Special Ops: The Writer of the Future

Flint Dille

Austin GDC 2008

Premise

• The future writer will need to be fast and versatile to survive in a constantly changing media-sphere.  

• I mean anybody who plans to write from today on… Including me.

• The good news is that change means opportunity.

The Changing Mediasphere.

• Fiction and Non-fiction are blurring.• Everything is everything. Movie, game,

comic, book, toy… etc.• Everything is always: The world is a

constant flow ticking to eternity. Beyond 24/7. We need more content than ever. It comes. It goes.

• Everything is forever: Projects keep moving on and on into eternity. Changing. Morphing. Evolving.

Changing Mediasphere

• Everybody is everything: Author, Critic, Blogger, Fan…

• New Media isn’t that new anymore and the barriers are coming up…

• Old media is ossifying… • Everything is morphing. Nobody

knows where it will all end.• Creator and audience are blurring.• Smaller pieces of bigger pies.

The Changing Marketplace:

• Any writer who thinks that there is anything we know as 'business as usual' will continue to exist is up for disappointment.

• Writers who embrace the constant chaos and change within the mediasphere will continue to grow and thrive.

• Experienced writers who fail to constantly adapt will rapidly become irrelevant.

• New writers who don't aggressively pursue heretofore uncharted areas will have a very difficult time breaking in.

Getting In

• We will have to be adept at boldly assaulting mediums that don't use writers and work with clients don't know they need writers –ex: social networks, virtual worlds and casual games will find unexpected need for writers.

New Writers: Breaking In

• Get Bonifides– Go to Game School.– Get a credit. (It doesn’t matter on what).– Have a spec script or design doc.– Get into the industry.– Get Credibility: Agent, References, Network– Figure out how you are going to keep yourself

afloat financially.– Commit to 5 Years.

Established Writers

• See Previous slide. You are always breaking in.

• Redundancy is a Survival Skill. – 3 Yard Plays.– Possession Plays.– Long Bombs

• Live below your means.

• Learn to Budget Your Time

Do A Baseball Card of Yourself

• Concept Generation:• Poetry• Commerciality:• Editing:• 2nd Drafts• Marketing:• Personna:• Reliability;• Quantity – Endurance• Quality – Meticulousness• Speed – Velocity• Graphic Skills• Media Skills:• Poetry:

Writer Baseball Card (2)• Building Websites• Filmmaking/Editing• Game-building• Voice Skills:• Hustle:• Sales:• Network:• Legal Knowledge:• Versatility in Genres:• Versatility in Mediums:• Screenwriting:• Gamewriting:• Journalism:• Novel Writing:• Short Story Writing:• Non-Fiction Writing:• Ad Writing:• Other

Maximize Strengths/Minimize Weaknesses

• How do you compensate for weaknesses?– Sales – Get an agent– Editing – Find an Editor– Find a partner (either permanent or project by

project).– Take classes/See what others are doing.– Always work on your craft.– Know the difference between self-perception

and marketplace perception.

Rules

• Do not blow deadlines.

• There is no such thing as ‘exclusive.

• You need regular working hours.

• You have to capture ideas on the run.

• You need a filing system.

• Keep a journal.

• Work from Templates.

Work Attitudes

• Do favors• Work for Free.• Do Hail Mary Projects.• Go on Snipe Hunts and J.O.E. meetings.• The ‘3 meetings or 5 pages of writing’ rule.• You’re only as good as your next one.• You are a commodity.• You are never done paying your dues.

Your Team

• Agent:• Lawyer:• Editor:• Specialty Players:

– Artists, Musicians, Filmmakers, experts etc.

• Casual Collaborators• Think about sharing percentages. Selling

‘stock’ in projects.

Your Office

• Laptop

• Phone

• Digital Recorder

• Internet

• Quiet Space

• Stimulus

Your Work Habits

• Write every day.– Make your own rules.

• Deliverable every week.– Whether it is your own project or work

product.

• Meet business objectives– Get you and your work out there. Writing

samples.

Your Persona

• Your Bio.

• Your resume.

• Your look.

• Your ‘voice’

• Your network.

• Positive/High Energy (unless there’s something else that works for you).

Contracts

• Credit• Deliverable Scope, Scale and Timetable• Leadership• Team and Relationships of Team• Attachments• IP Rights• Non-competes• What aren’t we talking about?

$$$

• Total

• Payment Schedule and Criteria:

• Back End Net and Gross:

• Royalties:

• Pension and Health (WGA):

• Etcetera

Break the Rules

• ‘Investment Working”: Working on projects as an ‘investment’ in rights, attachment, etc.

• We'll talk about new collaborative formulas for writers to work with other specialist writers and non writers.

Explore New Areas

• Figure out how to write for social networks, virtual worlds, casual games, WikiFiki, neo-interactive fiction, playable comics, Machinima, ‘gaminima’, and various other new and nascent mediums.

Play For Endgame

• Constantly Learn.• Keep Your Network Buzzing• Be smart with money.• File your ideas and keep going back to

them.• Keep an idea journal every day.• Try new mediums.• It gets better but it never gets easier.