So You Wanna Be a RPG Blogger: Doing It For Fun

November 20, 2008 No comments

So you’ve taken the plunge and become an RPG Blogger. You’ve picked out a really cool blog name. You’ve installed WordPress, or got a Blogger or LiveJournal account or something so you’ve got the tools and the space. You joined the RPG Bloggers Network. You’ve read every article on RPG blogging that the Chatty DM, myself, and anyone else you can find has written. You’ve tinkered with optimal page layout, done the things you need to do to attracted readers, check your page hits and RSS feed subscribers often, and really, really want to be successful. The problem is, at this point you’re so wrapped around your axel over the technical aspects of things that you’ve lost your motivation to write, and that blank screen is staring at you. You HAVE to write something, get something fresh on that page, or else you’ve failed, right?

I’ll let you in on a secret. Writing an RPG blog is like playing roleplaying games: if you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.

It was 12 years ago tomorrow that I started UncleBear, and I am by no account one of the most popular roleplaying blogs around. There are times where I’ve tried to be, and it’s just ended up pissing me off and frustrating me. There are times when I’ve felt like I wanted to walk away forever. There have been multiple times when I’ve put the site on hiatus or taken a mental vacation from blogging. There have been times when I just didn’t have anything that I wanted to write about. At all of those times, for a number of reasons, doing this just stopped being fun. If you’re trying to be “professional” about your blogging, that’s terrifying.

Doing this for 12 years and not being super-popular, or making tons of money in ad revenue, doesn’t mean I’m a “failure”. I get out of this exactly what I wanted to. I’ve built a community of regular readers and commenters, who have become good friends with me and each other over the years. I get to write about what I want, rather than what’s popular. Face it, if I wanted the big hits I’ve write about nothing but D&D and the flavor of the month all day, every day. There are other blogs that do that well and fill those niches, and I love them. But that wouldn’t be fun for me. I don’t have to worry about gaining and maintaining readers and subscriber levels to keep advertisers happy. I don’t have to censor my content for any reasons other than my own personal standards. And if I start getting bored, I have the freedom to switch things up.

The standard bit of advice given to new writers is “write what you know”. I’m going to tell you, right now, to escort that old chestnut around back, kill it, take it’s stuff, and give yourself 50 x.p. for the effort. If RPG bloggers only wrote what they knew, we’d have no new product reviews or playtest reports. Roleplaying gamers, like their character, like to explore and discover new things. They like to create new things. I’m going to tell you to write what you have passion for, and if roleplayers have anything in abundance it is passion. Oh, how we love what we love and oh, how we loathe what we loathe. Don’t just write what you know, write what you’re getting to know. New monsters, spells, magic items, house rules, adventures and setting come not always from what you know but from what you’re getting to know, from an unmet expectation and a hole that you’ve identified and needs filling.

To bring this full circle, even if you are interested in the metrics, the page hits and RSS subscribers and ad revenue, those concrete measures of success, I will say that you still must write with passion. It’s what will draw in the readers, and keep them there if your passion for a subject is infectious. The traditional definitions of success will spring from there. And even if they don’t, you’ll still be having fun.