to piece. The article needs to flow. Being the pioneers of the IA, GW's method is the one I'll encourage people to use. Why? Because it's a tried and tested method. It's a whole less hassle for people to fix (they don't have to make up their own method), and you don't need to go rummaging around for the original IAs - I can just direct you to the Librarium.

 

I hate to be so harsh here, but your theory is also flawed. If a cake has been burnt to a charcoal crisp, then you're not going to enjoy eating it regardless of how good the icing is. For an IA, fancy structure (like gimmicks) is not going to be what gives makes a Chapter interesting. You shouldn't rely on your layout of all things to keep people interested - it's the content of the IA that matters. The structure is a vehicle for delivering the information to the reader, not a device to make a Chapter interesting.

 

I get reality checked and slapped in the face all day here in the really, real world. I go to 40K to escape all that junk. We're here to help people create something meaningful to them, not to us or even the greater Liber community.

 

Are we? If that were the case, the Liber would be the assembly line rather than quality control. As I see it, the Liber is here to help people fit their Chapters into a relatively coherent 40k universe. If the author isn't bothered about that, that's fine, but why post it in the Liber? The Chapter is always going to belong to the author, but if it's not intended to correspond to what the rest of the community thinks then there's no point putting it up for critiquing. There is a working assumption that if you post something in the Liber you will be wanting feedback on it, and not just the "Cool!" variety that exists in the PCA forums. Constructive criticism is never going to be of use if the author isn't bothered about how the community sees his Chapter.

[Terminatorinhell]

It is a little bit condescending/ranting but nonetheless informative. Although I also agree with the unfair stereo-types, a black and red chapter can look very striking on the table if done correctly.

[Ferrus Manus]

That said, if this is going to be put in then it should be stressed that getting the Lexicanii to like your Chapter is not a requirement for Librarium entry.

Yes, agreed. I think that as long as the quality is there, it should be in the Librarium - regardless of how any one of us feels about it.

[Marshal Renatus]

Are we? If that were the case, the Liber would be the assembly line rather than quality control. As I see it, the Liber is here to help people fit their Chapters into a relatively coherent 40k universe. If the author isn't bothered about that, that's fine, but why post it in the Liber? The Chapter is always going to belong to the author, but if it's not intended to correspond to what the rest of the community thinks then there's no point putting it up for critiquing. There is a working assumption that if you post something in the Liber you will be wanting feedback on it, and not just the "Cool!" variety that exists in the PCA forums. Constructive criticism is never going to be of use if the author isn't bothered about how the community sees his Chapter.

I agree, we want to help people fit their Chapter into the established 40K world. Maybe someone has no intention of putting their IA in the Honorus. Maybe they want their fluff checked, even if they intend to fly in the face of it? I have no issue with providing critical feedback, and I think most folks want that. But if they don't take some of that criticism and still create a Chapter they love, what's the harm? If it really bugs you that much...don't comment on their article anymore.

 

I'm really not trying to be argumentative. I agree with Octavulg on many of his points, it is the self-important tone of the article and some of the responses that bother me. I think it is why the Liber doesn't move as quickly as other boards...people are afraid to have their neck stomped on by a jackbooted fluff-lord. :)

[Solomon de Gravier]

Grand Master Tyrak:

I didn't mean that I would solely rely on the format to interest people but at a time like this with so many DIY chapters poping up in the Liber an interesting layout would make an IA stand out from the masses. I don't think I explained it very well.

 

Terminatorinhell:

I have followers! Next step: seduce the Liber veterans to join my evil cause HAHAHA! *disembowels screaming victim with a plastic spoon. You know. The type you get in canteens?*

 

Thanks for spelling stereo-type correctly. I knew I had got something wrong.

[Ferrata]

Okay guys, I don't do this very often but I'm bringing out the Moderator hat for this reply.

 

This article, in the current state, will not be entering the DIY Guide. I am fine for it to exist as a thread, it is informative and useful to those who read it, and I disagree that it is similar to the Adjective Noun thread I closed earlier, that was neither informative or useful. However, I do not believe this article invokes the right attitudes I wish the DIY Guide, and by an extension of that, the Liber community as a whole to express. We frequently direct the Guide as the first port of call for budding writers and I feel this article will discourage them from coming back. It is unfriendly and unwelcoming.

