The Muppet Mindset - A Call to Action

[theprawncracker]

Hey gang! We (me) over at The Muppet Mindset are slowly but surely running out of pre-written material for use on the blog, and we want YOUR help! We need articles and we need them badly! If you would like to submit an article to (probably) be featured on The Muppet Mindset, I highly encourage you to do so! It's worth noting that this blog has been noticed by higher-ups within The Muppets Studio and Sesame Workshop and has been recognized on The Jim Henson Company's Twitter feed twice, so it's a great way to get your name out there!

We have some guidelines when looking for articles. The Muppet Mindset only focuses on news and articles from The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock. Other Jim Henson fantasy worlds like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal aren't really our forte, so we'd rather not have articles about those.

We are trying to focus solely on recent products and productions. Product and appearance reviews are welcome, but only for recent products. If you do decide to write a product or appearance review, we ask that you include a rating of up to 5 Fozzie Hats. If you wish to review a Muppet or Sesame Street television appearance, let me know before the appearance happens and have your article ready the day after the appearance.

If you wish to write an article about an older product or appearance, we ask that it be an opinion article or an editorial piece and not a review or summary. Have some fun with these! Write about the similarities between Nicky Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper and Quentin Fitzwaller in The Muppets at Walt Disney World, do an overview of Grover's many occupations--the opportunities are really limitless! I just ask that you email me with your idea before you submit the article. Just think of me like the editor of a newspaper. Bring your story to me before you put it in the paper.

If you have any other ideas for articles, feel FREE to email me your ideas. We'll talk about them and, most likely, get them up on the blog!

Everyone is welcome to submit pieces of writing at anytime! Just let me know what you'd like to do and I'll do all I can to work with you to get it on The Muppet Mindset!

NOTE: I reserve the right to edit articles for length--content will not be edited without the consent of the author. The only content that will be edited without author consent is grammatical errors picked out by an editor.

I also reserve the right to reject any article idea. This doesn't mean I don't want your article or don't like you, it just means I don't think it will fit with the tone of The Muppet Mindset.

So, to make things short, here's a step-by-step guide of what you should do if you want to write an article for The Muppet Mindset...

1. Get an idea for an article/editorial/review.
2. Email me at ryguy102390@gmail.com with your idea.
3. Get my approval on the idea.
4. Write your article/editorial/review.
5. Submit it to me for proof-reading.
6. Do any suggested editing.
7. Have your article/editorial/review featured on The Muppet Mindset!

See? It's just that simple! Have fun with this gang! I hope to hear from lots of you guys soon with your ideas!

Thanks!

Ryan
Prawnie
theprawncracker

 

[RedPiggy]

I kinda wish these rules had been set up before I wrote some. *shrugs*

 

[MrsPepper]

Well its a new website, these things need to be figured out as he goes along.

This is very cool! I have an idea but have no clue as to when it would be ready... probably before halloween? I guess I should email you!

 

[dwmckim]

Ryan, here's probably the best advice i can give you - something that seems to be an initiation/rite-of-passage for everyone else who's started up a Muppet site:

Having a new article each and every day is a wonderful goal; but that's all it should be - a *goal*, not a rule.

Toughpigs tried to do the daily thing, Muppetnewsflash tried to do the daily thing, i tried to do the daily thing - you can only do that for so long before (a) you run out of ideas (b) the site becomes more a chore on the "must do" list instead of a thrill on the "can't wait to do" list (c) other things in your life need to come first...whether it be for an odd day here or there or even a week or longer.

Now you're in a little bit of a unique situation where your blog was started as a way to get articles published that were having a hard time getting published here so you already had a group of people writing stuff besides just yourself. That puts you in a stronger position to do a daily, but again while it's something you may want to personally strive for, no one would blame you or hold it against you if you made the Mindset an almost-every-day blog instead of always-daily-no-matter-what. If this was a paid job and you were a professional, yeah, people may expect it. You're not - just as no one else doing sites that aren't official are (and we all know that the official sites sure aren't updated that frequently!)

Don't sweat it. It's YOUR site, do with it what's best for YOU. If you need to skip some days, do it. I'd venture to say more people will appreciate a site that has a good quality article at informal intervals than a daily updated site with a lot of filler and fluff that were put up just to satisfy a day's quota.

Before i started my blog, i sat down to brainstorm 30 ideas of articles i wanted to write since even though i wasn't planning for it to be a daily, i wanted to be sure i had a month's worth of good solid ideas in me if i was able to post an article a day just to prove to myself it was worth persuing. In that brainstorm session, i came up with over 50 good ideas. However as everyone knows everything in my personal life pretty much blew up and shot to **** all at once which meant making the decision to put it on hold til things got better (and in the meantime i still have a whole slew of things on my list to write about when that time comes). Allow for life to get in the way - for writers' block - for that time when being there for a sick friend or relative takes precidence over a daily update - for yourself to have a break.

Allow yourself to come to the blog refreshed everytime you do an update and i strongly believe you'll find your audience will appreciate the care that goes into it more than the desire to Always See Something New Every 24 Hour Period.

 

[minor muppetz]

I just sent you an article.

 

[theprawncracker]

I just sent you an article.

I have responded!

Hey D.W., thanks a lot man, seriously. That post meant a lot and it struck a chord. Know that if ever there is something that takes precedence over updating I won't update--I'm not THAT crazy. But so far there has always been a reason and a call to update. It's not a requirement to update everyday, but it's just worked out that way so far. Thank you, sincerely, for that post though!

And thanks to everyone who has submitted article ideas!

 

[The Count]

Hey Prawny babbbbeeeeeee! *Slaps Ryan.
Just found out there's a new special Food Network SST episode. Since I'll watch it when it airs, I could maybe write up a review of it for the Mindset. Can't promise it'd be handed in Thursday morning for that day's entry, as I've got a wery important family meeting then, but fer sure for Friday. LMK and take care buddy.

 

[theprawncracker]

Hey Prawny babbbbeeeeeee! *Slaps Ryan.
Just found out there's a new special Food Network SST episode. Since I'll watch it when it airs, I could maybe write up a review of it for the Mindset. Can't promise it'd be handed in Thursday morning for that day's entry, as I've got a wery important family meeting then, but fer sure for Friday. LMK and take care buddy.

Sounds terrific, Ed! If you can have it ready for Sesame Street Saturdays that's all I'd need. Thanks pal! Glad to have you contributing!

 

[minor muppetz]

Considering that Muppet Peter Pan #4 has been delayed until later in January and all past Muppet comics (from BOOM!) have been covered on Muppet Comic Mondays, would you like for em to send reviews of the two trade paperbacks (The Muppet Show: Meet the Muppets and Muppet Robin Hood)?

Also, I have thought about maybe writing an article about the comparisons/contrasts between Sesame Street Unpaved, Street Gang, and Sesame Street: A Celebration. Do you think this would make a good article? I don't know when I'll do it, but hopefully soon.

 

[theprawncracker]

Both of those sound like great ideas to me, man! Just write them at your own pace and get them to me whenever you can. Thanks!