Archive for August, 2009

I enjoy my work.  That’s no secret, but sometimes I enjoy it even more when my work overlaps with my personal interests.  The two came together this past weekend when I covered Gen Con Indy 2009 for The (Muncie) Star Press.

Though Gen Con is in its 42nd year, it’s been held in Indianapolis since 2003.  Indianapolis is 60 miles from where I live, so it’s an easy drive.  I’ve discovered that it provides a great opportunity for me to combine my work and personal interests.  Gen Con includes just about anything gaming related: electronic games, card games, board games, role-playing games and more.

A few years ago, I went from being a gamer’s wife to being a gaming wife.  Games have long been an interest of my husband’s, but they didn’t interest me too much until a few years ago.  He’s still the biggest gamer in our home, hands down, but I enjoy playing along with him sometimes.

We first went to Gen Con four years ago as attendees.  I was only half interested, if even that.  Once I was there, though, I found myself enjoying the experience.  We spent the day traipsing all through the Exhibit Hall in the Indiana Convention Center.  It was that year I realized the potential of covering the event for publication as well.

As a freelancer, I am always on the lookout for new markets and new “gigs.”  I look for stories everywhere.   Gen Con had its share of stories.  Since then, I’ve done some work ahead of time and found editors who were looking for articles about Gen Con.  Last year and this year, I wrote articles for my local newspaper.  I’m hoping to expand even more next year.

And since the articles are newsy rather than personal, I decided blog a bit about my own experiences at Gen Con this year.  It was the first year that I was able to go for two days instead of just one.  Going for one day always feels like we’re rushed to get everything in, and we still have stuff we want to do when we leave.  Going for two days was pretty similar!  We had a chance to do more this year, but we still had things we wished we would have had time for when we left.

One difference I’ve noticed since the first Gen Con I went to is the smaller amount of free stuff given out.  That first year we were heavy laden with free goodies.  Each year since the offerings have gotten smaller and smaller.  This year had very little free stuff.  However, this year did include a coupon book.  We got free dice keychains with one coupon, a board game for $1 with another and a card game for $5 with yet another.  That was nice.  I’m willing to give any game a try for the right price!

We spent the first day walking through the exhibit hall checking out everything.  The electronic games probably had the most impressive booths.  A booth for a new game based on Dante’s Inferno definitely caught attention as did the Atari booth promoting Champions Online, a computer game launching Sept. 1 that has received much hype.  The Atari booth was especially crowded at 4 p.m. each day when a raffle took place to win a lifetime subscription to the game.  My husband was hoping for that one, but neither of our numbers were called.  We’re just going to have to bite the bullet and pay for that ourselves.

The second day was spent mostly doing game demos.  We haven’t gotten to do that much in the past because with one day there just isn’t enough time.  We did a game demo through Upper Deck for a new Marvel card game coming out the first part of next year.  As a die-hard Marvel fan, I was thrilled to do the demo, but disappointed with the cards I drew.  My husband easily beat me fair and square.  The game is based more on the Marvel movies.  One thing that bothered me was the main character (in my case Wolverine; in my husband’s case Iron Man) could be pulled out and used as many times as you wanted.  It doesn’t make sense to me to have more than one Wolverine.

Our second game demo for Gen Con Indy 2009 was a Penny Arcade card game.  The game is based on a comic about two guys, Gabe and Tycho, who are typical gamers.  My husband enjoys the comic.  I’ve read a few that he’s sent to me.  Basically, we ended up trying this game because it was produced through Fantasy Flight, and we were waiting for a demo of Descent.  However, I’m glad we tried it.  First, I’m glad because I won and I like winning!  I was also glad, though, because it was a fun game.  We enjoyed it so much that we picked it up for $25 from the Fantasy Flight booth.  It will be a good one for family vacations or quick games on weeknights.  It was probably my biggest surprise of Gen Con.

The third game demo was the aforementioned Descent board game, also from Fantasy Flight.  This board game is pretty unique.  We actually purchased it a few months ago and played it once.  But as a newer gamer, I was easily confused by it and even my husband needed some clarification, so we did a demo.  For those who have played role-playing games, many of them require a Game Master (GM).  This game is different.  Basically there is a Warlord who is trying to kill the heroes in the game.  My husband and I played along with two others as heroes.  Our Warlord was great at instructions and has been involved with creating expansion packs for the game.  We had a great time and learned more about the game.  I especially loved at the end when I defeated the final two monsters in one round — a first for this year’s Gen Con, according to our Warlord.  Score!  We had such a good time that the day after our return from Gen Con, we sat down and played our own Descent game and had a blast.

