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I have been writing video games for over a quarter of a century, which, in hindsight, is kind of terrifying. I have seen games go from teams of a dozen being “maybe too big” to working on teams with a thousand developers spread out across a half-dozen countries and an equal number of time zones. I have gone from writing wall-of-text mission briefings because we couldn’t put dialog in the actual gameplay to games where we literally had to write well over a hundred thousand lines of just systemic dialog, never mind the stuff related to the plot and the characters. I have seen game writing grow from a last-minute “oh, the designer will do it in their spare time” afterthought to a distinct role. And I have seen nonsense the likes of which you would not believe, and which I ultimately decided maybe somebody should say something about, to keep it from happening again (and again and again).
The thing I realized is that while there is a ton of advice out there on how to do the actual writing for video games—and don’t get me started on how writing for video games is very, very different than writing for anything else, or we’ll be stuck on that all day—but there was pretty much nothing on how to do the day to day job of being a game writer. There were no classes, there was no formal training, there was no core body of institutional knowledge, and since every studio treated their writers and their writing process differently, that meant that there was no way to learn how to actually function and survive in the role except by marching boldly into a field of rakes and stepping on every single one. Plus, if you changed jobs, you had an all-new set of rakes to play with.
Also, it occurred to me, that if all us game writer types had a playbook to work from, we could then start pushing for good practices from our end. We could explain why game writing needed time in the schedule for iteration and polish, and how to give useful feedback, and all that good stuff that would hopefully prevent some of those age-old mistakes from getting made over and over and over. We could actually make game writing better.
Here’s the thing: Game writing has very much become my calling. When I first stumbled into video games in 1999, I had no idea that it was going to be my life’s work. But somewhere along the way, that’s what happened. I’ve seen the craft germinate and grow and evolve. I’ve been there for the foundation of the first professional organization for game writers, and I’ve done my best to nurture the community and students who are looking to be the next generation. I don’t want my name on anything; I want this form that has defined my professional life to keep improving, and to do anything I can to help create a craft that the next cohort of game writers can pick up and do things I never dreamed of with.
That is why I sat down to write this text book (The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You). I jokingly tell people it took me 25 years to write but six months to type. It’s a joke, but there’s some truth there. This is my thank you to the craft, and to the people who helped me along the way, and maybe a toolkit for those coming after me.
—
The author of 8 novels and 2 short story collections, Richard Dansky is widely regarded as a leading expert on video game narrative and writing. He has written for franchises including The Division, Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, and many others, and was also a key contributor to White Wolf’s classic World of Darkness horror RPG setting. His upcoming projects include the novel Nightmare Logic from Falstaff Dread, the graphic novel Bridgewater from Delcourt, and the nonfiction book The Video Game Writer’s Guide To Surviving an Industry That Hates You. He also likes scotch.
Everyone is a philosopher; this is a core sentiment of mine. Some are certainly more formal and exploratory in their reflection, but we all meet with life’s great abstractions, and we all carry doubt and curiosity. Most of us will, in one way or another, attempt to pin some logic to our grief, purpose to our existence, shape to our sense of self.
The characters in my collection, A Song for Wildcats, pull such introspection to the forefront of their experiences. Each story explores some form of grief, trauma, and intimacy while spanning distinctly different settings, from an Irish peninsula at the height of the Troubles, to the Corsican seafront during the 1968 student revolts. But they also squint through a metaphysical lens, and my characters (like myself) often find themselves fixated on unanswerable questions: What defines love and violence? How far back should blame extend? What’s the essence of self, especially if self is fluid, and how does one hold onto it?
“The Lyrebird’s Bell,” for example, follows the friendship between two young girls in the isolated bush of 1940s Australia. Facing a severe, lonely homelife, each girl crafts stories, often unsettling and fantastic ones, that are somehow more rational and less painful than the truth. As one girl is consumed by these fantasies, the other grows desperate to remain grounded in reality. In doing so, she begins to question what constitutes reality—and as no one person’s reality is definitive, whose versions are worthier, or more valid?
