Answers and Advice – Why’d you do it?

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The Hunting Lodge is a World of Warcraft Hunter community website. We’re here to help you improve and enjoy playing your hunter. If you don’t find what you’re looking for on the blog, make sure to check out the Hunting Lodge Forums. Also, make sure to listen to The Hunting Lodge Podcast

Editorial Note: This post is really in response to all those people that have asked me 2 questions.  “Why aren’t you writing for WoW.com anymore?” and the other one “If I wanted to write for them, what can I expect?”

Trust me, we got lot’s of hunter stuff in the wings and will be getting it out over the next few days, weeks and months.

So on Thursday it’ll be 2 weeks since I stopped writing for WoW.com.  I guess you can say I’ve taken a mini-writing vacation during those two weeks.

Since then, I’ve probably started and stopped this post about 5 times. It’s been a big struggle with me.  There’s nothing wrong talking about your positive experiences, right?

But a part of me wonders if it might be taken wrong.  So that’s been my dilemma. Anyways, the application period is over and I just think it’s a good time to answer all those questions.

I have said many times before about how great it was working for WoW.com. The experience has taught me more about managing a blog than I’d ever thought possible. It also taught me the importance of some simple overlooked things. Like quality, error and fact checking, as well as understanding no matter how many times or eyes you have looking at a piece, someone will always see something else to fix.

Those aren’t complaints, just facts.  There is always editing, corrections, and rewrites possible.  The trick is having the skill of a surgeon to cut out the “cancer” (e.g. mistakes and fluff) without going too far and removing the healthy or good stuff (quality content).

This is one of my failings. If you’ve ever read my posts, such as this one, I tend to ramble. Mostly, because I have two modes, chatty, ramble mode (Check out the THL Podcasts for more proof.) Or overly analytical, bare bones direct. I say blame my Myers-Briggs profile. (I’m INTJ by the way.)

So what does that have to do with working at WoW.com? Trust me! Everything.

Unlike a personal blog post that can literally be a couple of sentences to pages and pages of storyline.  Working as a professional freelancer means not only deadlines but also the ability to create solid content within the length requirements set by the publisher, in this case WOW.com.  So keep that in mind when I go point by point below.

Environment

The environment is awesome. The people at WoW.com are a group of the most caring, supportive professionals I’ve ever dealt with.

The biggest thing I miss is being able to participate in the chat discussions about some bizarre tip like, “Please cancel my gym membership.” Another thing is having the ability to get almost instant confirmation on some obscure fact not even in WoW Wiki fact from the office chat.

Add to that, the support you get when the trolls just seem to be a bit much, makes it something special that I’m sure won’t be experienced in the near future.

Trolls

Well, since I talked about the overall environment and hinted at the trolls, let me tell you about them.

I honestly think that the WoW.com trolls try to be helpful.  I really do. It’s just that the internet has removed their ability to communicate with any tact or politeness. Don’t get me wrong.  There are some that just hate. And there are others that are frustrated, misguided, or just don’t understand.  But all in all, there are many that are honestly just trying to point out an error or differing opinion and can’t communicate it in a normal professional manner.

My advice? Communicate with your readers. Let them know you, and you get to know them. You’ll probably be surprised at how many of your trolls turn into your biggest supporters.

Content

One of the biggest ongoing complaints I saw had to do with my choice of content.  Here’s the big secret. Your post assignments are often determined based on a priority of need.

1. Breaking News
2. Publisher needs (e.g. Class guides)
3. Targeted readership
4. Readers’ requests and tips
5. Author’s ideas

Okay, maybe not that exact priority, but the first three are pretty much true. If you have an idea for a post, you’ll do well keeping those ideas in line with that line of thought.

In other words, if you find you have a passion about how to raid effectively with a Cunning Pet.  This might be an article of some interest but does it fulfill the first two points?  Is it breaking or important news?  Does the publisher really need this type of resource? And what about the targeted readership? Can you honestly say that a majority or even a significant number of your readers have the same gnawing question?  It’s true some will want to know about this, but is this everyone?

Ask yourself these questions and you’ll notice feeling less stressed about content selection. And if you’re a reader, now you know why sometimes a writer is writing about some basic topic, when you feel it’s more important to write about something like Best in Slot selection.

Editing

This is the problem that caused me more issues than anything. The reason for this is because it touches everything we’ve said so far.

Remember when I said you need to make sure and edit your work and have it pretty much error free?  This is a lot more than you might think of at first.

For example, it means that you must have everything linked that needs a link.  For example, if you’re doing a gearing guide.  You’ll need to link all of the items, the quest, the zone information, the stat information, internal posts that are relevant.

