Tag Archives: Blogging

Meet the New Guys: John Ayers and Josh Bury!

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If you haven’t noticed over the past few weeks, there are a couple of new faces here at Professor Beej. The response to the recent call for writers was phenomenal, and I can’t thank you enough for that. We’ve had some fantastic folks show interest in joining up, and it makes me sad we couldn’t field everyone as regulars. (Which isn’t to say we aren’t always looking for guest posts. Because we are!)

That said, though, we were able to find spots for two person-sized nuggets of awesome: John Ayers and Josh Bury.

So without further rambling on my part, let’s get right into getting to know these guys.

John Ayers (@FalconX2)

I’ve known John a long time, and in that time, I’ve come to expect good things from him. Whether it’s tech support, a D&D campaign, political discussions, or a piping hot bowl of zuppa toscana, John doesn’t do half-assed. When I started looking for new writers for the blog, I thought about folks who’d be able to fit the tone and style of the blog, and John’s name immediately popped into my head. I actually approached him about becoming a regular because of how much I always enjoy our in-depth discussions on pop culture and geek media.

And hopefully, you will, too. His article on Parenting and Animal Man made me want to go read comics for the first time in years, and he’s just lucky that I didn’t change his article on H.P. Lovecraft and retitle it to “There’s Love(craft) in the Air Tonight.” I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us.

Josh Bury (@ThrownGauntlet)

JoshI met Josh initially when I returned to Star Wars: The Old Republic and decided that PvP was going to be my primary focus. After a few Google/Twitter searches, I ran across his old SWTOR blog, Thrown Gauntlet, when I was thinking about being a PvP tank on my Jedi Knight. I watched a few videos and followed the guy up on Twitter.

Turns out, he’s one heck of a nice guy, and when I posted my call for writers, I got an email from Josh. With his new, awesome gig at Darth Hater, he couldn’t very well write for TG anymore. And rather than start a new geek media blog from scratch, he drank the Kool-Aid and became one of my minions a regular here at Professor Beej, where he is writing about such awesomeness as tabletop gaming, board gaming, roleplaying, and pretty much whatever strikes his fancy that isn’t SWTOR.

So if you have a few minutes, mosey on over and check out his articles on tabletop roleplaying and his “System Shock” articles on choosing the right RPG system for your group.

So don’t be shy–say hello to John and Josh! Give them a warm welcome and let them know what a killer job they’re doing.

The One and Only Lesson Self-Published Authors Can Learn From M.R. Mathias

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Not too long ago, self-published author M.R. Mathias went on quite a tirade at fantasy-faction.com about how his self-promotional forum post should not have been moved from the general books forum into the self-published/small press forum.

You can read the whole thing from Fantasy Faction’s perspective here: “The Man Who Thought He Was King.”

Now, I don’t bring this up to badmouth Mathias. I don’t know the guy, nor have I ever read his books. I followed him on Twitter until just recently, but never really interacted with him. So what I’m saying, I’m saying based entirely on the forum posts he left and the Tweets I’ve since gone back and read.

In a nutshell, Mathias argues that he’s not a self-published author because he uses pen-names, and “publishes” the work using his real name. These days, self-published authors are their own publishers. We’re our own marketing departments. Our own PR reps. We’re everything. We do in fact act as publishers—and everything else—in addition to being authors.

So Mathias isn’t wrong there. From a certain point of view.

The issue with Mathias here is that he’s being a complete and total dickbag. As Chuck Wendig puts it, he’s a screeching moonbat. He’s getting a lot of press, and I hope for his own sake that he’s selling a lot of books for it.

But here’s my take on the whole matter: you’re only as good as your name. Even in a day and age of pseudonyms and anonymous avatars, your name matters. People remember your name, and more than that, they remember you if you’re a screeching moonbat dickbag. You can hide behind fake names and faulty logic for a while…but as that one guy said a while back, truth will out.

So let this be a lesson to you, self-published and indie authors. Learn from this. Learn from M.R. Mathias. Know that there is only one rule of being a self-published author. (And no, it’s not write write write, though that help help helps.)

