The New Year is a time for looking both back and forward, for seeing how you’ve done and making plans for doing better.
One of my resolutions this year (as I mentioned before) is to make regular updates to this site. So far, so good, although the year’s just starting now, so we’ll have to see how it all plays out.
This week, I have something to help some of you out there with a possible resolution: to become a published writer. Earlier this year, Anna M. Dobritt asked me to write an essay about being a freelancer in the adventure games industry. She published it in the apparently short-lived RPG Freelancers Guide, but I’m making it available to you now for free.
I often get asked how to break into the adventure games industry as a freelancer and what you need to do once you’re there. (I wrote a feature article on this once in the early days of InQuest (Gamer) Magazine.) “The Freelancing Life” is a short and sweet answer. Enjoy!
December 31st, 2003 at 6:43 am
Nice essay, Matt. I think that this, along with your essay in Horsemen of the Apocalypse (or whatever the title of that book was), should be required reading for existing freelancers as well as the wannabes.
It’s hard to stress how important discipline and meeting deadlines is to the success of a freelancer. Hell, even with a staff position discipline and meeting deadlines is important. It’s sometimes far too easy to miss a deadline when you’re dealing with a dozen other “A” priority projects. And the web can be far too tempting a toy at times. Especially when a co-worker e-mails you the link to play Qix in Flash.
December 31st, 2003 at 10:52 am
Thanks, Phil. I try to be deadline oriented myself, although I’ve let more of them slip a bit in the past two years than ever before, mostly due to the fact that my home life has become more demanding. Still, when I think I’m going to let something slip, I talk with my editor right away. Nothing bothers an editor more than a writer turtling up. Most editors are smart enough to build in a bit of padding to their schedule, which means you can have a bit of wiggle room if you ask for it.
December 31st, 2003 at 1:32 pm
Great essay, Matt. I think one of the more salient points is near the end where you discuss the loneliness of the job. Figuring out how to balance freelancing and getting out to socialize is a tough one, and chatting online with friends just doesn’t cut it.
There are days when I don’t want to read another email or visit another webpage, but that seems to be the only “human” contact I get during the day, so I keep at it.
I’ve been full-time freelancing for just over a year now, and I think I’m just now starting to get into the groove of it. It’s a tough road, and unlike anything I’ve ever done, but I can finally see myself reaching a comfortable space and I hope to be producing games for a long time.
December 31st, 2003 at 1:55 pm
Spot on, Matt. I’d strongly emphasize to any potential new freelancers that read Matt’s essay to look realisticly at their ability to produce text. When a publisher tells you they would like a 128 page book on a given subject, do you know how many words that is and more importantly, how fast can you produce said words? I think freelancers often fail to hit deadlines because they aren’t aware just how fast they write and so, commit to jobs that they cannot finish.
It’s o.k. if you don’t write as fast as Matt or that writing machine, Mearls, by the by.
If you know you can only write 10,000 words a month however, freelancing is not going to be your career, but it could still make a fun sideline - and these days, a number of reputable publishers are planned out far enough in advance that work you do for them won’t come out for a year+ anyway.
December 31st, 2003 at 10:17 pm
Hi Will and TS:
Thanks for dropping by. TS has a good point about writing speed. I wrote an article about that for someone once, breaking down how to judge whether you think you can make the leap to full-timer or not. I’ll have to see if I can dig that up.
January 2nd, 2004 at 9:37 am
Great article! Your advice on deadlines is particularly insightful.
January 8th, 2004 at 11:17 am
Matt,
I couldn’t agree more with just about everything you wrote in this great article. I particularly wanted to concur about both the issue of punctuality and lonliness.
I have always harped on getting assignments in on time (especially since I’ve been on the other side of that freelancer-publisher wall), because I know how few designers actually hit said deadline. We’re creative people by nature, and we have a tendency to work odd hours, tinker (as you mentioned), and get bogged down in design-think from time to time, so running late is a common occurance. But publishers suffer all sorts of headaches when their designers (whether in-house or freelance) miss deadlines, and they DO notice people who are prompt and professional; it really does make a difference.
That’s not to say that pros are immune to the problem. In the past 18 months, I’ve missed more deadlines than I care to admit. Yes, there were lots of extenuating circumstances (my mother passed away two Novembers ago and my wife gave birth to my third son, and I’m still trying to catch up from those setbacks AND figure out how to work enough hours each day with a 15-month-old toddler in the house who’s into everything), but there’s only so much sympathy a publisher can offer. Those businesses still need to get projects out to the door and to the printers on time, and I’ve been letting them down far too much lately. So one of my New Year’s resolutions is to get my own act together and hit all my deadlines in 2004. We’ll see how it turns out.
The other issue, one of solitary confinement, is something few freelancers realize until they’ve been in the industry for a while. Human contact is at a premium, and I strongly recommend that anyone who intends to try their hand at this business full time put together a schedule that includes some social time. Whether it’s staying active with a gaming group, or joining the local indoor soccer league, or simply going and spending a few hours each week volunteering at the library or a soup kitchen, make the time to be with other people. I haven’t been (those pesky deadlines), and it’s really wearing on me. My other NYR is to get out and get active in some other social environments at least twice a week. Seeing my own family just isn’t enough.
As a quick side note, working as a full-time freelancer, I have determined that conventions are crucial for me, both as a means of socializing and in order to pursue work. The industry is small, almost like a really big extended family, and nothing beats showing up at the GAMA Trade Show in March and spending a few days seeing old friends and making some new ones. It’s also a great way to network and line up new work for the coming year. Just like in any other industry’s trade show, at GAMA, more business cards and resumes get passed out than possibly at any time of the year.
In any event, great article, Matt, and like someone else posted, it is just as useful for an old hat to read as a potential new freelancer.
Thomas
January 8th, 2004 at 12:51 pm
Hi Thomas:
Thanks! Coming from a fellow Alliterate, that’s high praise.
I’m struggling with deadlines myself these days, mostly because of the demands of my home life. Still, I’m trying to take on less and learn where the new balancing point is for me.
As for the solitude, it doesn’t usually bother me much. I like being alone, and I feel like I get the most done then. If you’ve ever seen me at a convention, though, you know I’m hardly shy. For me, cons are the great break-out times, and for that reason alone I’ll keep going to them.