 

I do agree that sometimes a little harsher tone is needed, but the Guide is not the place for that. I know that the boot-lickers, I mean honoured brothers, of the Librarium get the poor end of the stick sometimes with chapters wanting to enter the Librarium - and that a rant always makes you feel better. Like I said, this article is useful and informative, and may allow us veterans to sit back on our grumpy old man chairs and laugh at the young whipper-snappers struggling to dig the garden, but it doesn't greet the reader with a nice smile and white teeth.

 

The assembly line/quality control argument is one we have head before (in a similar guide), so please let that one slip to the side.

 

So, if Octavulg wishes either to rewrite this or pass it over to someone else to rewrite, I will happily place it in the Guide, but it does need to be changed.

 

Oh, and Solomon - Read this bit - you're sig is too big, it needs to be 350 x 100 maximum.

 

Ferrata - doing his job and forgetting names

[Solomon de Gravier]

Oh, and Solomon - Read this bit - you're sig is too big, it needs to be 350 x 100 maximum.

 

This better?

[Brother Cambrius]

So this is what the wise and vicious Liberty has been trying to shove into my excessivley Asatrtes thick skull? ;) Thanks Octy I'll keep this all in mind for when I bring back things like the Swords of Orion, Decimators and Star Tridents. ^_^

 

Cambrius

[CantonWC]

Because not adhering to the combined military wisdom of the Imperium will often result in the Chapter in question getting their backsides handed to them. They're just too valuable for that.

 

I'm not sure I understand you Tyrak. If the Codex is a all-encompassing tome, and I do assume that it is, then there should be no reason for any Chapter to significantly deviate from it. The only logical conclusion I can draw is that GW is incompetent at writing their own fluff. Judging by their recent track record, I would not say that assessment is too far off the mark.

 

No idea, but don't claim to know what other Chapters do. I can see no problem with preferring one section of the Codex, but that doesn't mean you have to throw out the rest.

 

Well, we all know what some Chapters think of camouflage and sneaking around ^_^ That's the only reason I asked.

 

This thread seems to have moved far beyond my questions, so I'll bow out.

[StratoKhan]

Having read the original post I would like to offer my opinion on a few matters. There are valid points presented by Octavulg in the article, however, I think they've already been covered by the guides we have. I get the feeling that there is a bit of exasperation expressed here, and to an extent I can sympathise with it because it is a feature of Liber activity I've experienced myself.

 

Spelling and grammar are the parts I think are most important to any Liberite. It's important to mention them in any writing guide, and indeed from the samples of work I look through it seems like one cannot mention them enough times, although the term 'gramm' really made me shudder, sorry! But there are different ways of doing things. We know that anyone can use spellcheck. Telling someone that running their piece through spellcheck will net them more feedback should be your first port of call when faced with toxic orthography. Telling them that they should "learn to spell" has a more inflammatory edge.

 

However, there are a few problems I'm having with the general tone of the article and a particular section of it, the painting section. In the spirit of Liber I'll give some feedback. I'll tackle painting first, a minor quibble:

 

I've never thought of paint schemes as being at all important in criticism. The Raven Guard and the Iron Hands have almost exactly the same colour scheme, yet the effect this has on their chapter background is infinitesimal. This just mirrors real life. If you look at heraldry in Europe, you'll find that although it was a method of identification (amongst other things) and differentiation between individuals and corporations, the charges used were sometimes extremely limited. In some areas of 14th Century northern europe 70% or more of devices had a lion charge. So what? It didn't stop those people living exciting or boring lives. So a Rampagers army will look like a Blood Angels army to a lot of gamers? This just means that most people are philistines! Its link to whatever background you produce is tenous at best.

 

In fact I've seen GW Chapters that have very similar chapter symbols yet different colour schemes or identical colour schemes and different chapter symbols and rather than look like a ripoff, to me it has pleasing heraldic parallels. I think that with something as subjective as aesthetics it should really boil down to whether the colour scheme pleases the owner. The criteria for memorability are also subjective.

 

The general tone of the article is another thing.

 

There is an important question raised by this discussion that some have already touched upon and that is the concept of enjoyment. I was an Adeptus Domus here at Liber for a fair while, and I think I was chosen because I participated a lot in the IA threads. It was fun! That's why I did it. And I think that for most people it's fun to write an IA or any other piece of background on their chapter. And then when it wore thin, I just stopped for a while. I haven't had the heart to participate as intensively as I once did. Perhaps I took people's mistakes too personally. And in the same way, if things get too personal for people who are submitting their stuff here, it might cease being fun for them.

