The YD way!

     Most writers who wish to write for the Youth Diaries ask us; what's our criteria for selecting their article, story or poems. Getting content on YD is not a competition. It's about how much the write-up can grab the reader's attention or engage them or inspire them. From our past experiences following were a few points that affect readers on our magazine:

• Length: We learnt it the hard way; but we realized unless the content is extremely gripping from the first paragraph and it maintains this intriguing character throughout; the write up shouldn't exceed more than 600 words.
• Writing Style: The writing style should be such that it aligns itself with the readers' thought process. It could be inspiring and awe-striking; but towards the end if it makes the reader think about doing or not doing what has been written about, the objective of YD is achieved.  For eg: If anyone wishes to write about his travel to Jain Temples in MP; it should make the readers excited about traveling to the Jain Temples themselves.
• Content: Well; our belief is that the content can be about anything: social issues, entertainment, entrepreneurship, economic, travel, fashion, anything as long as it is able to align itself with the youth's thought process.

      When we started YD; we knew that we have to provide a platform to writers, photographers, and short film-makers. But then a question arose in our mind; 'will all the writing enthusiasts be able to come up with an engaging content'. That's where we realized that we need to mentor the writers also; in terms of generating content which may flow in sync with the Youth's thought process and at the same time the essence of the topic chosen is not lost. Blogging about it is not the best way to mentor; but it surely the best way to reach out to an audience of writers at large. 

What is TalEx (Version 2.0)? :P

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can see a long post with an interrelated diagram of customer pointing to a logo, and logo to a talent sharing platform. That was a very confused undergrad student trying to explain his idea to the world, which he thought was always in an awe for a complex business plan. We are still confused; but today we want to let out a definition which has been integral to each and every one of us at some point of time.

TalEx is a confused eighteen year old Indian's dream. At eighteen years we want to be a rockstar who sings out his miseries, a poet who writes for his love or an artist who wants the world to see more than their rational pursuits. There is one common pursuit in all of them though! They want to be recognized. 


So TalEx is realization of this dream; through a talent sharing platform (www.talexindia.in), youth magazine (www.youthdiaries.in), and merchandise to feel more social in this not so social world. Tal-Ex is Talent Exploration, a voyage which has no boundaries and has most rebellious and revolutionary instincts. 


History:
  TalEx was born; when its core team members realized that their eighteen year old dreams will be better served, if they work together on their dreams. Even though some of us are 22 and 24; we can't get away from our rockstar dreams. At a personal level; we want to write novels, play up on the stage, direct movies, design to our customer's sentiments, and want our crushes to acknowledge us  as someone whom they would be proud of; and love us for our courage. ;)

Using the TalEx resources

When we first started off with collecting photographs on our TalEx India fanpage and site; we thought we would provide a platform to the photographers through exhibitions and competitions. However, due to constraints on budget just like any other start-up; starting from zero rupees we thought that it may not be feasible. So time went on, and we practically didn't realize much on what to do with these digital photographs of low resolution apart from providing them visibility through our social media marketing.

Then in January we launched The Youth Diaries (www.youthdiaries.in), keeping in mind the interest of the writers. Today, it has acquired a prominent platform among other youth magazines in India; and as a serendipity we found how we can leverage the talent of the photographers on our network. It is our perception that a photograph's art is better understood by the viewer, if he has something to with which he can relate to. It's through the articles written in vibrant genres that we publish the most relevant photograph along with it. From what we expect and hope; is that the readers may a better perception and attachment to the story or article through the photographs that we publish side by side each write-up.

Thanks to all the photographers in our network, and thanks for tagging us through hundreds of photographs of different genre; we never fall short of a photograph for a write-up no matter which genre it may belong to. This is precisely, what we meant by organizing User Generated Content on web.  \m/

Photograph Credits: Ashik M Patel (page link)