April 2012
3 posts
7 tags
GJx2: my worries and fears.
I thought I’d take a little time to talk about the game jam that starts tomorrow. The one I volunteered to take part in, organised a logo-production for, contributed to the Google Group for, and, of course, the one I’m writing a weekly column on at Gamers with Jobs.
In short, it’s the day before, and I am really stressing out.
I’m not a game designer - I could find...
The point where I stop forcing myself.
So, for ages, I’ve been going on and on about writing two books, and getting them published, and doing all this stuff that’s basically going to take up every goddamn weekend and evening forever with no immediately foreseeable reward.
Stuff it.
Instead, I’m going to focus on my career, my life, and while continuing to contribute to the odd thing, I’m going to just...
Update.
Right, so, I’ve got a ton of catching up to do, I know, so I thought I’d kinda hash things out with you people. At the moment I am:
Looking forward to seeing my name on the shelf at Forbidden Planet in June.
Working on a few new sites.
Working on a novel.
Moving towards hosting everything from my blog to other stuff over at an entirely new domain that will encompass everything a...
February 2012
10 posts
Update time, re: AYWT.
I’ve done no work on it this week, because I’ve had a lot of stuff that’s been more important. Some of that was sleeping. But I know that I’ve got a lot more editing ahead of me than I previously realised, and that in fact, this book could well get significantly longer. So, that’s good. I’ll keep you posted - not abandoning, just got a lot to do.
5 tags
AYWT: The Edit, day four.
Today, I got some more charting of the plot done, and some feedback from a couple of chapter one beta readers. The feedback was great, and helpful. Also means I might be restoring a decent chunk of the opening chapter that I nixed after a BookCountry reviewer convinced me to can it.
Now, I’m going to finish The Social Network (I watch this film quite a bit) and get some sleep. Hopefully by...
5 tags
AYWT: The Edit, day three.
Today, I sent out my first chapter to a bunch of people I know whose opinions I’d be interested in reading. They’re all writers, but not all of them write fiction - some of them just happen to read books. I’ll be watching their reactions closely, because I’d love to see how non-fiction-writer people react to it, as I have a feeling they’ll be less nitpicking. Then...
Remodelling Dark Souls →
This was a piece I wrote about Dark Souls, in which I basically attack its treatment of narrative and its souls-as-a-currency mechanic. It got people talking, and I really enjoy throwing a spanner in the works of people who enjoy a game without nit-picking it the way I sometimes like to do.
Not that those people are flawed, in any way - I like just enjoying a game for what it is. But when going...
5 tags
AYWT: The Edit, day two.
Today I got nothing done at all, because I slept so badly last night that I’m physically exhausted. I know some people are HARDCORE WRITERS but I’m not an idiot and prefer taking care of myself. The wonders of having a day-job, I guess. I’m consciously aware of the fact that it piles more work onto me, but that’s okay. I just need to take things one step at a time and...
5 tags
An uneasy sense of self-confidence
Going back to a novel after four months fills me with two sensations - uneasiness (about how good it will be), and dread (because once I’m done with something I really don’t enjoy going back - a pretty major flaw in a writer).
When I went back to AYWT - I’ll talk about the title when it’s done - I discovered that not only was it actually pretty solid in structure (although...
6 tags
AYWT: The Edit, day one.
Sigh.
I love writing, but I don’t like editing. I enjoy it, but usually only if it’s me sat with a printed version and a pen, or reading it out loud (this is really effective, as you’ll stumble over your mistakes). Looking at a document in Word and realising I’ve got to rewrite huge chunks of the book is daunting at best, and depressing, at worst.
But it’s got to be...
CY & J.: CY & J.: #11: Twenty questions, part two. →
cyandj:
Happy Sunday, peeps. This week’s episode (our eleventh!) is the second of two - because the recording was so long we thought we’d split it up into two chunks at around regular length. We each asked each other ten questions, based around each other and our gaming thoughts and habits. This week’s…
Another one I enjoyed, this time with a happier finish.
3 tags
How to lose friends and alienate employees
A magazine publishing house are making some money, and, according to their founder, quite a lot of money - “the same as Facebook’s”, he says of their net profit margin. His bragging is a problem, for several reasons.
He isn’t paying the writers enough. In fact, some of them aren’t even paid at all! Isn’t that wonderful. Well, I’m glad that while...
6 tags
Update: Feburary, 2012
Something of a personal update, today - I wanted to bring you a post yesterday on something I feel strongly about, but it involves various stupid things I tend to do as often as the people I criticise, and I’d rather publish nothing at all than utter hypocrisy.
I’m working through the last stages of the RPG project this week, for a final deadline that is approaching at a reasonable...
January 2012
20 posts
Choose Your Own Misadventure
Last year, I published, having spent months working alongside a programmer, a choose-your-own-adventure app for Android, called Scoundrel’s Cross. It had taken some time, I had done the press for it, we had a review in PocketGamer (a five out of ten, and I’ll explain that soon), and I’d even blogged about writing it for the renown Terribleminds blog, owned and operated by one...
6 tags
CY & J.: CY & J.: #10: Twenty questions, part one. →
cyandj:
Happy Sunday, peeps. This week’s episode (our tenth!) is the first of two - because the recording was so long we thought we’d split it up into two chunks at around regular length. We each asked each other ten questions, based around each other and our gaming thoughts and habits. This week’s…
This first half was harder than the first, mainly because I had to talk about my...
