Hey everyone. It's been ages since I've participated in any forum or really had a deep-seated level of passion in interacting with another creative community so I'm excited to be here. First, some basic boilerplate info about me: I currently live in Washington state, just turned forty this past year, I'm male, I'm married to a wonderful wife, and have two incredible daughters. I've been fortunate enough to have a fairly uneventful life apart from the usual stuff that comes with the passage of time. I've worked a variety of jobs/professions including fast food, retail, web design, tech support, construction, architecture, and engineering/medical animation and multimedia projects. However, I've spent the majority of the past fourteen years working in various disciplines as a developer in the game industry with emphasis on the creative side of development but I get my hands dirty in technical work too. I consider myself a life-long casual writer, natural story-crafter, meticulous world builder, and relentless thought experimenter. Of these qualities, writing is what I would consider to be my weakest skill. As you might guess that's why I'm here. Prose and dialogue is what I hope to focus on and development most, but I know I'm going to need to continually sharpen all my tools so I look forward to what I can learn here from either those who've been down this path before or those who are on a similar journey. It's taken me years of introspection and evaluation to realize that I'm a chef who put all of his culinary efforts and passion into the wrong cuisine. I once had high aspirations for the narrative potential and interactive world experiences that might be delivered in the medium of video games but now have come to realize that the landscape of game development as it currently exists is only interested in fast food or candy with very few exceptions. I feel like a chef that's been holding out hopes that one day he'd have the opportunity to make a satisfying and sophisticated full-course meal in the cuisine of game development only to realize that market forces and the complacency of industry standards/conventions won't allow it. I now realize that there is this other cuisine that I've always enjoyed and had a passion for that I could really thrive in - that would allow me to finally make those satisfying full-course meals I've been looking to prepare. Going forward I have to compartmentalize in my mind that working as an artist in the game industry will be like working at the candy shop making sweets and that coming home to work on my writing is where the chef inside me will finally get to find more rewarding work. Even though I can't wait to sprint ahead in order to absorb and share as much as I can there is a realization that I need to treat this journey as a marathon and appropriately modulate my involvement. I still have to work as a full-time artist at the moment as my day job and since the studio I'm working at is currently trying to ship it's first game in the next few months that obligation is going to require more time than I'd like. Still, I'm going to try to jump on here as often as I can to learn and contribute. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm working from home now due to COVID-19 so I'm reclaiming at least a bit of time not having a commute. I hope everyone is staying safe and look forward to interacting with you all soon. Edit: Almost forgot perhaps the most important part; what genre I'm interested in. I'm primarily interested in sci-fi and fantasy. I like to read almost anything, but when it comes to actually writing it's really just these two genres that capture my interest. My first work is actually a sci-fi epic that has actually been in development at different levels of engagement for about twenty-eight years now. It's really the unsung passion project that is my life's work. Can't wait to share more in the near future.
Welcome aboard... I'm 37, so I assume you perhaps grew up coding on some microcomputer. I've had both micros and consoles, though I never became a real gamer, I still have to play my first game of Fortnite. Some of my acquaintances told me stories about working on a game for a whole year, then suddenly their project is cancelled, with their hard work just discarded, thrown away. Must be quite frustrating. Yes, this writing business is a marathon. You've spend a lot of time focused on a single project, what kept you going? Did you finished a first draft, or is it still under construction? There are some published writers on this forum. You might want to read their posts, to have an idea how it is for them, turning into professional writers. I've learned a lot here on this forum. There are also great resources to help you with improving your skills. This situation with the virus is frustrating, but at least we can use this time to read, write and re-evaluate our priorities in life. Life is what you make it, as the song goes. I hope you keep healthy and safe as well.