As I wrote the collection, I rediscovered a love of philosophy, particularly the works of Plato. (Even the title A Song for Wildcats is a little wink to Homer’s Iliad—due to what we’ll call an “enthusiasm” for ancient humanism.) It became an obsession—a healthy obsession, I would argue—which drove me to make dramatic shifts in my life. I gradually began to reconfigure my relationship with human interaction, identity, and the world around me—all of which led me wandering quietly through mountains, sitting alone in faraway villages, and more deliberately layering my work with metaphysical questions to which I’ve long been intuitively drawn. If grief does not leave us, when does it become wisdom? Why does suffering lead toward deeper empathy for some, and for others, a desire to harm?
However, I did not want to write a textbook, nor would I condescend to readers by assuming they required easy explanations. Instead, my hope was to offer stories in which the various layers—such as narrative, emotional, symbolic, and philosophical—connect patiently and meaningfully, so that one does not need to research ancient Greek philosophy, or Irish folklore, or twentieth-century existentialism, in order to be impacted by them. My characters are driven by a desire for connection and clarity, and it was important to me that the philosophical lens amplify each story’s heart, not clog it. These stories are my effort to capture, in my own small way, the peculiar human habit of stumbling, unwittingly, into transformation.
—
Caitlin Galway’s short story collection A Song for Wildcats has been featured as a must-read by the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, and named an Indigo Best Book of 2025. Her debut novel Bonavere Howl was a spring pick by the Globe and Mail, and her work has appeared in journals and anthologies across Canada, including Best Canadian Stories, EVENT, and Gloria Vanderbilt’s Carter V. Cooper Anthology, and on CBC Books.
August has been a busy travel month. My brain is mush, my body would like to stop sleeping in strange beds, and my cats cannot decide if they are more needy for attention or still pissed that I was gone. Here’s a Bubble and Squeek for you.
Awards: I did not win the Hugo award this year, but I’m not mad at who won in my category. Neil Clarke is incredibly talented and does good work. So, here’s my finalist certificate framed and hung. (I am seriously considering taking my two rocket pins to a local jeweler to see if he can turn them into really nice earrings.)
Blog: The end of a two year project. Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 is over and done with. Gotta admit, I don’t regret doing Dear Penpal, but I won’t do it this way again.
eBay and Signed Books: If you would like signed books from me, we have them up on eBay. This will remain on eBay until all of my books are gone. All money goes to me.
Interview: Lindsey Byrd in Writing is Hard podcast. How to edit a book? With Jennifer Brozek. This was a really fun interview. (YT link)
Podcast: The Skiffy and Fanty Show, 832. Shin Kamen Rider (2023) — Righteous Kicks #10. Bug hybrids, evil organizations, and intense vertical kicks, oh my! Brandon O’Brien and Iori Kusano are joined by Jennifer Brozek to discuss 2023’s Shin Kamen Rider! I have many opinions.
Publication: Augment 3, Autumn 2083. Available now! Look at that cover. It’s gorgeous! The universal buy link is here.
Publication: “Praise for the Honored Dead” is Catalyst Game Labs’ free BattleTech fiction for the month of August! Get it now before it disappears and another story replaces it! (New free Shadowrun and BattleTech fiction on the first of each month.)
Support: As always… if you appreciate my work and would like to support me, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine. This is the quickest way to brighten my day.
It’s time for Worldcon! Here’s my schedule that doesn’t include any of the private meetings. Come see me. Say hello. (For the love of Pete, please come to my Thursday Table Talk. I know you need to sign up and must wait until the day before, but I don’t want to sit there alone.) I will be out and about. Feel free to wave or bring me a book to sign. Also, I will have books for sale at Northwest and Guests in the Dealers Hall.
=====14 Aug, Thursday=====
=====15 Aug, Friday=====
=====16 Aug, Saturday=====
=====14 Aug, Thursday=====
12-1pm, Table Talk: Jennifer Brozek, Room 430
These used to be called kaffeklatches. Have an intimate discussion (up to six participants) with your favorite creators. (Advance sign-up is required.)