The number one rule of being a self-published author is simple: don’t be a dick.

If you learn that, live it, practice it, you’ll find readers. You’ll find more than readers. You’ll find fans. No, you might not make the big bursts of sales these kinds of controversies stir up, but you’ll make up for that in having a loyal fan-base that can support you in most, if not all, of your future endeavors.

Of all the authors I follow on Twitter, the ones whose work I’ll go back to over and over are the ones who actually respond and have conversations. They’re the Myke Coles, the John Scalzis, the Chuck Wendigs, and the Tim Pratts. They’re the Stacia Kanes and the Tobias Buckells. They’re the ones who will get my money.

And you know why? Because they’re not dicks.

Hey, Newbie! Stop Writing!

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Hey, Newbie! That’s right. You. Yeah, you. Stop writing.

You heard me. Stop writing. Right now. Just stop. You done? Good, now we can move on.

When I teach composition, I start out the semester by telling the students that I have one rule about writing. That it’s a simple rule. I get in front of my classes, and I tell them, “Under no circumstances, do I ever want any of you to try to sound like a writer.”

Because that’s not the point. That’s not the point of all this. That’s not the point of writing. The point of writing isn’t to show people who verbose you can be. It’s not to let people see how extensive your word-hoarde is.

The point of writing is to communicate an idea as clearly as possible. And the best way to muck that up is to try to sound like a writer.

Case in point: compare Jane Austin and Stephen King. Apples and oranges in many cases, yes, but my point is that King is clearer than Austen. His ideas are clearer to grasp.

For instance, the first line of Pride and Prejudice reads, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” and the first line of The Gunslinger is “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed him.”

Genre, vocabulary, tone, time period, all that notwithstanding, which of these sentences communicates its idea more directly?

I’d have to say King’s. It’s more direct, more straight-forward. Sure, Austen’s is pretty, but she sounds like a writer.

And in terms of communication, that’s bad.

Back in the Day

I started this blog on Christmas Eve 2009. I thought I was a good writer. I thought that I had some pretty good ideas. And I did. For the most part.

The problem was that I considered myself to be…a writer.

That’s right. I broke my own cardinal rule. It took a lot of time and a lot of posts for me to realize that my early stuff was damn near unreadable. It wasn’t just because I was long-winded–which I was. It was because I had no idea how to write for the internet.

I was so used to writing academic papers that I had no idea what I was doing when it came to conveying simple ideas anymore. It took me years to be able to find my right style.

And now? Reading this is pretty much like having a conversation with me. I’ve found my voice. I’m so much more comfortable in my blogging now that I don’t feel like I have anything to prove.

Reading tons of blogs helped with this. Reading Syp’s Bio Break, Gordon’s We Fly Spitfires, and Matt’s World of Matticus helped me a lot because those bloggers are all very distinct because they’re not trying to be writers.

They’re trying to be people.

People on the internet don’t like to read.

They like to skim. So write in short sentences and equally short, scannable paragraphs. Break your ideas up into bite-sized chunks that people can take in snippets and tab away and get some work done before coming back.

Take that five-paragraph essay stuff…and stuff it. Take the idea of holding your best idea until last, and hold it out like a matador’s cape–right out in front of you. Let that be the first thing people see. And don’t be afraid to have a simple post. Sometimes, a good list-post or a few hundred words in a blurb is all you have to say on a subject.

So say it.

No One Likes a Smartypants.

Don’t try to sound intelligent. Don’t try to put on airs. Don’t try to make yourself out to be more awesome than you are.Don’t try to make them think you’re somebody you’re not.

Because in this hobby, we’re branded by two things above all else: our writing styles and our personalities. Both of which will determine whether you make it or have to take your ball and go home.

My point is that if you’re not a funny person, don’t try to be. If you’re not an analytical person, don’t try to be. If you’re not dry and snarky, don’t try to be. People stick with bloggers because they’re people. Because we like interacting with one another. So be personable, be friendly, tweet a few folks, and write like a human being.