 

To expect people not to make mistakes because there is a manual/guide out there telling them how they should do things is just not realistic. Mistakes will be made. If someone doesn't learn from their mistakes, well, why should this make me exasperated? The people whose work we critique don't owe us anything. They don't have to change anything. You don't have to get annoyed if they don't change anything. Your advice doesn't have to be sugar-coated either. But if a person has a hissy fit because you didn't like their direction or ideas, maybe you need to ask yourself if you did the best job in helping them. In these situations you can be blameless or you can have provoked. I find that politeness doesn't mean kissing someone else's behind, just being respectful. If there isn't anything in someone's IA for you to respect then don't bother with criticism. It'll just turn nasty. People posting here usually want criticism, they don't however want to be forced to follow it at gunpoint. If you cannot convince someone of the validity of your point of view then either you're a poor advocate for your position or you're wasting time talking to the wrong person. A community can exert pressure on someone or respect their decision to go in a different direction. One sounds a lot more fun than the other, I'll tell you that much.

 

Sometimes the way we respond to someone's work can encourage them to either improve or to give up. Having people give up because an unwitting sap has become the embodiment of all the mistakes that have ever raised your blood pressure and is then verbally smeared into a thin red paste over the internet is not a great outcome for anyone. It hurts the growth of the pool of people that contribute to Liber, and that's not what anyone wants, is it?

 

I believe that the guide people need is already there. Maybe it needs a re-write to make it more accesible, easier to read and understand. Perhaps after several years and a lot of feedback, there is a pattern emerging in the mistakes of first-timers. With that information we can improve and add to the guide. It doesn't particularly need a change in tone however.

 

I recently read through my grandmother's cookbook from the 1950s. Great recipes. But it also had a section with about 20+ rules on table manners that one was expected to follow or presumably make a social faux-pas that would get them banned from polite society. I'm sorry, but telling people what they should or shouldn't do with their colour schemes is just too similar to the 2 page picture spread on how to eat fruit with a knife and fork (a different picture and diagram for each fruit, truly unbelievable!) for it to really work for me. It strikes me as a bit representative of the piece. Do this! Or else... is the tone I'm getting. I believe that if the intention is to help people, then there is a better tone to take with people, one that sounds more like a conversation and less like a dressing-down.

 

If the quality of some work is making you a bit tetchy in your criticism, maybe you need to take a breather from the glamorous world of IA criticism, or maybe you need to be choosier with what you critique. Just a temporary vacation of sorts. It might help ease the suffering that the 'Teh Wolf Angels Chapter' IA (typed in all CAPS of course) has wreaked upon your soul.

 

Ok, that's me done for now, I'm going to see if I can make a Pan-Dimensional Gargle Blaster.

 

+EDIT+ Oh no! A wall of text! Oh, it's fine ... it's for Liber. Phew. +EDIT+

[Marshal Rohr]

It may have already been said but when I read this I could hardly believe it was written by a veteran of the Liber.

 

Here are some terrible things I realised as I worked my way through this article:

• You are talking about things as if you know best.
  
• You are making unfair stereo-types. Who are you to decide that red colour schemes aren't as memorable as others? Personally I think that a persons memory of a perticular chapter is influenced by the writting and thought that the author has put in more than it is the colour schemes.
  
• You are giving an example of your own chapter and saying that's what our chapters should look like.
  
• You are bieng boring and negative about new things. Why can't I set up my IA in a different fashion in order to add interest and innovation.
  

 

EDIT: OOPS! This comes across a little harsh. Little accidenta?

 

He is being blunt. I disagree with injecting his own work as a matter of propriety, but you cant deny his stuff is good.Oct-y has always been a ball buster, but it gets results, and makes better IAs.

 

 

It is a little bit condescending/ranting but nonetheless informative. Although I also agree with the unfair stereo-types, a black and red chapter can look very striking on the table if done correctly.

 

And it will look very striking, right next to the other 6 very striking black and red Chapters....

[Octavulg]

Oh look, Octavulg made a ridiculously long reply. How amazing. Why don't we all take pictures of this rarity.

