Matchsticks and Gasoline: We Want You (To Write With Us)

I mentioned this in the Going Forward piece yesterday, but here's a bit of the other big news (we've still got one more surprise for later in the offseason): we're looking to add to our writing staff. Who are we looking to add to it? Why, you of course!
We'll be modeling the contest off a similar one that In Lou We Trust did last summer, though we're not necessarily looking for 3 writers (though depending on submissions, you never know).

After the jump- what we're looking for and from whom.

What We Want In A Writer:

1. You must, above all other things, be a Calgary Flames fan. While we might criticize the team or front office when it is appropriate, a simple look at the gamethreads will tell you we are dedicated passionate fans. We expect no less from anyone interested in writing here.

2. Communication is key. This is important on several levels, the first being the obvious "capable writer" level. The second level is someone who's able to respond to emails on a regular basis, will let us know if they're not going to be able to write for a while, etc. 

3. Engage the community. Stick around for gamethreads, talk back and forth in the comments, etc. We love discussion here. Nobody agrees with everyone else 100% of the time. 

4. Have a sense of humor! While we’re not a comedy blog, we do take time for jokes and Olli Jokinen dances. Being a hockey writer should be fun.

5. Be consistent. We'd like to bring someone aboard who contributes regularly. This doesn't mean you need to write every day or anything- once a week would be wonderful. This also ties into communication; we're not looking for someone who doesn't writing anything for stretches of time- at least without giving us a heads up.

6. Be cool with advanced stats. You don't have to write with them or even like them, but be aware that pretty much all of us use them extensively and we'd rather not have someone yelling in every post about how they're ruining the game of hockey or some such nonsense.

How To Become a Writer

1. Write something. It can be basically anything Flames related, but try and keep it to a topic not recently covered here. No minimum or maximum word count, but you want it to be both in-depth and readable.

2. Email it to me. Don't fanpost it or write it elsewhere and fanshot it. We want the submissions to be posted anonymously, so you'll have to email it and let me post it.

3. Make sure you're a registered user. Pretty easy.

4. In the email, make sure you list your username! We need to know who you are, even if we're keeping the postings anonymous for the voting.

Oh- and follow the spiffy new Writing Guidelines posted yesterday.

How the Selection Works

Once all the entries are posted (you get two weeks to submit them ending on the 6th of August at midnight) we'll put up a voting poll with links to each submission. This will be about half of the input on who gets picked; the other half will be Hayley and myself (and maybe the other writers) discussing it.

I hope to see a lot of you submit pieces!

by Arik Knapp