Locations
Good Magic writing is like pornography—I can't really describe what it is, but I know it when I see it. The fact of the matter is that for every great article written about the game, there is most often a good writer, a great premise, and a great editor. A great writer helps but is not necessary. You won't, however, ever manage a great article without a great editor. That is my very firm belief. Editors are the unsung heroes of the business, often being overworked and overshadowed. I think it's time that the great editors finally receive a bit more notice.
To that end, I have gathered a group of exemplary editors after polling writers I know and also by going with my go-to Hail Mary pass by using my ask-people-on-Twitter lifeline. Without further preamble because I want to talk about them and not my process, I present “Who to Follow – Editorial Edition.”
I am going to cheat a little bit up front because there was someone who received quite a few votes both via e-mail and on Twitter, and when I brought up the concept of eligibility, the feedback was overwhelmingly, “Can't you do whatever you want?” and since I totally can, I am going to just refresh your memories with what I wrote in the very second installment of this series. Eligible, schmeligible; Trick is a favorite of a lot of writers over the years, and if he were editing this piece, after he took out the phrase “eligible, schmeligible” and fixed my comma usage, he would probably say something humble and credit the people he's had write for him over the years as being consummate professionals. I'm all about throwing curveballs, so here he is again.
Patrick “Trick” Jarrett
Where You Know Him From: His contributions to GatheringMagic and ManaNation or his current role . . .
Current Title: Editor-In-Chief of DailyMTG.com
Social Media:
Where would GatheringMagic be without the man who launched ManaNation? Though he’s moved on to big-ger and better things as DailyMTG.com Editor-In-Chief, he is among the most prolific content providers. Doing the work of any two mortal men (hence the need for two Twitter accounts, obviously), Trick can be found al-most anywhere, from his personal website/blog to sites such as Reddit.com, where he’ll occasionally link inter-esting content. Don’t make the mistake of not following at least the Magic-related Twitter account, as he is not shy about chiming in with interesting information during discussions. Hardworking, in-sightful, and endlessly giving of himself, Trick is a one-man content machine. If you’re not following him every-where you can, you’re going to miss something big.
Mike McArtor
Where You Know Him From: DailyMTG
Current Title: DailyMTG Copy Editor
Social Media:
One issue with trying to find a picture of people who mostly edit (not that Mike is not an accomplished writer—make sure to check out his archived writing) is that it's difficult to find a good picture of them. Luckily, Mike uses a picture of himself and his pet chickens, shown here, giving the closest thing to a hug you're likely to get from a pet chicken.
Mike is often mentioned in the same breath as Trick Jarrett, which I take as quite an endorsement. With years of experience, McArtor either has the exact same name as someone who was an editor at Paizo Publishing or that was a job of his as well as assistant editor at Dragon magazine. Those are serious geek creden-tials—Dragon is among the premiere fantasy gaming publications, and Paizo makes Pathfinder.
It's tough to really demonstrate the contributions of truly great editors, but the number of respected members of the community and nearly every writer on DailyMTG polled had nothing but respect and admiration for Mike. He's a big part of DailyMTG, he comes highly recommended, and I am proud if I can bring some modicum of appreciation from the community at large to someone who toils behind the scenes to make sure the product you read is the highest possible quality, and if Wizards trusts him to work on DailyMTG, you should trust him to add value to your Twitter feed.
@HobbesQ You're playing Bird tribal. You already win. The outcome of the games matters less. ;)
— Mike McArtor (@MKMEdits) December 17, 2013
@samstod Do you prefer your coworkers send you silly questions for your article over email instead of Twitter?
— Mike McArtor (@MKMEdits) December 13, 2013
I don't know why exactly I RT Rosewater. If you're following me for Magic info and not him you're doing it wrong.
— Mike McArtor (@MKMEdits) December 13, 2013
I think this article wins the award for Most Open Tabs. Lots to look up and link to. It's pretty epic!
— Mike McArtor (@MKMEdits) December 12, 2013
Tonight I stop trolling the COTD readers and finally put up a card with the actual devotion mechanic: http://t.co/NdKHXL7O5T ;)
— Mike McArtor (@MKMEdits) December 6, 2013
Danny Brown
Where You Know Him From: QuietSpeculation
Where You Don't Know Him From: Brainstorm Brewery
Social Media:
QuietSpeculation Archives (subscription required)
Between Danny's work on QuietSpeculation being behind the paywall—which is a shame sometimes—and his behind-the-scenes work at the newly-launched Brainstorm Brewery content website, Danny may be one of the lesser-known editors working in Magic writing these days, but last is certainly not least. Danny singlehandedly keeps the site running and embodies all of the good qualities of a perfectionist and none of the bad ones. Keep an eye on my Twitter for an unlocked article from Danny in the next week so you can see the kind of value he brings to the finance community with his writing as well. Danny does not have nearly as many Twitter followers as his talent deserves, and many of the people who do follow him unfollow as soon as they realize he isn't the same Danny Brown who is a magician. Seriously, this is the second time I tried to do a Who to Follow about someone whose name, when I Googled it with “Magic,” returned a bunch of YouTube videos of the person doing sleight of hand. He's not an actual magician, but he does sure work some Magic on the website! There needs to be a font for jokes that I think are funny because of how lame they are. If there were such a font, I'm sure Danny would be aware of it because he's good at his job.
@TrickMTG Hey Trick, does Daily MTG have a style guide that can be shared with the public? I am very interested in getting a copy if I can.
— Danny Brown (@dbro37) December 13, 2013
@MarcelMTG Oh, being an editor is sweet. I just tend to get pre-occupied with small details that basically nobody else notices
— Danny Brown (@dbro37) December 12, 2013
For example, I've come to realize that I don't like ellipses. There is almost always punctuation that does a better job. #editingnerd
— Danny Brown (@dbro37) December 12, 2013
Is it highly taboo to get four tacos, one-of-each meat, at @ChipotleTweets? Every time I do, I get attitude like I'm the worst person ever
— Danny Brown (@dbro37) November 19, 2013
In addition to these gentlemen and the editors I will mention in Part 2, I also want to mention a few members of the GatheringMagic team. Adam Styborski, Andrew Wilson, and Carlos Gutierrez all have the unenviable task of trying to prepare this article and the less unenviable task of preparing the other articles on this site for publi-cation. They do everything from fixing errors to making it pretty enough for our valued readers to promoting the article and the others on the site. This article would be a total disaster without their hard work, and they deserve something like a round of applause, but less intangible.
That does it for me this week. Join me in 2014 for more Who to Follow goodness.
