Writer Shop Talk: Post-Launch Depression

newshoptalkIt takes a tremendous amount of willpower, energy, and focus to create something. To take an idea and see it through to fruition, whether it’s a book, a game, or something else. It’s very easy to pour so much of yourself into a creative project and the gargantuan task of getting it out into the world that it exerts a sort of symbiotic energy drain on your being. Sometimes once your creative venture is cut loose and set free into the world, you’re left with a weird sense of loss. And it can be crippling.

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Writer Shop Talk: The Catharsis of Personal Essay Writing

newshoptalkWhen you spend years writing about products, trends, culture, and things, it’s easy to lose touch with the human connection that ties it all together. But that’s what really makes it all interesting, isn’t it? As beings made of meat, water, and thought, we’re naturally drawn towards learning about others’ experiences, learning from the events of their lives, and discovering what makes them tick. I love reading those types of personal stories, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I discovered just how therapeutic writing my own could be.

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I want your feedback! Help me out by taking the Game Journo Guides Reader Survey!

Hey awesome people, readers, blog visitors, and other assorted humans! I need your help! As I continue plugging away at writing upcoming books and creating other future projects, I’d really love to get your input on what kinds of topics you’d like me to cover next in upcoming guides, what your thoughts are on specific formats, and what challenges you struggle with. The more info I can get, the better I can tailor my next few projects to better suit your needs.

If you haven’t checked out my Game Journo Guides Series of books, you can  scope out the first three below. I have lots of other exciting things in the works and would very much appreciate your input on what you’d like to see next! So…

Please take my quick Game Journo Guides Survey!

[Update] I’m aiming to get 100+ responses if possible, and we’re about 51 percent of the way! Getting some great insights so far, please keep ’em coming!

It should only take a minute or so. Thanks in advance!

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Shop Talk: The First Graph From Hell

shoptalk copyStaring at a blank screen, knowing you have to make word magic happen is frustrating when you’re on deadline and things aren’t clicking as fast as you need them to. It’s even worse when you have a sense of what you want to say, yet reaching for the specific words leaves you grasping at the empty nether. I’m in one such predicament myself. In this case, it’s with a game review that is in desperate need of writing STAT! In fact, I find that mental long jams pop-up most frequently for me when I’m writing critiques. So in hopes of loosening things up, I figured I’d blab about it for a moment in a blog post — a brief exercise in clearing the word palate, if you will.

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