Don’t go it alone

Writers aren’t born finished. Great works of entertainment don’t emerge ex nihilo, rather they are worked in utero, Many hands and minds contribute, either in the development, the writing itself, or the editing and assembly of a work. That is true to a lesser of greater extent with most literature, but is critically important when considering digital projects. Writing is a craft that is learned by doing. Finishing things, moving on the next and continually honing your mental muscles. While we’ve tried to puncture a few myths, one that remains true is that this field is very rarely one that can be addressed by a single individual, working alone. At some stage, you’re going to have to talk to someone else.

Blessed isolation and the writer’s life are going to part company.

If this is making you nervous, then take a deep breath before you read on. It isn’t going to get worse, but you’re going to have to come to terms with letting go of your work and trusting other people. You might be, and we stress might here, one of those very lucky people whose talents take them many directions at once. You might be able to code, to design for user experiences, to produce a technically complex project of which the writer is but one (albeit pretty important) part. The likelihood though, is that you aren’t that individual and that if they do exist, then they’re so rare that Maharajas will pay explorers a chessboard’s worth of grain to find them. You’re also not going to find them, or the gang of them that you need to get to know, by placing an advert in the post office, virtual or otherwise.