 

Renatus:

Having said that, this article comes off as spiteful and conceited. Were I new to 40K and not moderately versed in its fluff, it would be enough for me to seek assistance elsewhere. Which is a shame, because the B&C and the Liber are the best resources I've found for all things power armor. I look to the B&C first and only search elsewhere as a last resort.

 

Don't sugarcoat it. Tell me how you really feel.

 

Other than the bits about spelling and getting things into the Librarium, I would have said it's not terribly spiteful (I'm likely going to adjust those bits, in any case). In regard to conceited, I can only say two things: A ) This is the Internet, wherein anyone expressing the opinion that you (yes, you! Especially you! ;)) are not the best at everything is a jerk. B ) I spend a remarkable amount of time directing people to the source of my stupid mistakes. I could do it more, but if people find out too much about how incompetent I used to be they'll probably stop listening to anything I say.

 

First, as I said earlier, I think Octavulg is a great resource for any of us. I also think that a lot of the fact-based suggestions in the article are valid and useful. I just think he let his emotions overflow the content of the article. The way it's written right now, I see this article as comparable to the one just close by the Mods called "Adjective Noun Chapters" or whatnot.

 

That was hilarious. Funniest IA I've seen. :) If we can't handle a little satire of our poorer tendencies, perhaps we shouldn't be trusted with the sharp objects so common in the hobby?

 

Also, the first person to get snippy about how I'm being elitist is cordially invited to go read a first or second draft of the Ice Lords (hell, almost any draft of the Ice Lords) and play connect-the-dots with the "Adjective Noun Chapters" article. Then do something unprintable.

 

I heartily disagree with the second half of this article, lol. I get reality checked and slapped in the face all day here in the really, real world. I go to 40K to escape all that junk. We're here to help people create something meaningful to them, not to us or even the greater Liber community. If we think their finished product sucks but they love it...mission accomplished. One more rabidly interested fan of 40K who now feels rooted in their hobby's universe.

 

If it means something to them, then they want it to be good, probably even as good as they can practically make it. If they don't want that, I don't think it means that much to them. If the former, then they will hopefully take this guide in the approximate spirit in which it is intended. If the latter, they can take it however they want, because I honestly don't really care that much. I despise the intentionally mediocre. I'd rather someone take six months and write a good IA than two weeks for a pretty good one.

 

That said, don't worry, you spell just fine. :)

 

* * *

Ferrus Manus:

Some members tend to think that as soon as they think their Chapter is done it is automatically ready for the Librarium. This isn't always the case. The works in the Librarium need to be of the highest quality, and I think that sometimes we're a bit too nice about allowing things into the Librarium. Granted, it's slightly unfair to fluff based articles when compared to modelling based articles. It takes a lot more work to make a written piece such a high quality. I mean if you look at some of the IAs in the Librarium I know for a fact that the vast majority of those IAs have been through about four major re-draftings each. That's not including the occasional rewording here and there.

 

I must say, seeing people say "eh, it's good enough to get into the Librarium, I guess it's done?" Most annoying thing on this forum. Bar none. The Librarium is a collaborative effort run by people with wildly differing standards and opinions that change over time. We are not a guarantee of excellence, merely a guarantee of quality. Sad, but true. If you can make it better then that, why aren't you? It...it shouldn't be the goal. It should be something that happens after you've finished an IA.

 

* * *

Solomon:

* You are talking about things as if you know best.

 

I do think I know best on these particular subjects. That's why I wrote a GUIDE ABOUT IT! A certain level of arrogance is critical to doing that in the first place. If you set out to write a guide, it will be because you think there's something new you can contribute, and that's not a very humble thought. I assure you, the various contributors to the DIY Guide were pretty sure they had something to add. Sadly, the arrogance to put yourself forward is often the key ingredient to success. One of the great injustices of the world.

 

* You are making unfair stereo-types. Who are you to decide that red colour schemes aren't as memorable as others? Personally I think that a persons memory of a perticular chapter is influenced by the writting and thought that the author has put in more than it is the colour schemes.

 

Well, simple statistics kind of would. Logically, a chapter using pink will have a more memorable scheme than one using red because the pink will be more unusual. I would agree that the writing and thought is critical, but having a derivative and unoriginal color scheme can hurt an otherwise good idea.

 

Also, the term is traditionally generalization in this circumstance. 'Stereotype' is a term applied to groups of people.