Overall, Gen Con was fun.  I spent time on Friday (our day one) conducting interviews for my article and then put it together at lunchtime.  I got it sent off to my newspaper editor before dinner that evening so it could run in the next day’s paper.  It was definitely great to combine work and fun.  My wheels are already turning about how I can get even more work based on next year’s Gen Con!

I would daresay that nothing is more important to a sentence than its verb.  Verbs are what give a sentence action and propel a story forward.  The right verbs are what make good writing even better.  However, sometimes instead of using strong verbs, we use adverbs to make weaker verbs stronger.  Is that OK?  I would say sometimes, yes, but most of the time, look for adverbs and see if you can find a stronger verb to use instead.

Take a look at these two sentences and see what is stronger:

• The girl aimlessly walked down the hall.
• The girl wandered down the hall.

The first sentence uses an adverb.  While this sentence is not grammatically incorrect, the adverb/verb combination makes it weaker than the second sentence which uses a stronger, more descriptive verb.

Another bonus to replacing adverb/verb combinations with a stronger verb is the writing becomes more concise.  Word count is reduced.  Skilled writers can say more with less.  Minimizing adverb use is one way to do that.

More examples for you showing word count:

• John sipped his water.  (4)
• John slowly drank his water. (5)

• John purposefully walked into the room.  (6)
• John strode into the room. (5)

• She spoke quietly.  (3)
• She whispered.  (2)

Sure, this one has a punny title, but I couldn’t resist.  While the title may be punny (I won’t go as far as to say funny!), the topic is quite serious.  Changes in viewpoint are a pet peeve of mine and a mistake that many beginning writers can easily make without realizing it.

Before we can talk about changing viewpoint, we must first talk about the types of viewpoint out there.

• First person: This is an article or story written from one person’s point of view.  This blog is written in first person.  First person uses pronouns like “I,” “me,” “mine,” etc.  While first person is frequently used in casual writing, it is almost never used in news reporting.  In my years of writing professionally, I have only written from first person fewer than 10 times.  For articles, first person should generally only be used if the writer is an authority on the topic or if the writer is describing a situation or event the way he experienced it.
• Second person: This viewpoint is often overlooked.  Second person viewpoint addresses the reader directly.  Second person uses pronouns like “you” and “your.”  Of all the viewpoints, it can be most lenient and sometimes used in conjunction with first or third person, but that should be done sparingly.  Second person is most often found in how-to articles.  The trick with it is to avoid becoming preachy or condescending to the reader.
• Third person: This viewpoint does not involve the writer or the reader at all.  Third person pronouns include “he,” “she,” “they,” etc.  This is the most common viewpoint for news articles and is the viewpoint I use most of the time in my work for magazines, newspapers and even businesses.

Understanding the different viewpoints is crucial to use them correctly.  Most important is to NOT combine more than one viewpoint in the same article.  I don’t think I can preach consistency in writing enough.  In teaching, I tell my students that I’d rather them be consistently wrong in their article than to alternate back and forth.

Changes in viewpoint can sometimes slip into writing.  Most of the time with articles, readers really don’t care about the writer’s perspective.  First person is seldom used for that very reason.  If first person is used, then it should be used consistently, not just in a lead and forgotten about.  A writer should never interject himself in the article without a compelling reason to do so.

Second person can sometimes be used in a lead to draw a reader in and then switch to third person for the rest of the article, but this should be done sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.  One common lead is reader commonality, which starts with something like: “Don’t you just hate when X happens?”  This can work, but it isn’t the strongest type of lead and certainly shouldn’t be overdone.  Be aware that indirect commands count as second person as well (this sentence is an example).  These are sentences that address the reader directly and give a command without using the pronoun “you.”

Third person is the best viewpoint for new writers.  And it’s the most common for news articles in general.

Since changes in viewpoint can slip into articles, editing for viewpoint is important.  When I edit my work, I look at everything: grammar, punctuation, style, viewpoint, flow, etc.  Look for direct commands that slip into second person.  Look for spots where the writer has been drawn in to the story directly.  Ask other people to read the artilce and give their feedback on viewpoint — whatever it takes.   Don’t be a viewpoint switcher!