Website,  Writing Resources

Brent’s Stories Available (So Far) This Year…

September 20, 2012 /

So this has been an interesting year for me. I haven’t really kept a tally in previous years but I’m sure 2012 has seen more stories of mine published than in any other year. So far I’ve had six stories appear, with another slotted to be out before the end of the year (and two wildcards that should have been published earlier in the year but haven’t been yet).

The stories are:

(For those keeping long-term score, I think this brings me to just under 20 published stories, since I started selling work).

I’ve also worked with a variety of editors (and types of editors). That too has been interesting. Some editors seem happy with the story and I don’t really hear back from them until right before the story goes to print (and some I don’t ever hear from!). In other circumstances I’ve worked back and forth with editors for quite a while, getting the story right. I can’t say I have a preference one way or the other (though I do like having a look at the final copy before it goes out, just in case, you know). Some days it is good on the ego just to see the story go out as it was submitted.

That said, there’s a huge benefit (to me, as an author) when an editor pushes a story back with a list of flaws. This can be humbling at times (as in when they point out obvious errors). But it is educational, not just learning to improve my writing but also learning how to work with editors. Knowing when (and why) to push back on suggestions (or when not to). I find that some of my past experience dealing with feeback back in my BioWare days comes in handy… sometimes it is enough just to be told there is a problem. Then it is up to the writer to figure out how to fix it (though, honestly, I’ve had the editors pitch some pretty fantastic solutions too).

Now that I’m writing full-time (kind of, I’m mean there’s still the kids and everything, but now that they can feed themselves, they don’t need me, right?) I’m finding it useful, experiencing different editing styles.

I’ll end with a brief status update. I’ve passed the halfway mark on the first draft of novel #5. Feeling good about this and I’ve already made significant progress on planning the sequels. I’ve also finished most of the prep work for the third book in the Lazy Designer series of game design books and hope to publish a few excerpts from that later in fall.

Anyways, back to work…

Former lead designer at BioWare (Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights). Creator of Raiders of the Serpent Sea.

14 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.