Jennifer Brozek
2-4pm, Volunteered to Man the Brisbane 28 Worldcon Table: Fan Table 42
4:30-5:30pm, Writing for Franchises (Workshop lecture), Room 330
How do you get started writing for someone else’s universe? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to take inventory of your skills and contacts and then use them to secure writing gigs with established properties. (Advance sign-up is required.)
Jennifer Brozek
7:30-8:30pm, How to Vet Fictional Society Rules, Room 423-424
You can’t break rules until you make them. All fictional societies need an internally logical legal foundation, and understanding it is a key component of writing compelling, credible science fiction. It is the developmental editor’s job to make sure the rules make sense. Panelists will discuss how they vet social and legal structures for their clients’ novels and how breaking/bending these rules can create the story beats that keep readers turning pages.
Jennifer Brozek (M), Alma Alexander, James R. Wells, Joseph Brassey, Sarah Chorn
=====15 Aug, Friday=====
9-10am, Outlining to Sell, Room 423-424
Learn how to create a compelling outline to sell your idea to an intellectual property (IP) or media tie-in acquisition editor. Many tie-in authors have successfully sold novels from outlines… and been paid advances before typing a single line of prose. Learn how to do this from our experienced panelists. Tips from this panel can be used for selling your original completed novel or nonfiction book as well.
A. J. Hackwith (M), Gwendolyn N. Nix, Jennifer Brozek, Rebecca Roanhorse, Rosemary Jones
7:30-8:30pm, Getting the Science Right, Even if It’s Magic, Room 423-424
How important is it for authors to get their science right, in science fiction and fantasy? What does “right” even mean for speculative fiction? How is genre convention tied into those answers? Does science have a role in magic?
Joshua Palmatier (M), Christine Taylor-Butler, Jennifer Brozek, Scott H. Andrews, Max Goller
=====16 Aug, Saturday=====
10-11:30am Signing at Northwest and Guests table, in the Dealers Hall
12-1pm, Where Do Editors Come From?, Room 321
Book editing is one of the last redoubts of the un-credentialed autodidact. While there are training programs for book-editing skills, most book editors come into the job with an enormous diversity of backgrounds. Many editors are successful without any specific training or academic credentials. How does the novice editor become a success in such an unregulated industry? How would they even start to become a professional editor?
Sheila Williams (M), Emily Hockaday, Trevor Quachri, Jennifer Brozek, Carl Engle-Laird
2-2:30pm, Reading: Jennifer Brozek, Room 429
“Citizen, Scion, Savior, Singularity.” Sophia Nyland risks all to make the discovery of a lifetime. After she breaks through what is supposed to be an impenetrable barrier, she discovers that her world is much larger than she thought it was—as is her place within it.
Jennifer Brozek
6:30 pm, Hugo Reception, Signature Room
8:00pm, Hugo Award Ceremony, Ballroom 1
On July 23rd, the day that Hugo voting closes, I posted on social media that “Less than six hours left before we all become Schrödinger’s Hugo award winners. Either we have already won or lost.” This is the period between the end of voting and the announcement of the winners. During that liminal time, we are both Hugo winners and Hugo losers.
I’ve used my Hugo nomination to treat myself to some things I don’t normally buy (a couple gowns, some jewelry, a tiara…), but I kept thinking about that phrase “Schrödinger’s Hugo winner.” So, I decided to support one of my favorite artists, Alina Pete, and commissioned some artwork at Gen*Con.
Isn’t he the best? Now, I will always have “Schrödinger’s Hugo winner cat” on my wall. I’m also gifting it to all of the Hugo Award 2025 finalists (as well as future Hugo finalists when they, too, become “Schrödinger’s Hugo winner”) to be amused by.
You may use the image for blogposts and such as long as you credit the artist, Alina Pete (alinapete.bsky.social or https://linktr.ee/alinapete) on the post.
Sometimes, you just have to treat yourself like you would your best friend.
It’s been five years since I stepped into the BattleTech arena as a writer. Over ten since I wrote my award winning YA BattleTech novel, The Nellus Academy Incident. I’ve never written a one-off BattleTech short story. Now I’ve written two…and one of them is currently available for free on the Catalyst Game Labs “free download” page.
