How did you do it?

[RavensPath]

Steve and company,
This may have been asked before, but I have to ask it now. If it has please just point me to the link.

How did you do it? We all know some of the history of Hero, Cybergames, and DOJ, but how did you Steve (and everyone else) get to do what I think is one of the coolest jobs in the world.

What did you first write, how did you decide what to write, what inspired and inspires you, what made you decide (and how did you) form DOJ?

Many of us have been gaming for years and have talent (I'm not claiming to be one of the latter) but you took it to the next level and now work in and own a gaming company.
I said some of this on the Two Years Old thread, but it bears repeating. DOJ has taken a fantastic game system and taken it even further beyond what I thought possible. Great job everyone at DOJ.

Matthew

[Steve Long]

Thanx for the kind words!

What you're asking is generally the sort of thing both Darren and I have discussed at various seminars; thoroughly hashing out subjects like this takes at least an hour of talking, if not more. So, I can't really cover them in detail here. ;)

I got started as a writer by responding to an ad in ADVENTURER'S CLUB magazine, and things just sort of mushroomed from there as the writing bug bit me. As I've said before, I think most gamers have at least one publishable idea in them, somewhere; many have more than that. What sets me apart from the average gamer is:

1. Discipline. All the ideas in the world are worthless for purposes of publication if you can't actually write them down -- and writing 'em down usually means taking one of them and thoroughly hashing it out on a deadline. Working by yourself (which is what most writing is) is tough if you don't have the discipline to sit down and do it amidst all the many distractions of modern life. ;)

2. Writing skill. All the ideas in the world are worthless for purposes of publication if you can't express yourself properly, well, and/or entertainingly. Thanx partly to law school and partly, I hope, to natural talent, I'm a pretty good writer.

What inspires me? Well, heck, just about everything! I get ideas everywhere -- books I read, shows/movies I watch, people I meet, experiences I have. Ideas aren't that hard to come up with -- the trick is finding the time to write about them. ;)

As for the forming of DOJ and such, I'll leave it to Darren to provide whatever details and insight he'd like to, but from my perspective I got involved for two reasons: desire to resurrect, improve, and heighten the profile of the best game system ever; desire to have control over my creative work. I've worked for plenty of people and companies in the RPG industry; now I want something they won't give me: control over what I write, how I write it, and how it's presented. ;)