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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1328218" data-attributes="member: 9410">My Experience:A Word of Advice: Do your homework, first, but DON'T WAIT!  Write right NOW, and then submit!  There is absolutely no reason to put it off!  "Someday" is TODAY!...  (Now stop staring at the screen and go write something!)First I read, extensively.  I also went to school, studied harder than most of my peers, and did a whole heap of a lot of hard work.  Then I gamed when I could, and did my dead-level best at that, too.  I learned what I could from the people I played with... sometimes what to do, sometimes what not to.Then I started my own Web site, and did a lot of writing on that, including making up some new rules.  Eventually, a magazine contacted ME, asking if I would rewrite some of the articles on my site for their mag!  (This is, basically, unheard of, as a way to break into the business...  Don't wait for it to happen!)Meanwhile, I had written a few articles and submitted them to The Dragon (now Dragon magazine), who has rejected EVERYTHING I have ever submitted!  I kept at it, though.  After a while, I was able to get almost anything I submitted published with certain mags (I believe they call that "establishing rapport")!  In fact, the last article that I got published was the one Jesse Decker turned down for Dragon just before 3.5e was released!Currently, I am working on an article, and have just submitted some weapons to one of those Open Calls everyone is talking about...So how did I "train myself" to be a writer?  First, I read, to see how it was done, and find a style that I liked...  Then I wrote.  While I did take Creative Writing in High School and College (and minored in Writing, at University), that is the only "official" training that I have had.  All the rest has been self-tought.In other words, any well-read, reasonably-well-educated, self-motivated fool can do what I did, if he is willing to do the work, himself.As a Writer?  I feel perfectly comfortable.  I have written since I was five, fer cryin' out loud!  I never got PAID for it until 15+ years after that, but then, I wasn't very good when I got started, either!I have more experience, now...  And not just in Writing, either.  My last article was on Tracking.  Most people have never tracked.  I have...  A firend of mine (who is a Professional Writer - that is to say, that's ALL he does, and makes his living at it) always says "Write what you know!"...  So I tend to write about Survival... and Rangers, and gaming!...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />All I demand is that I maintain Copyrights on what I write.  With some magazines, this is a problem.  With most others, it is not.  I tend not to write for the ones with the problems.That's the only way to go, for you, then.  No way you'll have control over all of that, otherwise.  Especially advertising.  (Can you see WotC handing over control of their Ad campaign to you?)That depnds.  Too many variables.  I have a book that I have been working on since about 1984...  Of course, I haven't had a computer for most of that time, and the game system is long out of print, and the manuscript was boxed (and lost) in the last move, and I am otherwise unmotivated to finish it, except as a Labor of Love for my Web site...So I guess motivation is the key.  You'll finish it if you're driven to (by self-motivation, or a nasty editor) more than you're driven to other things.  If you're unmotivated to finish, it may never happen.Finding a project that you want to do helps.  A LOT!With someone I don't know?  Not very.  With a good friend who works as hard as I do?  Fine...  Also, I would be better off collaborating with someone on a project that I do NOT care much about...  If it is "my baby", I would be more worried about "minor" changes.One person has to "ride herd" on all the Writers, and decide when to "ride'm in" and "cut'em out".Best of luck, and welcome to the boards!</blockquote>

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