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 | This is an essay on article creation. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Starting an article from scratch is hard. Try working on something simpler first. |
Sculpting edit
Let's imagine every single one of the 6,822,761 articles on this Wikipedia as a statue.[a] Every single one is the result of a lot of time and effort, and every single one is unique.
It's much easier to fix a broken statue that already has some structure than to carve a new one from scratch, especially for an inexperienced sculptor. It takes skill to learn how to make a good statue, and you'll probably want to work with other experienced sculptors before jumping in further all by yourself.
Editing edit
This concept applies exactly the same way to Wikipedia articles. Carefully crafting a brand new article is a daunting task, even for many experienced Wikipedians.
Before you dive into the shark-infested waters[b] of article creation, you should get your feet wet with other basic editing tasks. Learning what makes an article great is a necessary step before trying to make one of your own.
In the meantime edit
Before you jump into article creation, start with smaller tasks such as basic copyediting or even cleaning up vandalism. Once you understand how things work around here, you just might consider starting an article on a notable subject.
See also edit
Notes edit
- ^ Credit goes to User:Spicy for the analogy.
- ^ It's not that bad once you get the hang of things, but Wikipedia has policies and guidelines that are pretty important and will be enforced as such.