July is just around the corner. I've got two more days of "vacation", then it's back to work...only this time I'm about to step into it going full-time rather than just part time, at least for the next couple of months.
Ever notice how vacations never quite seem to be as blissfully free of activities as you originally plan them to be? I know the feeling. What had originally turned out to be a week or so off of work with absolutely nothing to do but get some chapter work done, write a short story, and finalize the outline for my cook-book...turned into a "do lots of around-the-house projects" instead. So, while I didn't get any chapter work done, I did get some editing done, and I actually should get a chapter written between today and tomorrow with my last two days off. Maybe :) I still have a Green Diva Mom article to write today.
Fiction is great, and it's my ultimate goal, but I've also got a lot of other irons in the fire as well. Writing for a living was something I wanted to do since I was a child, regardless of "where" I was writing. While I'm still working on building up the fiction resume, I'm well established in the freelancing world now, and I'm moving ahead steadily in that regards. On that note, it looks like I just landed a new gig writing for the MMO Life Network. I just signed the contract and I'm scheduled to write 4 articles for them in the month of July.
MMORPGing is something I don't talk about on my blog a lot, mostly because I haven't found the right place to showcase my passion for the genre. I've been looking for several years for a place where I could write articles regarding my foremost hobby, and last week I stumbled across an ad looking for writers for a new MMO gaming network. The pay was decent, and while I generally don't apply to jobs these days due to an influx of work from my two primary content providers, it was good enough pay and an intriguing enough article that I sent off a query letter with my gaming resume and writing background. Less than a week later, I'm stepping on board.
I've been playing MMORPGs for just over 15 years now, starting with MUDs back in the early 1990s. I've played most of the major ones, starting with Shadows of Yserbius, EverQuest 1, EverQuest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Star Wars Galaxies, and Lord of the Rings: Online, just to name a few. Currently Evy and I are playing LOTRO a few nights per week. It's cheap entertainment, and it's a great way for two people to do something together that's not only affordable, but fun. And outside of MMORPGs, I'm just a gamer nerd anyway, so it's just a fraction of what I do.
In any case, I'm going to be swamped for July and August. I don't plan on getting a lot of creative writing done in the next 6-8 weeks, but we'll just have to wait and see. I have a goal, and as long as I meet the goal I'll be dropping back to part-time in September, taking a trip to Rome with Evy for a relaxing vacation, and then getting back into the novel work. I don't have any plans to write any further short stories this year. I've got 5 that are in circulation, and that's really all I care to worry about at present. The majority of my time will be seeing if I can't get this rough draft finished up by Christmas, or sometime this winter. The beauty of making a steady paycheck as a freelance writer means that I'm not relying on my fiction work for the income; it's just a passion that I work on when I have the time, and eventually it will be the main focus...but I don't have a hard deadline for it.
In any case...that's the update for the month. I'll be linking articles as they are published, and now that I found a good MMORPG network to write for, I'll finally be able to cover so many of the topics I've wanted to cover in the past, but just never knew of the right place to worry about pitching the ideas to. There are literally dozens of lifestyle articles that can be written about the MMORPG genre, from the social aspects of the games to the rise of the MMORPG as a modern-day honest-to-God sport that people are getting paid (millions!) to play at tournaments. There's a lot of info out there that many people still don't have a clue about, and that's what's fun about writing: educating people :)
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2 comments:
Congratz on the new gig! Look forward to reading some of your articles!
Thanks, Cindy :) It's shaping up to be a really fun opportunity. The editor seems to be a really cool guy, and while I'm obviously approaching it like I do with any new job (a healthy level of skepticism until absolute proof is given), I have to admit that this is one of the most looked-forward-to jobs I've had since I started freelancing a year and a half ago. I've been wanting to cover MMORPGs for a long time, but was never able to find a paying market that really fit what I was wanting to write about. The ideas we've pitched back and forth so far are absolutely right up my alley, and I have to admit I'm chomping at the bit to get them written.
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