Sean K Reynolds on getting into the RPG industry

[Wulf Ratbane]

Stupid, editors.

Heh... I'm waiting for some half-baked journalism editor to come in and tell me you don't even need the comma.

"Wasted space!"

Wulf

 

[BiggusGeekus]

It's nice to know I'm not the only writer who gets hounded over using 'too many' semicolons.

Damnit, semicolons are God's own punctuation. Editors need to get with the program.

I like using semicolons; they make me feel smart.

 

[DaveMage]

http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/getanindustryjob.html

I think it's really great of Sean to post things like this.

His advice/thoughts are always a must read for those interested in the industry.

 

[The Sigil]

It's nice to know I'm not the only writer who gets hounded over using 'too many' semicolons.

Damnit, semicolons are God's own punctuation. Editors need to get with the program.

That's odd. When I was taking C++ courses, my Visual C++ Editor was always dinging me for NOT using semicolons...

BA-DUMP! CRASH

Thank you, thank you... I'm here all week...

--The Sigil

 

[Mouseferatu]

It's nice to know I'm not the only writer who gets hounded over using 'too many' semicolons.

Damnit, semicolons are God's own punctuation. Editors need to get with the program.

Pfah! You have not truly been chastised for using too many semicolons until you have suffered under the lash of Justin Achilli for doing so.

(And I'm right there with you, with my love of semicolons. En-dashes, too.)

 

[ThirdWizard]

That's odd. When I was taking C++ courses, my Visual C++ Editor was always dinging me for NOT using semicolons...

BA-DUMP! CRASH

Thank you, thank you... I'm here all week...

--The Sigil

Alright, after that, someone needs a little time alone with some VB.

 

[Mytholder]

Pfah! You have not truly been chastised for using too many semicolons until you have suffered under the lash of Justin Achilli for doing so.

I see your Justin and raise you a Geoff Grabowski.

 

[Jonny Nexus]

I see your Justin and raise you a Geoff Grabowski.

Sorry, is one not truly a "writer" until one has had one's semi-colons forcibly removed by an eraser wielding editor?

I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever had a semi-colon criticised*. Then again, I'm not sure I've ever used one...



*Of course, my use of semi-colons might be the *only* aspect of my writing that I've never had criticised.

 

[Jonny Nexus]

I think it's really great of Sean to post things like this.

His advice/thoughts are always a must read for those interested in the industry.

Well I'm not sure how relevent this is, but my route into (admittedly minor) freelancing in the RPG industry basically boiled down to:

1) Do an Internet fanzine for a few years.

2) Go the pub after a convention and get chatting with a guy from an RPG publishing company who liked my fanzine.

3) Send his company an email suggesting stuff I could do.

The RPG fanzine route was actually something James Wallis suggested at a talk he gave at the Killercon convention in '99 as a way to getting into the industry. Basically his plan involved self publishing stuff on the net, using that to get a reputation*, and then approaching games companies.

Although I had already started my fanzine, it was still very early days, and James's talk really inspired me to continue - which I'll always be very grateful to him for.


* I use reputation in the broadest sense of the word here, with no implication that it necessarily be a "good" reputation.