For August only, “Praise for the Honored Dead” is available for free, and it takes place after about a week after the events of The Nellus Academy Incident, and thus will have many spoilers for the novel. Gotta admit, I’m in love with the cover of this short story.
“GET READY FOR THE WORST TIME OF YOUR LIVES.”
The press is calling it “The Nellus Academy Incident.” For the cadets that fought against and survived a brutal mercenary assault intended to spark a war between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Alliance, it was only the beginning.
Now, they must navigate the gauntlet of appearing in public…and dealing with what happened on Phobos. Barely days past risking their lives—and seeing their fellow classmates sacrifice themselves for the others—the four remaining cadets must come to terms with what has happened…and lay their friends to rest while under the pitiless glare of government cameras that record their every move…
Rereading The Nellus Academy Incident more than 10 years after I wrote it was interesting. I had some genuine moments of “Oh, that’s good” and “Damn, I don’t remember writing that. It really works.” Of course, I had a couple moments of “I could’ve written that better.” But not many.
It was like bumping into an old friend after a long absence and realizing, yeah, they were cool and you’re glad you know they and met up again. There is joy in realizing that, yeah, you do do good work. I hope you enjoy returning to the Nellus Academy for a brief dip back into the cadets’ lives.
Two years ago, I contacted Rem from Rem Alternis and asked her if we could meet at Gen Con to talk about having her company run the Kickstarter for a passion project I wanted to create. We met. We agreed to everything. And ran the Kickstarter in March of 2024. It funded and as of July 27, 2025, that Kickstarter is over, done, and things involving it mailed/fulfilled.
Dear Penpal, Belgium 1980 was quite the endeavor—telling a MG horror story over a year in 24 physical letters. Yep. If I’m gonna do a Kickstarter, let’s do it on Hard Mode. Next time, if there is one, I’ll do something easy like a novella series. I don’t regret doing Dear Penpal, but I won’t do it this way again.
Here’s some fun facts the Husband put together for the celebration party. I thought they were too good not to share.
So, the final question that has been asked of me… “Will there be any more Dear Penpal stories?”
The answer is maybe. I’ve got an idea for a series of novellas around it. 3-4 more in the series, jumping years in-between each one. Each one would still be in letters. Probably 2 each month, but put together as a novella. This is a nascent idea, kicking around the different places I’ve moved to and interesting things that could’ve happened to fictional Jennifer who can see ghosts: Pennsylvania 1984 (teen), California 1989 (senior in HS), Oregon 1992 (college), Washington 2004 (adult).
Yeah. Maybe. If the idea still calls to me next year, I might chase it down. We’ll see.
As per usual, since Gen Con is my main industry convention, my schedule is packed. This is my appearance schedule at the convention. It doesn’t include any of my business meetings. Also, per usual, please feel free to say hello, come to one of my signings, and get your book signed! As you can see, Thursday is packed! Let me know if I will see you at the convention.
=====Thursday, July 31=====
11am-12pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 1, How to Develop Your Writing Process
Have you ever wondered what your writing process is or why it’s important? Join us as we discuss, from idea to finished product, the different processes used and what to pay attention to in your own.
Danni Williams, J.B. Garner, Jennifer Brozek, Monica Valentinelli, Richard Dansky
2-3pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 1, Brainstorming 101: From Downpours to Droughts
We’re often asked where we get our ideas from. Join our panelists as they discuss the discipline of generating ideas.
DaVaun Sanders, Erik Scott de Bie, Jennifer Brozek, Johannah Simon
3-4pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 3, Media Tie-In
How do you get involved with tie in work and what does the process look like? Join our panelists as they discuss their media tie in work.
Aaron Rosenberg, Brady McReynolds, Bryan Young, Chris A. Jackson, Jennifer Brozek
4-5pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 3, Making The Leap: Switching Mediums
Novel writers want to write video games. Game writers want to write novels. Everybody wants to write comic books. Our panelists will discuss what you need to know to take on a new medium successfully.
