Running out of things to build for the poor Sororitas.
In the meantime planning and working on AdMech is pretty fun
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I certainly do not take that stance for all my work or else I would be just cheap labor and yes, it would devalue any work done by freelancers. From what I'm getting this entails it is indeed not so much freelance work. Not sure though, it is the reason why I'm considering to wait for a while and ask others what's it precisely about. Real freelance work or...? Either way I'm interested as I already write fanfics so no loss of time or energy for me.
The only real unnatural act is one which you cannot perform.
Interesting that they're asking if people want to write about the Warhammer World, not just 40k.
I'm not impressed by most writing I've found online, and I'm not impressed by most GW authors, so these seems like a perfect match to me (to anyone wondering, no I don't write fiction as I can't meet my own standards, but other authors can).
Orcs and Goblins, Wood Elves, Necrons, Tyranids
W / D / L
1 / 2 / 139847
Everyone else's win totals are completely accurate.
Somewhat? Maybe? A friend of mine who is in the publishing industry suggested to me that, when BL moved most of their new releases in-house and changed their distribution model (also resulting in them falling off the Times bestseller list), that he expected the net result would be their best writers reducing their work rate and moving on to other projects, as being "captured" in such a way damages the brand and earnings of the author (while essentially moving those gains to the publisher).
I will honestly say this: I haven't been paying close attention, but given they are opening back up for more writers, is BL holding onto the best guys, and are people like Abnett producing at the same rate as they were 2-3 years back?
So I applied for this and got back my rejection email this morning. For those interested who haven't applied themselves, I was asked to write two sample pieces based on the following briefs:
The Test Brief Part 1 – Maximum 250 words
A Space Marine fighting an Ork – Write a fight scene that depicts a Space Marine engaged in battle with a vicious greenskin. It should feel brutal and violent, but not gratuitous. You may include dialogue, but first and foremost we want to see and experience earth shattering action as they trade blows. The Space Marine must be from a First Founding Chapter mentioned in Codex: Space Marines (2013) and the Ork must be from a Tribe or Clan mentioned in Codex: Orks (2014). The location can be of your choosing, as can the victor, although one must be defeated.
The Test Brief Part 2 Maximum 250 words
A Space Marine Sergeant briefing a squad of scouts before they embark on their first mission -–Write a scene where an Ultramarine Sergeant is giving a rally speech to a squad of scouts or discussing tactics/training before they set out on their first mission. The emphasis here must be on dialogue and character. The location and specifics of the mission are up to you.
There was then a somewhat lengthy outline of the "Games Workshop Fiction Writing Principles" that we were to adhere to. The email I received this morning stated my pieces were not up to standard, and outlined for each test piece which of the 10 Principles I had not met for each one. To that my response is I'm not sure how anyone could meet all of their requirements for each brief, while describing the situation they wanted, all within the space of 250 words which, once you start to count, is a ridiculously short amount of text. My second retort back to them is, "you are aware you let C.S. Goto write books for you, right?"
Pffff, standards
If people are interested I'm happy to post the test pieces I sent in to them.
Twitter : @BDimetrius
I should point out I didn't actually send that back to them. Wasn't intended to be childish, but I would be interested in seeing what they classify as a 'pass' on the test so to speak, given that I see many bad reviews of BL novels by certain authors citing things like poor character development and predictability, or repetition. I forget which one it is, but one of the early HH novels pretty much has a space marine shrug in every dialogue-based scene, they seem to spend more time shrugging than fighting. That to me comes across as poor writing as it's repetition to the point where the reader becomes aware of the overuse of the word, but whatever.
My submissions were as follows:
Test Brief Part 1
“Waaaaagh!”
The bellow of the monstrous ork nob was deafening as it swung its heavy, jagged axe in to Brother Khar’van’s forearm. While the Salamander’s ceramite power armour held firm, a jolt of pain told him that the force of the blow alone had broken the bone inside. A second later, a flashing icon inside his helmet display indicated painkillers were being fed in to his system.
Fighting through the pain, Khar’van turned back from the momentum of the ork’s blow with a swing of the chainsword still held in his good arm, its whirring edge roaring with the sound of death. With an unusual dexterity for its species, the ork dodged back from the swipe and raised its brutal looking pistol, firing a round in to Khar’van’s chest. Again his ceramite plate held firm, but the shot hit so hard it briefly knocked the Astartes off guard.
In that moment, the ork was on him again, another war cry erupting from its bestial throat. As the alien’s axe swung down towards his skull, Khar’van fought against the grating of bone in his broken arm to force his chainsword in a two-handed thrust through the creature’s stomach. With an upward pull, Khar’van opened the beast up the middle and it fell backwards, foul xenos blood staining the white and black of its Goff clan colours.