For me, when I try to be dry and snarky, I come across as a dick. So I’m bubbly and friendly and happy as much as I can be. That’s who I am. It’s who I am on the internet, and it’s who I am in real life. My online persona is really just me–a heal-slinging, magic-using, robe-wearing, lightsaber-wielding, better-looking version of me.

There are a lot of bloggers out there. And most of them, no one ever reads. Why not? Because they sound exactly like everyone else.

And you know what’s cool about you? You’re not just like everyone else. You don’t sound like anyone else. You have ideas I can’t have. You have thoughts on games that you need to share. So break away from the crowd and make people pay attention to you.

Just don’t do it by trying to be a writer. Because then you’ll get an F.

Know a newbie blogger? Send ‘em our way! The Newbie Blogger Initiative is going on all month long! Don’t be a stranger!

Summer 2012 Goals

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Goal BridgeWhen my dad died on April 3, all the lofty goals I had set for myself and the coming summer went poof. I wasn’t able to concentrate–still can’t to the level that I was–and I just didn’t have the drive to write. I still don’t, to be honest, but I’m making myself. Baby steps and small leaps.

Now, though, summer break is fast approaching, and it’s time for me to once again treat writing like the job I want it to be. I just don’t think it’s going to be the super-awesome, breakneck-pace job it was going to be. I’m having to cut a lot of stuff because April was going to be a major month for me to get stuff done–freelance pitches, queries, guest posts, short stories–and it just didn’t turn out.

So I need some realistic goals for this summer–with summer being through the end of August. So in the next four(ish) months, I hope to accomplish the following:

  • Launch Birthright Kickstarter hopefully no later than the second week of June.
    • Finalize revisions and polish on Birthright (The Technomage Archive, Book 1) for a November 2012 launch. (Even though this isn’t due by the end of August, I fully intend to be well on its way to completion by then.)
  • First draft of Lineage (The Technomage Archive, Book 2) - Complete at 75,062 words.
  • First draft of Legacy (The Technomage Archive, Book3)
  • Keep trucking on Nimbus: A Steampunk Novel with weekly chapters, and polish and revise Parts 2-4 by the end of August.

While this is enough to keep me busy, I did have a lot more on my plate. I had planned to get 2 Technomage Archive stories written and polished for submission over the summer, as well as prep some proposals for Dragon magazine and other more niche publications.

I still intend on getting as much of that stuff done as possible, but with working on 4 novels and dealing with the worst period of my life, it just can’t be a priority.

What about y’all? What are your goals for the summer or the year?

Newbie Blogger Initiative! Woo!

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Three years ago, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to blogging (though it might be argued that I still don’t). I muddled my way around, read some posts here and there, left a few comments, but generally, learned the ropes by putting myself out there and writing my heart out.

Thankfully, those days are long past for me, but thousands of new blogs spring up every day–and with them, new bloggers.

That’s where the Newbie Blogger Initiative comes in. It’s a collaborative effort between some of the internet’s best, most interesting, intelligent, pretty, veteran bloggers who just want to help newbies learn the ropes and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls each one of us might have stumbled through.

MMO blogging, which is the NBI’s focus, can be a hard game. Online communities are notoriously negative, infamously critical, and potentially seen by outsiders as more trouble than they’re worth. However, that’s not always the case.

If it weren’t for the community of bloggers I found three years ago, there’s a very good chance I would have wiped my hands clean of the whole mess and left not only blogging, but the MMO-sphere, too. People like Syp, Tesh, Spinks, Pete, Stillwater, and Ferrel make the whole deal worth it. There are loads of connections to be made and fun to be had.

Don’t let the fear of flames or of writing or of anything else stop you. I tell my students every year that I’ve become a better writer because of blogging more than anything else, and it’s the truth. Read some of my early blogs, then read some of my newer ones–tenfold improvement. I’ve made connections and friends, even found ways to advance professionally. All because I wanted to write about WoW and other such geekery.

So check out the Newbie Blogger Initiative, and if you need anything at all, give me a yell, either here, email, or on Twitter. I’ll do anything I can to help you. It’s what I do.