Aaron Rosenberg, Jennifer Brozek, Richard Dansky, Sean CW Korsgaard
6-9pm, Meet the Pros, Convention Center, ICC 144-145
Hosier Concourse (runs along the main vendor hall), right by Hall F.
This is both a meet-and-greet and a sales event for the Gen Con Writers Symposium.
=====Friday, Aug 1=====
11am-12pm, ICC, Dealer’s Hall, Catalyst Game Labs Booth, Signing (#1611)
Signing (with Jason M. Hardy). Buy a book or bring a book to get signed!
2-3pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 1, The Power of Names
What makes for an effective title? Why are titles important and how do you craft marketable ones? Join us as we discuss these questions and more.
Erik Scott de Bie, Jennifer Brozek, Lark Morgan Lu, Richard Dansky
7-11pm, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 4, Grayshade: Death of a Noble (A New Dark Fantasy 5E TTRPG—Live Session)
A live play session of “Death of a Noble,” an adventure for Alligator Alley’s new dark fantasy TTRPG Grayshade, GMed by lead designer Brandon O’Brien and featuring authors from the Writers’ Symposium!
=====Saturday, Aug 2=====
10-11am, Marriott: Marriott Ballroom 2, Writing Horror When the Real World Is Horrible
When times are bad, people often take refuge in horror entertainment. Why? What’s the rationale for doing so, and how can it help us deal with harsh realities?
James A. Hunter, Jennifer Brozek, Lark Morgan Lu, Richard Dansky, Stephen Kozeniewski
1-3pm, Marriott: Atlanta, The Art of the Verbal Pitch (Workshop)
What makes an agent/editor/publisher interested in a pitch and how do you prepare to give one? What are the things a pitch should cover and how can you avoid basic mistakes in the process? Jennifer Brozek teaches you how to create, and when to use, the two main verbal pitches you will need as an author. This dynamic workshop includes hands-on verbal pitching with immediate feedback in a safe environment. Tickets are still available for this workshop!
=====Sunday, Aug 3=====
11am-12pm, ICC, Dealer’s Hall, Catalyst Game Labs Booth, Signing (#1611)
Signing (with Bryan CP Steele). Buy a book or bring a book to get signed!
During the pandemic, I was in a comics writing group. I was convinced we’d all be dead and there would be no more conventions. Conversations turned, as they inevitably do, to the franchises we’d love to take a crack at. I have always encouraged creators to focus on their own ideas more so than other IP, so I dreaded the conversation getting to my turn. And when it did, I began to answer (shocking myself even): it was Dark Shadows.
You see, I’d also been rewatching Dark Shadows (the entire 1225 episode catalogue) during the pandemic. If it was all going to be over, what better family to go out with than the Collins family of Collinsport, Maine? So as I began to answer the IP question, the idea for the story sprang, fully formed, into my mind. That very rarely happens for me as a writer.
No spoilers here, but thematically, inspiration can be found in WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE by Shirley Jackson.
There’s Truman Capote and Harper Lee and William Faulkner all in there, too, but all good Dark Shadows storylines were based on some classic fiction. So my approach would be Southern Gothic, channeling my own lived experience and my fractured family ties into a story about the Collins family. Why Southern Gothic? It’s hallmarks: dilapidated mansions, deeply flawed humans usually entrapped in a generations-long family feud, and the sinister events which arise from all of the above. If you know Dark Shadows, then you can see the connections.
I do feel connected to Dark Shadows. My mother would race home from school to watch when the show was originally airing. I haven’t spoken to her in almost 15 years, thus this project was an incredibly healing one. I found the resolution I won’t find in this life. I’m at peace with that. We never discussed Dark Shadows when I was a child. I knew she liked it. While we shared a love of the show, what could have perhaps made us closer never did. But in watching the show in its entirety, I felt that I was able to make a relationship with it (the show) separate from her, and also resolve some of our conflict for myself in writing this new chapter of the show.