How many times do you write a post and just link the WoWHead info?  Do you link back to every quest? Or how about stats?  Remember, you have a range of readers. The beginner really might not know what makes up DPS, or how Agility impacts a class.

This also means that you’ll need to make sure and explain your acronyms.  Man, do I fail at that.  Really, doesn’t everyone know DPS is Damage per Second and Agi is Agility? Trust me they don’t.

Now the other part.  You need to keep edit your post down to the required length. As I said before, besides my normal issues with grammar and typos, this was my biggest challenge.

At WoW.com, it’ll be expected that you keep your weekly posts somewhere between 1200 and 1500 words.  (I failed at this. Your posts can be longer,  but it’s better to keep it to being no longer than 1500 words.)

That might sound easy enough. And you’d be correct if all you’re trying to do and reach the goal of 1200 and 1500 words.  But now try and keep to that length, communicate the important information, and maintain your voice.

I still find this extremely difficult to do successfully.  Personally, I like to say my normal style is more conversational.   (I might only be having that conversation with myself, but we’re not here to debate sanity. Right?)

And if I need to cut the length down making sure to cover the important points, I do just that.  The problem is, I tend to cut too much, lose my personality. This might be acceptable on a personal blog, but not so much for most “professional” sites.

My tip? Take the time and make an outline.  Then start writing early sticking to it.  This way you can make all of the required changes and still make your deadline.

Deadlines

I’ll end on this one.

You need to realize that your real deadline is way before the deadline for publication. For example, if  your post needs to be ready for editorial review by 8am Wednesday, then you need to have it completed by 8am Monday.

And so we’re clear on what completed means, you need to have it written, proofread, edited, all the graphics and links inserted.  This will give you a day break and then you can do a “Ready for Editorial” review session on Tuesday.

Having a post ready for Editorial Review can be a huge challenge.  Especially,  if you’re like me, I can review a post 5 times and end up re-writing major sections of it 5 times.  That’s not what this means.  You need to discipline yourself to not do this.

Instead, Ready for Editorial Review means, that all you have to do is read it again but only make last minute changes to test and fix every link, do a final spell check and grammar checks, as well fix any remaining.

If you can’t maintain this discipline, then you’re really going to have a tougher go at it.    However, if you can do this, then you’ll have a very positive relationship with your editors and they’ll be willing to let you experiment and write more.

Basically, keep this rule in mind.  Editors are not proofreaders.   Yes, they’re making sure things are ready for copy, but they’re not there to fix every mistake.  That’s your job.

So, how is it working for WoW.com?  One word, Awesome.  Okay, need more than that?

It was really eye-opening.  About 8 years ago, I worked at Ziff Davis Media and remembered how much I really wanted to be a writer.

Now at WoW.com learned that I’m not the disciplined writer I need to be. Just because you might have a blog, and can achieve a decent following, it doesn’t really make you ready for the big leagues.   And that’s okay.  I kinda like the relaxed, flexibility of the minor leagues.

I also learned how underappreciated the pros are.  Like I said, I put myself on their level when I took the position of class columnist.

Honestly? I am not even in the same universe.  Whether you agree with the columnists or not, I can say that each and every one of them work very hard to bring you solid and accurate content.  They really do deserve more respect than they get.

Finally, I also learned that the role of Editor doesn’t mean proofreader.

If you’re saying “D’uh!” hold on a second.  What I mean, is what I said before.  The easy mistakes are your job.  You’re responsible to find them, fix them and have it all set before the Editor reviews your post.

Think of the Editor is really checking for mistakes that might have slipped by you.  They’re also going to make sure you’re holding to their standards for formatting, images, links, etc…

So, if you find that your editing skills aren’t as sharp as they need to be.  Make sure you have access to a solid proofreader.  Someone that can read your post and help you edit it. You’ll appreciate it in the long run and so will your editors.

As you can tell, my experience working for WoW.com can really apply towards any freelance or staff writing position.  The same principles apply.

Don’t let this scare you away.  Like I said, mistakes happen.  And, if a mistake happens? Admit it, fix it and don’t look back.

Mistakes happens, trolls will prey upon them.  All you can do is just learn from them.

Now, why did I leave? Simply put, life.

In order for me to keep all of the above, too many real life changes were required.

Now, I can concentrate on honing my skills. (Yeah right? I’ve rambled how long? 2,118 words? OMG!)  Fix up the Lodge, write guides, work on building Gaming Studio Network and then maybe one day.  Enter the foray of freelancing again.

Now I challenge you. Can you look deep in yourself and say, “No Problem. I can do that.” If you can, then awesome! And I can’t wait to see you writing for WoW.com because they need a quality person like you on board.