Title Screen post

Last year, I started a gaming blog on Wordpress using my own name as the URL; if I’m going to work toward being a gaming journalist, after all, I need to be comfortable presenting my work, and having my clips attached to a site named after myself looks way better than having them interspersed between musings about Lady and the Tramp and how much I like Ke$ha. So was born I Am A Parade, the game-writing site for Andrew Testerman’s important clips with which he would use to woo headhunters and, frankly, anyone who has his business card forced amiably into their hot hands.

Because of my well-known neuroses about doing things successfully—neuroses that prevent me from playing any Grand Theft Auto or Bethesda game to completion—I don’t feel comfortable with posting to that site unless I’m absotively posilute that it’s the best thing ever published on the internet ever. That sort of expectation doesn’t lend itself to timely posts or even writing at all, so like copy making another copy, I’m branching off with another blog.

This time, I intend to take it back to my roots, by which I mean I’ll write under the assumption that no one will read it. This site exists strictly so that I can get in the habit of writing and publishing every day. I want to use it as a repository for jotting thoughts about games down as quickly as possible before I push it out into the scary, unforgiving world of the internet. Fortunately, no one can mock you if no one’s around, hence the lack of advertisement, links, or any of that junk. I’ll probably add it to my blogroll on Diversion 2.0 proper, but considering how often I actually post to that blog, I think I’ll be alright.

I’m hammering on this blog’s content a bit, so let me back up. In addition to working an awful lot (one full-time and one part-time, if I must brag), I also try to play games and write about other stuff, so I don’t have very many windows to sit down and churn out a fully-formed post about the day’s news or my thoughts on why the Game Boy Advance is one of my most important consoles or any of that nonsense—no time for editing, at least to the extent that I would wish (i.e. it could go up on Polygon right now). Therefore, I’m planning for this blog’s content to be mostly shot from the hip, writing the words that occur to me as they occur to me with as few pauses for self-defeating deliberation as possible. Not that all self-defeating deliberation is problematic—I will try to quickly proofread entries before they go out—but I’m trying not to let my perfectionistic tendencies get in the way of acting in a way that will help my career, by which I mean writing any GD thing at all.

Incidentally, this means I’m probably not going to put many pictures outside of a header post, if that at all. I know how to code. I graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems. I’ll need to learn how to lay out complex images and formats and who knows what else, but I have the skillset to do that when the time comes. Right now, I need to build my writing skillset. Allocate them attribute points. Et cetera.

Careful planning is tantamount to success as a writer, especially since now is a more rewarding time than ever to write long form pieces, and perhaps my views will change going forward, but I need to get in the habit of churning out fully-formed thoughts on the fly. This urge comes from having no idea at all about how actual game journalists do their job; having never worked with any, I erroneously assume that they sit down and bang it all out in one sitting before another editor helps them correct some of the little bits that fell out of place. I have no editors to work with. I need to learn how to form thoughts in a quick, timely manner and make them publish-worthy in the same span of time. Writing in this rapid-fire manner will, hopefully, build good writing habits: formulating my opinion expediently, learning which thoughts to pursue, and slowly recognizing the strong/weak bits in my writing without having to spend time pouring over my piece looking for them.

These pieces won’t be perfect, and I’m sure my initial few months will be kinda rough. As I continue to write, though, I’m confident that my off-the-cuff pieces will improve in quality. Think of it like grinding for experience. My writing level is pretty low right now, but cranking out these small pieces will eventually raise my level and make my work stronger. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, and it sound pretty good right now.

And anyway, no one’s reading, remember?! I can train and work in piece without being subject to public scrutiny, or at least not very much. If you did happen to stumble across this blog and would like to stay on in spite of my unpolished pieces, you have my gratitude. I’m pretty sure this will be better sometime next April when I have a swing going, but you’re welcome to stick around, though I have a feeling you’ll appreciate everything here more as a piece of performance-art rather than actual writing.

Anyway, Diversion 2.0 Games, or Andrew Wants To Write At The Level Of Tim Brayton Training Grounds. Expect little bits trickling out every day. Wish me luck. Love you all.