Writing XP

In terms of events, this week hasn't been particularly happening. (Or maybe it's that I've become more detached...?)

Anyway, the NYC Games Forum monthly demo night was on Tues. It was the same as always. Fun to see the demos. Also fun to hang at the pub for a bit afterwards. Yesterday I attended the New York Game Makers meetup, like always. Unfortunately missed the first session because I just couldn't get out of bed. (More precisely, I couldn't get off a friend's couch.) I spent the afternoon working on the platformer I mentioned last time. Progress has been slow and buggy. As expected.

I already said before that I'm burning out. It's become more apparent each week. I definitely need a break.

The real shining point of this week has been all the writing XP I've gained. I also learned A LOT about myself as a writer.

On Tues, there was a bit of an incident where one of the blog posts I'd written was edited and posted without my having seen the final draft. I was incredibly upset on a number of levels. The first is that I'd never seen the final version. The second is that it was a very heavy edit in which there were whole sentences that weren't even mine. It was as if someone took my ideas and rephrased them into their own words. It bothered me that my name was attached to something that I didn't consider my own work. If you can't tell already, I take a lot of pride in my work. Particularly, my writing. Every period, every comma, every dash. Everything I do in my writing is intentional and meticulously thought through. I read my writing out loud to ensure that every word I put down flows smoothly within its sentence. To illustrate my neuroses further, I even edit my text messages (!!).

For the record, it's not that I'm against my work being edited and revised and it's not that I can't take criticism. I actually welcome criticism of my work because every bit of feedback makes my writing that much stronger. My problem here is that, as stated before, (i) it was posted before I could see it and (ii) it wasn't representative of my style of writing.

I contacted the blog organizer and waited (very impatiently) for a response. To their credit, they were incredibly apologetic and I'm now being given a chance to revise the piece so it can be republished.

All that to say, I learned a number of lessons.

(1) Whenever/wherever your work is involved and may be edited by other people, always ALWAYS ask explicitly about the editing process. This all could have been avoided if I had expressed in advance that the final draft needs my approval.

(2) No matter how upset you are, there is value in maintaining professionalism. I already knew this on a conceptual level, but had yet to use it in practice. I definitely gained some XP in attempting to express my displeasure diplomatically.

(3) Be wary of trying things for the first time if your work involves other people. Let me elaborate. Prior to the posting of my edited piece, I had contacted a friend about a post idea that references his game. Since this was my first time working with this blog (or any blog, really!), I had no idea of the things that could have gone wrong. I'm incredibly thankful that this happened on a post that was just a personal narrative. Had this happened on the piece that references my friend's game, I would've been utterly MORTIFIED! I'm not even joking! I can barely stand the thought of having the edited post go up and then having to contact said friend to explain the situation.

Even though it upset me, the experience has been helpful. I feel like a better writer because of it!

In a related vein, I just reviewed Elisha Miller's Udemy course Writing for the Videogame Industry. It has loads of resources and tips! I'm super excited to have it on hand because it talks about breaking into the game industry as a writer. Now I know that one of the things I need to focus on is writing for my portfolio.

Phew. This post came out much longer than I anticipated. I guess this was a more eventful week than I had previously thought! That said, I have lots to do going forward... which is a good thing! A very good thing!