Thanks for the warm welcome. Yeah. It can be brutal. I've been fortunate enough that most of the titles I've worked on have been published but I've had a few that also never saw the shelves. You'd probably recognize a few of the games I've worked on even if you don't play games but I'm trying to keep my game career separate from my writing career so I'd rather not point them out. I've actually finished several drafts of the first two books in the series and outlined the entire series about three times while working on subplots and everything in between. The thing that keeps me going with this project is that every time I revisit this story, its characters, and its world I'm immediately brought back into it and realize that it's just as potent or more so than from where I left it. It has this timeless quality to it on one hand and also feels slightly prophetic (just good at recognizing and extrapolating patterns) and relevant on the other. There's already hundreds of thousands of words (maybe more?) put into this project but the problem with working on a project like this for twenty-eight years where there are bouts of neglect is that every time I come back to it my writing has improved and the previous drafts make me cringe. I am a perfectionist but I'm also a pragmatist. The real problem I've faced is lack of focus and not making it the priority it needs to be. I needed to adjust my schedule and process if it were to ever have a chance to become real and until recently I hadn't. I also can't understate how demanding my full-time job has been up to this point. I've worked 50-80 hours a week pretty consistently throughout my career and it's not uncommon for me to work 100-120 hour weeks during crunch periods on occasion. I've probably worked more hours at the age of forty than many people have by the time they're sixty. This has left little to no time for writing. At this point I've decided I'm willing to let my game career atrophy and sacrifice any opportunity for vertical mobility in order to get this project done.
Hi, Transcendent Traveler! I’m one of the forum moderators, and I want to give you my orientation speech. Welcome to the forum! You sound as if you know exactly why you're here, and have already not only had experience crafting stories for the game world, but you've been able to dive straight in to writing a couple of books ...and you've got a fair amount of these projects already underway. So you'll have created a lot of raw material to work with. It's great that you seem so unafraid and open to new experiences ...because there is nothing to fear about writing. It's the most risk-free activity I can think of, really. Nobody needs to see it—or even know you're doing it—but you. And you don't need to show it around till you're ready. Anyway, back to the forum.... In order to help you get oriented and get settled, here are a couple of links I strongly recommend that you read at the start, if you haven’t already. They will give you a good idea of how we operate here on the forum: New Member Quick Start Forum Rules You will notice in the New Member Quick Start that in order to post your work in the Workshop area—the only area of the forum where you are allowed to post your work for feedback—you will need to do at least two critiques for other people, in exchange for receiving feedback on one of your own pieces of work. This 2:1 ratio lasts as long as your membership here. In order to help you get started doing critiques, here is a link to a good article written by one of our former moderators: https://www.writingforums.org/threads/constructive-critiques.20627/ One of the popular areas of our forum is our contest section. There is a monthly contest running for Short Stories, Flash Fiction and Poetry. You can enter these ongoing contests, even as a new member. And we really encourage you to visit the site, read the current entries, and vote for your favourite when the voting period starts. This means a lot to the people who have written these entries. And it will also give you a good idea of what our members are capable of writing. https://www.writingforums.org/writing-contests/ While the Role Playing Game section is not new, it’s being given a revamp. So if you are interested in playing Role Playing Games with other members here, you might want to visit this section and get in on the fun. https://www.writingforums.org/threads/resurrecting-the-dead-rpg-section-rebuild.165055/ I hope you have fun getting to know us and let us get to know you, via the posts you make. Please feel free to explore the forum. There is a lot under the hood. This site map might help you find your way around more quickly than the menu bars do, so feel free to use it. https://www.writingforums.org/faq/ If you encounter any difficulties, don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other moderators, whose names appear in yellow at the bottom of the Community page. We will be glad to help. Again, welcome! Cheers for now, Jan
Thanks for the welcome and information Jan! I imagine it might be a while still before I'm comfortable enough to participate in the Workshop but it's good to anticipate the expectations ahead of time. I'm looking forward to using these forums as a resource as much as possible in the future and hopefully I can contribute as well. Best regards.
You might want to check out our Workshop area, to see what other people are putting there for feedback. They will certainly appreciate any feedback you can give them. You don't have to be an expert. Just tell them what you think of their offering, and be specific as to why. You don't need to try to fix anything that doesn't work for you. Just let them know what doesn't work, and why. That's the best way to get your foot in the door here, to make friends AND get your critique quota built up.
Oh, so you're not really a chef? Dang... thought somebody had a restaurant question for a moment. (Sigh)
Chefs are children. I'm a general manager. I keep chefs from pooping their pants, losing their mittens, and crying when they drop their ice cream cones. The latter is not an exaggeration.