His opponent dead, Khar’van charged onwards. There were still more orks, and more of the Emperor’s work to do.Based on the feedback they gave me, it appears they want you to include ALL of the ten principles in EACH of the two pieces - I understand their place in a full-length novel, but I would be very interested to see how one was to go about filling all those requirements, as well as getting around to describing the situation outlined within the 250 word limit. As Shelflife said, not much wiggle room.Test Brief Part 2
Arrayed in their freshly painted blue armour, as yet unmarked by the rigours of battle, the squad of scouts looked impressive. Casting back his memory, Sergeant Verratio found it hard to believe it had been over two centuries since he had stood where they now did.
“Great is the honour you are about to receive,” the sergeant began, each scout before him listening intently. “For you are to enter battle not only for the first time, but against that most vile and hated of foes - the forces of Chaos. In doing so you fight not only with your bodies, but with your minds, for Chaos will work to corrupt you!”
“We stand firm, Sergeant!” said Braiko, a warrior Verratio held to be a good shot as a sniper, but still with more to learn of battlefield tactics. “We have all read the mission briefing dataslate, we shall find the traitor Governor Axaris and deliver justice.” The rest of the squad nodded resolutely in support of their comrade.
Verratio smiled, pleased at how these novices had developed from mere initiates. “I have no doubt of that, Braiko,” he replied. “However, be mindful not only that in battle some may not return, but that the Emperor blesses those who fall in His name, but forever damns those who turn from it.”
Yes, Verratio had stood in their place two centuries prior. Thinking of his lost Brother Dravus, he knew too well the danger faced by Chaos corruption...
I don't claim to be a writer by any means and wasn't approaching this with any sort of serious career in mind, but I always did well in English and creative writing tasks in school, and had teachers say they expected me to be a writer, so figured I'd give it a go. I should hope their not terrible pieces, at least.
When I first sent in my email expressing interest, I outlined (at their request) that I would be most interested in writing about Chaos or Dark Eldar. I wonder if people that wanted to write about Warhammer Fantasy got these same Space Marine briefs, or if they had their own Fantasy briefs to work from.
They did, a bit hesitant to post them here as the email included the usual 'private & confidential' clause and we all know what GW legal is like. They outlined it all quite clearly, most of it was basic fiction writing stuff anyone with a high school education should know, the rest was basic principles of their IP that define the worlds and settings. There wasn't really any surprises there and you could probably guess most of them off the top of your head. As I said, the struggle was fitting all of them in to the space allowed.
I sent my test pieces about a week ago now and haven't had a response
Unfortunately considering the whole "10 principles thing" I doubt I made it. It's terribly challenging to fit all of that into 250 words.
"Whom the Gods notice they destroy...be small and you will escape the jealousy of the great" The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.
It took a little over a week for me to get a response, give it a few days yet.
I'd be interested in seeing what you wrote for them, if you don't mind posting them here.
Hmm, seems I'm a bit late to the party.
Link is 404.
I'm definitely interested in giving it a shot, I'm thinking I might just send an application email to the address you quoted regardless...
Edit - In my search for the freelance writing opening, I came across this: http://jobs.games-workshop.com/2014/...ts-home-based/
Same sort of deal as the writing but for an artist. Sadly I can't draw to save my life, but I imagine there are tons of Warseerites that'd like to give this a shot.
Last edited by Liber; 02-04-2015 at 08:06.
Well, I don't know what the principles are, but I reckon it would be possible. Most of writing to set styles and limits is the moment when that clicks and you see how they expect it.
Where I work writing up a submission to spend less than a quarter of a billion £ has a hard limit of 6 pages and ideally is 3-4. A recent piece on the employment of a military vehicle in a certain theatre was 3 pages, and this has to cover capabilities, operational concerns, historical facts, legal issues, presentational considerations etc. First few times I did such things they were very long but you learn. I have yet to match the writing I have read from staff in WWII, their work was amazing for the brevity they showed while imparting all relevant information. They were I guess taught English and grammar at school though
Off topic but you need brevity for top level decision making as otherwise you cannot compare choices and courses of action. A global review of activity I was part of a couple of years back had colleagues generate 600+ pages of information, but most of it was detail relevant only to people running those projects and the core information could be written up in 4 pages. Not least because much of it could credibly say what it was actually trying to achieve...
As someone who has read a few HH novels, these pretty much look like extracts from any of their books and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your 2 samples, they were very good in my eyes, I am surprised from a writing perspective that this isn't good enough for them. however from a GW compliance perspective I am not, if you missed one of their 'golden rules' then you probably expect creative freedom to some extent and cant be trusted to do exactly as they say.
Im not blaming you, im blaming typical GW behavior.
I make Miniatures too!, Check out the Facebook page and Website.
https://www.facebook.com/oddballminiatures
Have had a tab open for this for a while. Just need to work up a good sell of myself and my passion for the background side of the hobby/fanfic writing chops.
I would happily but I wrote it out as a response email, which was one of the accepted methods of submission, so unfortunately I don't have any copies.
My first test submission was essentially a White Scar Captain duelling a howling maniac of a Snakebite Warboss.
My second of course was just the Ultramarine speech.
"Whom the Gods notice they destroy...be small and you will escape the jealousy of the great" The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.