5 tags
How to judge stand-up and podcast humour
Step one: download said stand-up or podcast.
Step two: listen to it on public transport.
If it’s funny, you’ll look like a nutter, laughing at something no one can see or hear.
For bonus points, wear a hat that hides your headphones.
/facepalm
8 tags
In Favour of iBook Author
This post is about something that irritates the living hell out of me, almost as much as people who see ebooks as a bad and terrible thing, despite the fact that they have got so many people reading who wouldn’t normally read.
It’s called iBook Author, and some people don’t like it.
At first, it was pure, unbridled stupidity, relentless in its ignorance. “What? We...
Agony, or how to not write too much at once
Currently, I am knee-deep in one of the most engaging and important projects of my writing career. There’s no “maybe” about penning prose and game design for this particular piece - without a doubt, my words are in that book and on shelves by the summer. It brings with it a curious kind of focus, a knowledge that this is your task and you’d better get it done. And yet, I...
Haiku #1: Writing
Writing is sometimes
Playing a game of chicken
With all of your fears
CY & J: #9: SOPA and PIPA. →
cyandj:
You may notice that this episode is completely silent. In fact, it’s silent for all sixty minutes of its length. The reason for this is because although we can’t manage the blackout as easily, for a podcast, this is the nearest equivalent.
You can learn all about SOPA and PIPA here. The…
This is the podcast I host, and my contribution to all the crazy what the hell stuff...
Why Some Writers Get Mad
I had a conversation on Twitter today that mainly revolved around a well-known writer (we’ll call him George) disagreeing with the opinion of a writer (we’ll call him Bob) working for a site that has, shall we say, something of a bad reputation amongst writers who work hard at trying to raise the reputation of their craft above “smut peddler”.
Bob stated that readers want...
On Writing For Free
When I was a student, I was offered the job opportunity of a lifetime.
I had gotten in touch with IGN UK after running into one of their staff at a games convention, and asked about a work experience placement. Thrillingly, they not only said yes, but actually offered me my entire uni summer - three months - at their offices in central London. As a budding young games journalist, this was a...
Bound to happen
vicemag:
The Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator
US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA, as I’m sure you know, is the shady bill that will introduce way harsher penalties for companies and individuals caught violating copyright laws online (including making the unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime...
7 tags
Rewrites #1: Halo 4
Today, I was briefly tweeting about Halo 4, the much-anticipated sequel to a trilogy of games surrounding Master Chief, a superhuman future warrior who battles against an evil alliance of aliens. My god, it sounds corny when I put it like that. Well, I guess it is, really.
However, my tweet went as follows:
“It’d be cool if Halo 4 was the indie game Master Chief created for something...
“The bigger the word, the less emotion it conveys.”
– Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story
:(. Or, How To Stay Motivated as a Writer
Everyone has bad days.
Sometimes, your day is worse than most of the days you’ve had so far. Sometimes, it can rank up there with the day people died, on the scale of one to kill-me-now. Everyone dislikes feeling sad, and one of the things that make writers such different individuals is how that sadness motivates or demotivates them.
For some, feeling down can put them in the right place...
25 Tips for the Young Games Journalist
colincampbellx:
13. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
Avoid public debates on ‘The Dismal State of Games Journalism’. You think you’re smarter than everyone else? How fascinating. State your case through your work, not through tiresome, self-aggrandizing editorials.
Out of all his points, this is the one I disagree with as strongly as the “long-term freelancers must be weird little creatures” one. I...
Books for children should be weird.
A friend of mine is thinking of writing a children’s book. An intelligent and talented graphic designer, he’s keen on the idea of taking his talents and applying them to a book I can only describe as seriously bizarre in concept. But it’s also the most intriguing book idea I’ve seen in a while, because while it’s for kids, it’s extremely weird.
Is this the...
Vox Games.
gamejournos:
“I left a place I loved, a place filled with writers and editors I deeply respect, to do this. But I didn’t leave Kotaku to create Kotaku. Why bother? That’s already done. I left to try something new, something exciting and hopefully something that can deliver an experience everyone will love diving into as much as we love creating it.”
—
Subcathoin: The Next Big Thing (Brian...
Why I am sick of writing advice.
Short version: because it’s the same advice regurgitated, day after day, year after year.
Long version:
When I was first starting out as both a journalistic and creative writer (which is basically the same thing for quite a lot of journalists, unfortunately), I couldn’t get enough of writing advice. Everything from how to write dialogue to how to structure your sentences was valuable...
My goals, this year.
So, this year, I’m no less ambitious, but I’m a lot more organised and driven to get things done. I turn twenty-four this year, which for many of you is probably quite young, but for me is the age at which I Should Have Done Something. So, my checklist for this year is the following five projects:
Contributing to the latest supplement for a popular tabletop RPG.
Writing novel one.
...
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
2012.
So, after a farcical delay, I have returned. It’s been a weird twelve months, full of new projects, old projects, and in particular, one new project that will see my name (along with the names of my colleagues) on bookshop shelves by the summer. That’s definitely the coolest one, out of all the writing-related events of 2011.
Author Stephen Blackmoore asked people following him on Twitter what...