publish something every month

will certainly help in the achievement of this goal. (As section editor, I have the option of bringing in pinch-hitters, but it’s not like I have any dearth of things to say regarding video games.) 4 years ago

okay, okay, there’ve been some dry spells, but since I’m sitting on three assignments at the moment (again for three different clients—two previously visited in this spree, however) I think I can still swing it if, as I initially insinuated, we play the law of averages 8)

Previously remarked upon and now up and on the streets (and more to the point, the internet): Articles two and four ... the latter of which may end up panning out into a regular opportunity to not only write about video games but get paid for doing so! (Once I’ve achieved that, then I only have to worry about meeting my goal of actually writing video games 8)

Article 3 didn’t pass muster (looking for art, not art criticism), but one of the audio submissions (we just found out, months later) is ending up on their music compilation. Not our music, but at least my efforts are resulting in some good for someone! Encourage your local reclusive songwriter! 4 years ago

While encoding my projects beneath a numerical cipher is /secure/ and prevents me from getting pinned down to any sort of commitment (hm, a complaint my ex had also), it must make for oblique, boring reading. Article 2 is IN—hopefully not too late to be used. (It was a review of Michael Barnholden’s Reading the Riot Act: A Brief History of Rioting in Vancouver; an interesting read, but a topic I exhausted most of my word count in just setting up. This may be why my proclivity leans far more toward online writing: never hitting the end of the page means I can be a slow boil + can build as long as I need to. As it is I put all my players on the stage, introduce them, and then need to wrap it up before they get to do anything! In any case, these conflicts were the primary obstacles in getting the piece in.)

Article 3 was an interview of Bob Uker, aka the Minoans, for a magazine run by one of my old computer artscene buddies Tincat. The interview was mostly fluff peppered with a couple of paragraph-long questions, but really the whole purpose of the article was for an excuse to quote from his over-the-top song lyrics about how hard an artist’s life is.

Article 4 coming on up is a feature on that locally-grown video game about living on the street and setting the theme of homelessness and repetitive, arbitrary labours for uncertain rewards, in a video gamey context.

As for 5? Poetry? I still stall at the thought. I imagine they’d take fiction too. 5 years ago

Article 2 horrifyingly two and a half weeks past deadline; article 3 submitted at the final final deadline (may also get my band included on a compilation CD and possibly some live performance opportunities, but, tragically, won’t know how any of it pans out for weeks.) Just at the point of broaching article 4 with the editors (surely if I write the article before even pitching it I can’t end up behind deadline!) and have been invited to submit more by the publishers of article 1… supposing inspiration strikes. (Supposing I’d best finish up #2 before moving on those.)

What a lovely assortment of numbers to be sure. Perhaps I should run them through a spreadsheet, their intricate interlacings no less literary than the dovetails of a sonnet or villanelle. (That reminds me, the notion struck to submit a poem to my old alma mater’s rediscovered literary journal (making #5), back from the dead. On the other hand… once you leave poetry behind, can you really go back?)

Since none of these are guaranteed, I suppose I’m at the ”/submit/ something every month” phase in this goal’s evolution and just hoping for the best. Certainly maintaining a good hit to miss ratio is preferable, but there’s something admirable to be said for someone continuously in print despite a bathroom wallpapered in rejection slips. It demonstrates a certain obstinate solidness of character. 5 years ago

In the past, I have deigned to continue to contribute with the understanding that my position or the very publication might expire at any moment; with one exception (I don’t know what bogged me down at BeyondRobson but I suspect the push for shorter articles and the necessity of a lead photo were involved) I only have allowed myself to get a “regular gig” for a matter of months before the publication tanked (Good-bye yet again, Terminal City, and so long – but welcome back! – Momentum) or the submissions policies rendered me ineligible (Capilano Courier, had I been able to stomach writing non-humour for you, it might well have put me through college.)

Despite schemes for series (ask me sometime about my plan to bike the full length of every street in Vancouver, visiting every intersection twice) some primordeal fear of commitment has kept me from running the risk of biting off more than I can chew with writing assignments (an unnecessarily stressful experience that often leaves me fried and burned-out – electrons are free but if trees are going to be killed to spread my words, I want to ensure the turd is polished to the point of reflectiveness)... I can only look back and ask what-ifs regarding the offer made to me of DiSCORDER’s monthly lit column. (I eventually came around to acceptance of the idea, but not before the position had been filled by someone else.)

Following a three-year hiatus between different incarnations of the same magazine, I’m back in the saddle, with a cover story on the streets and another assignment for another paper approaching deadline – while premises for further, unrelated, pieces spin in my head and are tentatively arranged. This suggests I’m mentally gearing up for the long haul, or at least the medium-term. All four fragments are projected for different homes, and that may be keeping my fancy fresh, granting me a diversity of themes and constraints to make every assignment quite a change of pace from the last – fooling me into failing to observe that the sum of the paces results in … forward motion!

I will concede two points: an average of once a month will satisfy me (two this month, none next? I earned it! Right now I’m looking at getting the whole season in the bag!) and online publication, when juried, considered, and commented-upon, will count for the time being. (LiveJournal, 43things, Wikipedia and Mobygames, on the other hand, will distinctly… not.) Once I manage to keep all these plates spinning, I may revise my criteria to include some more rigorous standards, like: have at least one /paid/ publication every month. Eventually, this may make of me… a writer – and not just someone who writes. 5 years ago