 

Also also, you should use an apostrophe in person's, because it's possessive. And it's writing, not writting. And particular. And probably should be scheme, not schemes. But hey. What do I know?

 

* You are giving an example of your own chapter and saying that's what our chapters should look like.

 

...I'm sorry. If I didn't even think my own work was good enough to use as an example of what I think a good IA is, how could I possibly justify writing a guide about writing IAs, even to myself? That would be silly.

 

Yes, my own IA is one of the chapters I think is a good example of how to write an IA. How arrogant of me, to think I have produced something of quality, or to think that it might be a good example of the way I think IAs should be written.

 

It is not arrogant of me to think that my IA represents my method of writing IAs well, to my standards. Honest. It might be arrogant to think the standards are good, but thinking the IA is a good example of them is only logical.

 

* You are bieng boring and negative about new things. Why can't I set up my IA in a different fashion in order to add interest and innovation.

 

You say bieng boring, I say being boring. There should be a question mark at the end of that second sentence, BTW.

 

I never said you couldn't. I just said that people expect certain things from IA format, and if you're not providing those things it's not exactly an IA any more. Doesn't mean you can't do it, just that it won't be an IA. If I write an essay on the problems facing modern China, but do it in first person narrative, it's not really an essay any more, either. Doesn't mean I can't do it, just that it won't be an essay.

 

* * *

Ferrata:

This article, in the current state, will not be entering the DIY Guide. I am fine for it to exist as a thread, it is informative and useful to those who read it, and I disagree that it is similar to the Adjective Noun thread I closed earlier, that was neither informative or useful.

 

See, I found that hilarious, if only for checking off the ones I did, used to do, or ponder doing. :P

 

However, I do not believe this article invokes the right attitudes I wish the DIY Guide, and by an extension of that, the Liber community as a whole to express. We frequently direct the Guide as the first port of call for budding writers and I feel this article will discourage them from coming back. It is unfriendly and unwelcoming.

 

How so, then? The spelling bit, I can easily see. The Librarium bit, sure. The rest of it seems not too bad, in my view.

 

Frankly, this was not intended to be part of the DIY Guide. This is mostly intended to be a collection of the things I complain most often about in a quick, moderately well-explained format.

* * *

CantonWC:

The only logical conclusion I can draw is that GW is incompetent at writing their own fluff.

 

See? The answer was right there all along. ;)

 

* * *

Marshal2 Crusaders

He is being blunt. I disagree with injecting his own work as a matter of propriety, but you cant deny his stuff is good.Oct-y has always been a ball buster, but it gets results, and makes better IAs.

 

Go review the process for acceptance of the Ice Lords before you complain about my propriety. They are objectively good (they're subjectively wonderful ;)). Plus, as said before - there's probably no better example of "how I think chapters should be written" than my own work.

 

And it will look very striking, right next to the other 6 very striking black and red Chapters....

 

I love you, Marshal. I just wanted you to know that. :P

[Marshal Rohr]

Right back at you :).

 

I see your point and concede mine about propriety.

[Donkey Kong]

All excellent points, makes me feel almost feel a bit guilty at snapping at Octavulg first time he dove into the Death Heads. Almost. Ah, screw it, I felt guilty.

 

I appreciate people being straight forward, so hey, this works and I got a little laugh. Although, one thing did make me laugh a lot more than it should have.

 

Do not make your chapter black (or red)

 

Fair enough.

 

most common to least common: Red, black and white, green, blue, grey, yellow, purple, orange.

 

Alright, now let's look at those examples at the bottom of the page:

 

The Steel Ghosts: Grey

The Ice Lords: Blue

The Castigators: Red

The Astral Hawks: Black and Blue

Imperial Castellans: Blue and White

 

Personally, I put grey up their with black on popularity, but, regardless, these are all popular colors and clearly none have hindered the IA.

This is one of those places where I think Octavulg has a bit of a personal issue (fight the power and all that).

/all in good fun, please take no offense

 

I also agree completely with the point on spelling. Paraplegic or dyslexic, everyone should spell correctly and shouldn't be using either as an excuse, albeit, typing with one's tongue could leave one in a hissy.

[StratoKhan]

A small digression, given the terrible state that most keyboards are in, I cannot in any way endorse typing with one's tongue. It's unhygienic and you'll get sick. :)