So here we are, almost three years later from the comics Discord discussion, and the book is coming out soon. There’s a short and sweet story behind my entrance into the officially licensed world of Dark Shadows, but I’ll save that one for another dark and stormy night.
—
Craig Hurd-McKenney is a Xeric grant recipient and Ignatz-nominated comic book writer living in Seattle, WA. He has been making comics since 2000. For more information about Craig, please visit: https://www.hspcomix.com/
Answering the question of WHY DO I WRITE? (something I encourage all writers to do), I have concluded that my WHY is this: I write to tell stories about underrepresented people and underrepresented places in a way that is accessible, and hopefully, entertaining.
The underrepresented place I most often write about is Saskatchewan, my home province. The underrepresented people I most often write about are members of the LGBTQ+ community. The combination of the two is, I feel, truly underrepresented and rarely found in Canadian mystery genre material.
As a writer writing about LGBTQ+ characters, I have on occasion encountered people, usually interviewers or reviewers understandably looking for an angle, decide that I am the spokesperson for that community. They are mistaken. I am one person, one voice. Deciding I am the spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ community is like a Martian, freshly landed on earth, deciding I am the spokesperson for all humans.
That being said, as a mystery writer who is a member of, and advocate for, the LGBTQ+ community, my hope is that my singular voice, my presence and representation in the publishing industry, encourages more voices to speak out and helps to move the community out of the category of being underrepresented.
Even so, I have found you cannot please everyone, outside or even inside your own community.
I was fortunate to find a publisher for my first book without agent representation. I was about 4-5 books into my first mystery series when I received a letter from a graduate student completing his Master’s thesis at Carleton University. I was quite surprised—and I must admit, rather flattered—to learn that the subject of his thesis was my Russell Quant series.
He sent me a copy of the abstract which, in part, read…now, keep in mind the series has a main character who is gay:
“With Russell Quant, Bidulka has shifted the originally well-defined, straight-forward, stolidly masculine identity of the hard boiled, urban crime-fighting hero to a marginal landscape, where subversion, introspection, and humour reign.
“In this paper, I contend that Bidulka’s writing queers not only for the detective fiction genre, but also the regional landscape that his imagined communities inhabit, and myths of Canadian nationhood that bind them.”
Making no claim of being a great academic or literary scholar, I readily admit I didn’t really understand most of the abstract’s claims—but it sounded pretty good.
Some months later, this same grad student sent me a copy of his now published thesis. Once again, this was a high-minded, rather lengthy, scholarly document, but I was smart enough to recognize that in slow methodical fashion this student had deconstructed every book in the series and then completely tore them to shreds for:
“carelessly giving voice to the “homonormalization of the entire lesbian and gay community in Canada today.”
So, yup, if you were wondering, that was me. I did that to the entire LGBTQ+ community in Canada.
Lesson learned. You can’t please everyone all of the time. But—and here’s where light comes from dark—about a year later, this same graduate student was delivering his paper at a conference in California. In the audience that day was another gentleman who, for some inexplicable reason, after hearing the same conclusion noted above, felt compelled to read my books. And today, that gentleman is my literary agent.
—
Anthony Bidulka’s books have been shortlisted for Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, Saskatchewan Book Awards, a ReLit award, and Lambda Literary Awards. Flight of Aquavit was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery, making Bidulka the first Canadian to win in that category. In 2023, in addition to being shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award and Alberta Book Publishing Award, Going to Beautiful won an Independent Publisher Book Award being named Gold Medalist as the 2023 Canada West Best Overall Fiction novel and was awarded the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence as Canada’s Best Crime Novel for 2023. https://anthonybidulka.com/
Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of Never Let Me Sleep and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her YA tie-in novels, BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident and Shadowrun: Auditions, have both won Scribe Awards. Her editing work has earned her nominations for the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and multiple Hugo Awards. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology, co-edited with Amanda Pillar. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, Well World, and Predator.
Jennifer has been a full-time freelance author and editor for over seventeen years, and she has never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to teach writing classes and volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer’s worlds at jenniferbrozek.com or her social media accounts on LinkTree.
