Writing a page can be a difficult task, and is rarely done well. This guide exists as advice to take your page from a mediocre deletion candidate to a decent page, that can amass some attention while surviving.
Strategies and Elements
An epigraph is a short quote, saying, or poem at the beginning of your page to summarize it, set a mood, or reveal information otherwise hindered by redactions.
Epigraphs are almost always either a page being hijacked, or the authors quoting somebody (or something). For particularly flowery, poetic, or secretive pages, it can be a supplement to the description.
Here is an example epigraph:
Gazing up at the sunless sky, I trace the points of light above; glimmering memories long lost to us all. In return, the many eyes continue to trace me. Spilling out across the gray-blue and the branches therein, the tapping eternal choir speaks and sings to the streetlights. By the light of the souls, I see my previous lives and theirs further, diminishing and dimming into obscurity, mirrored by the water. My feet glide and step past, failing to keep pace with their slow march. I pass them by, touching down on the dew-soaked fields. The hills roll out far in front of me, never growing larger or smaller, as much as I could try. All is constant, all is quiet, all is lonely. The streetlights, ending in massive branches winding up and up, sway from back and forth in the sounds of the water. The pools spill out, and back in. The thin fog barely concealing the dimmer light rains down and down, a lullaby in all but sound. Nothing is here, and yet so is everything.
In context, the page itself has little description due to redaction. The thing about this epigraph is that it is written by an eyewitness, and nothing is verifiable or unverifiable. This allows a very free and creative writing style. The author knows more than the compilers do, which is what allows it to surpass the description. Being written in 1st person, it fulfills the 3 pillars of a good description from a ground standpoint, able to paint a more vivid image than a simple standardized description.
All that needs to be said in an epigraph is something that makes sense from the author's point of view, and the only limit is the author's experience. This makes epigraphs incredibly powerful for fleshing out enigmatic levels.
Redaction is something that most people frown upon, however it is an integral device in creating logical levels. Redaction does not always mean an SCP-esque massive [REDACTED] tag, or blacked out text, though it can be. It can mean encrypted text, the key to which is locked behind a password system, an entity's interference blocking out crucial information which you can or can not redeem, propaganda from any party involved, or simply information the compilers would be unable to gather.
Nobody will know everything about a level, so redactions are a good way of showing that. Adding password protected segments at the end of levels to reveal redacted information (If it was redacted for safety) can be a nice touch, as well.