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| Hal Maclean |
 Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:46 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 40
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| ephealy wrote: |
| Hal, without naming names... What have you learned from the last couple freelance projects? Three "watch out for"s and three "make sure to"s? |
Well, I've had two projects disappear on me over the last few weeks. Or at least get rescheduled or radically changed in the working conditions after I signed on.
(1) Watch out for project heads who suddenly turn elusive.
(2) Watch out for the amount of time and money you invest learning a new rules system.
(3) Watch out for letting you own enthusiasm for the basic concept of a particular project (we all have nerd love for various genres, topics, etc  ) making you blind to any warning signs.
(a) Make sure you hammer out the deal once you get a project head to greenlight something. Don't wait for a few weeks before the starting date to work out the details.
(b) Make sure you have confidence in everybody who touches your work once it leaves your hands. Remember, your name stays on the final version which means you're the one who has to wear any changes the text undergoes as it passes through development. If possible ask to see the final draft before it goes to print (but accept that many publishers don't do that).
(c) Make sure you understand what the project leader actually wants. I can think of one project I was really looking forward to working on get cancelled because another book came out that this particular contact thought was too similar. I read the book and it was nothing at all like what I was planning. When I tried to explain this I discovered that the project leader hadn't really been reading my outlines and updates... Turns out he likely would have asked me to rewrite the thing so it's probably good that it got scrapped while I was only about 8000 words into it. |
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| Phil Larwood |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 15 Mar 2008
Posts: 48
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| Hal Maclean wrote: |
| Phil Larwood wrote: |
| I have published a few small things here and there. |
Pshaw! No false modesty here!
Larwood is the third largest entertainment concern in the world. Only Hollywood and Bollywood stand before it and I know you have plans to bring them down... |
So says the man with about 50 billion DRAGON articles? 
You just need to get off yer behind and get behind the helm of some adventure writing.  |
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| farewell2kings |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 14
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My writing credits include:
Dragon Magazine
# Issue #346 "Class Acts: Scout Feats and Options" (author)
# Issue #348 "Class Acts: Marshal of Battle"(author)
Dungeon Magazine
* Issue #149 "Twisted Night" (author)
* Issue #148 "Listening Posts" (author)
* Issue #145 "Exag: City of Clay" (co-author)
* Issue #145 "Vile Addiction" "Seeds of Sehan" adventure arc (co-author)
* Issue #146 ""Spawn of Sehan" Seeds of Sehan adventure arc (co-author)
* Issue #147 "Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones" Seeds of Sehan Adventure Arc (co author)
* Issue #135 "Campaign Workbook - The City: Stronghold Defenses", 2006 (author)
Goodman Games
* GM Gems Volume I: Contributor
* PC Pearls Volume I: Contributor
Reality Deviants Publications
* Vehicles: Toolkit for True20 (Author)
I'm a freelancer, but I don't take this thing as serious as I should. Lately I've dropped two major projects because I just couldn't see myself writing them effectively. One project because I no longer cared to deal with the publisher and another one because I didn't care do do the research and deal with a fickle fanbase for the amount of pay I would have received.
I'm probably going to start working on a novel during National Novel Writing Month and see where that goes....but who doesn't have that ambition, eh? |
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| farewell2kings |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 14
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Oh, and add to that the fact that I haven't learned shit about 4th edition or Pathfinder yet, which kind of sort of limits me, since both Wizards and Paizo are pretty much my only remaining options at this point, unless someone wants me to write True20 adventures (which I would love to do and would do for .02/word, hint, hint....)
All I want is total creative control and an editor who's not afraid to hurt my feelings. I really don't want to learn gobs and gobs of new game systems or settings just to write for a few pennies a word, but then I haven't been published enough to be such a primadonna, so I need to get off my rear end here and decide what I'm going to do pretty soon.
Right now I'm leaning towards Pathfinder, but once again, I don't want to read and learn it until the final version comes out. |
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| Daigle |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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Contributor
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 562
Location: Redmond, WA
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| Stefan, you're solid, you rock, and unless you do in fact want to write True20 for .02, make a call, brother! |
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| Daigle |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 562
Location: Redmond, WA
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| farewell2kings wrote: |
I'm probably going to start working on a novel during National Novel Writing Month and see where that goes....but who doesn't have that ambition, eh? |
I've honestly never had that ambition....much. However, my wonderful lady, after seeing me stressing a pretty simple project deadline, and who is a much more avid reader than I, asked me, "Why don't you use your skills and write stories or a novel?" I didn't have an answer for her. And I felt stupid.
When I was younger, I wrote poems and short stories that got published, so why the hell am I so intimidated by that world now? |
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| farewell2kings |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 14
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| Daigle wrote: |
| Stefan, you're solid, you rock, and unless you do in fact want to write True20 for .02, make a call, brother! |
I'll e-mail you. |
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| ephealy |
| Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 215
Location: DuPont, WA
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| farewell2kings wrote: |
| All I want is total creative control and an editor who's not afraid to hurt my feelings. |
For less than $0.05 per word, this is really what it's all about. Well, that and actually getting paid when you're supposed to, right?
I love seeing a creative person get the freedom to do what they want, within the guidelines of a certain project. I also love working with a good editor. Sadly, there are so few. I talk with publishers all the time. If given the choice, I think they'd take a good editor over a good writer any day of the week. That's just a guess, though.
_________________
Ed Healy |
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| Tom |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:44 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 24 Jul 2008
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It has been a great time writing on Sehan with Stefan!
He helps where he can and surely deserves more than 0.02 per word.
Novel wirting is cool, but hard work, and nothing which is accomplished without learning a few things about writing them in the first place.
But writing every day helps... |
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| Hal Maclean |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:44 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 40
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| Phil Larwood wrote: |
You just need to get off yer behind and get behind the helm of some adventure writing. |
I've been thinking I should make that one of my new year resolutions in a few months, "actually sell an adventure". The problem is, I don't get the same joy from writing adventures as I do writing settings and rule stuff.
Even when writing them for my own use there always comes a point where I suddenly start muttering about "doing taxes" as I work out the stat blocks...
Oddly enough I don't mind doing stat blocks when creating NPCs or new monsters, but for some reason plunking a bunch of them in the middle of an adventure starts to seem kind of tedious after a while. That could be it, maybe my "stat block fatique" threshold is low. |
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| Hal Maclean |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 4:47 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 40
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| Daigle wrote: |
| farewell2kings wrote: |
I'm probably going to start working on a novel during National Novel Writing Month and see where that goes....but who doesn't have that ambition, eh? |
I've honestly never had that ambition....much.
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I think I'm going to try NaNoWriMo this year. Always pulled back at the last minute but I've had this really interesting idea for about a year and never found the time to really plug away at it. Maybe jumping in like this will galvanize me. |
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| Hal Maclean |
| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:25 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 09 Jan 2008
Posts: 40
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| ephealy wrote: |
| farewell2kings wrote: |
| All I want is total creative control and an editor who's not afraid to hurt my feelings. |
For less than $0.05 per word, this is really what it's all about. Well, that and actually getting paid when you're supposed to, right?
I love seeing a creative person get the freedom to do what they want, within the guidelines of a certain project. I also love working with a good editor. Sadly, there are so few. I talk with publishers all the time. If given the choice, I think they'd take a good editor over a good writer any day of the week. That's just a guess, though. |
I wish there was a company that specialized in turning out games based around public domain properties. Old books and the like. I won't list any specifics but Ed you might remember I've mentioned at least one of the ideas I'd like to tackle based on this model to you in the past. |
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