Konami's "Girl's Side" page.
You have decided to become a game guide editor. So, where do you begin? Let's start with the new guide you'll have to follow along with the one you've already seen.
Requirements
Winzip - A common way people give their guides to you is giving it to you with Winzip. It makes the files small and it's handy.
Notepad and Word - Most guides, if not, all, will be in the format for Notepad. As for Word, you'll need it for corrections.
Knowledge of the game you're working with - This is obvious. Unless you have connections who have played the game you're dealing with, you'll have trouble editing the guide just because you don't know how the game works.
A second editor and more likely a third one - You can and will miss a mistake or two. This is why a second editor is big. Besides, more editors means a better presentation, right?
Side stuff like music - You'll be staring at text for a long time. I hope you have stuff that will keep yourself going for a while.
Now that you got the new subjects, it's time to edit. I hope you are ready to do so many steps as well as knowing tips. It's not a task you can do in an instant. Anyone who says he or she can properly edit a 30 KB guide in under an hour for example is either flat out stubborn or a person who doesn't care about editing execution at all and I'll show you why.
Oh. I better mention this. This guide will not teach you how to make a hyper text markup language (html) version of a guide. They're a pain to do (and I tried doing it once, but I got fed up with it).
As for last words, where do I begin? Unlike editing a script of an anime or manga, you can be in full control. That's the good part about editing a guide. The bad part is that chances are that the creator is hard to contact and adding on, having full control means that you're more likely to mess up.
The steps on editing a game guide
1. The first task you have to do is to copy the text on the guide and place it on a blank document of Word.
2. Once you have done the pasting, use spell check when you have to and be careful on how you use it. Do it for one sentence at a time. If you correct every sentence, you can mess up the original form later on.
3. The same goes for grammar check.
4. Now, have a second checkup.
5. Now, have a second and possibly a third editor to look it over and plan a couple of meetings. Go over the basics. That's all.
6. Look at your work again. See if it will look properly in the end. If not, do more corrections.
7. Have your second (or last) necessary editors discussion. Not only is this a good time to look over the guide again, but this is the time to discuss how the text should be like. Make the best out of it.
8. Do one last checkup.
9. Make the file a Winzip file and give it to the creator.
Tips
* Never ever end a Japanese word with an "s", unless it is after an apostrophe. A lot of people do this mistake, including the high quality ones, but I don't want you to copy them. If you add an "s" without an apostrophe, I'll just say that you don't fully know the language. I don't care if you're just started out or if you're fluent or if Japanese is your native language. I don't recognize you as a master of the language if you add an "s" after a Japanese noun if it's not after an apostrophe. A mediocre edited guide is a much better sight to see than seeing a Japanese noun ending with "s" without an apostrophe, but of course it doesn't mean that you can get away with either mistake. While I'm at it, watch how you pluralize words when you're working with other langauges also.
* NNL says that you should always work with the spelling checker. The spelling checker is a double-edged tool. Yeah, this will catch most spelling errors except for the ones misspelled into correct words, but if you make one correction mistake, you're in trouble. Don't act like it's your savior. Act like it's your assistant partner and check with your partner.
* Try not to use the grammar checker. I've had so many instances in which the sentences don't make sense in the end once I run it. If you must use it, make sure that it's like the spelling checker.
* Capitalization and punctuation: I see that a lot of people don't take time to work on this. Polish these two matters up. Do you notice the text of the commercial releases of games? When a second batch of words come in for one character's speech, the first word is not capitalized unless the first one ended with a punctuation mark. Also, they take time to deal with punctuation marks. While we're on the subject of punctuation marks, don't overlook the semicolon. I encourage you to use it often.
* NNL says that you should not always begin sentences with "then", "so", "and" and "now". For the most part, they're right. You can say, "The wind now has a beautiful feeling" and that's fine by me. The one word or pair of words rather I don't encourage you to start your sentences is "and" and "but". That's how I was taught back in elementary and I still keep that principle to this day.
* When working with Japanese in game guides, for the "because" issue, it is said that the word comes in the middle of the sentence or towards the end. Keep that in mind. While we're on this matter, the same can be said for its related phrases.
* If there is one point I fully disagree with NNL and while we're at it, English grammar, it's the passive voice. (I do loathe this issue with a passion!) By that, I mean redundant sentences to an extent. Yes, it's boring to see passive sentences, but there are people who speak with a passive voice. By reading a translation from someone feeble that happens to sound aggressive when it wasn't in the first place, it feels weird. For the most part, sentences should sound bold and be going straight to the point, but once in a while, experiment with the passive voice.
* I like my subtitles with honorable suffixes. NNL likes them too, but although they don't want to see too much in one line, honestly, this is all up to you.
* Don't insert a naughty word in your translation unless the character is actually saying it. For words that are between acceptable and naughty (and yes, there are words such as these), do role-play. You wouldn't believe how many times I went on to shake my head in disappointment because of groups making the mistake.
* Use world-wide English or the world-wide dialect of your own language. This is not just for myself. This is for people all over the world. Not many people outside of America will be familiar with the dialect from the south for example. For a southern character, you’re on your own, but if the character is not from the southern part of the United States of America, don't put down the southern dialect.
* Don't overlook the little stuff. This means stuff like the kawaii catch calls. If the character says his or her catch call like "Fumiy
n", put down the call!
* Be creative. This relates to the matters I said in the last paragraph.
* Be consistent on name placement. If you go the traditional route, which is what I do all the time, make sure that the last name goes first for characters of the Asian groups that go by this format. If you go the way a lot of Hong Kong actors go when they want to be recognized by people that are not Chinese, keep it that way.
* Think twice if you decide to edit guides that have Japanese Industry Standard codes. You don't know what to expect.
Tricks
* Role-play can either be an easy process or a daunting one. If you can emit different personalities, this should be no problem. If you have trouble doing this, pray to Kami-sama that you edited properly. Oh and if you have had some acting experience, it'll be a big help to you.
Role-play will have you be every single character of the subject that speaks, including the minor ones. You have to keep in mind many matters about the characters. What is his or her personality like? What is his or her nationality? What is his or her favorite color? Yes, you have to even answer questions like that last one and while we are at it, you have to know the voice actor. Though this doesn't work all the time, one voice actor you’ll most likely be comfortable with for example is Ueda Yji-san, as his characters tend to be easy-going and they don't become angry easily. Chances are that the Yji-san character you're working with fits here and that means the speech should be formal or close to it. I should not see so many cussing words in the translation of the character's speech.
Oh yeah. Look the scenario while you're at it. You can't forget that.
* If there is one task I hate about working with guides, it's dealing with the period ellipses or marks with three periods. Why? I tend to stay away from them because they confuse me. I sometimes don't know if I should add a fourth period or stop at three. Come to think of it, even though it is said that it is better to follow up two periods with a question mark or exclamation point than three, I still don't know if that's fully true or not. That is why I tend to stay away from them. If they irritate you also, stay away from them.
* When working with questions that are asked with lots of feeling, in the end, I just put in a question mark, followed by an exclamation point. Some people do it the other way around, but it's better if you do it my way because the statement was a question to begin with.
* I try not to make it a habit to put in more than one exclamation point for exciting statements. If you do this often, put in three of them at the most.
* One of the tasks I regret doing is not using the tilde. If you don't know what it is, you know the curvy line you see above the "n" in some Spanish words? That's a tilde. The tilde expands the sound of the vowel. Try doing it. You can also use a macron or use the vowel so many times, but if you do the latter, make sure that you put in three of the same vowel at most.
* When working with Japanese, if all else fails for the guide, mix a literal translation with some better fitting words.
Last update - 8/10/04