If you’re waiting for something to turn up start with your shirt sleeves. You could say that this is just a general lesson for life but as a writer turning your talent for musing upon things and sculpting those musings into beautifully crafted words that share with the world your thoughts and ideas – this is a skill often honed slowly, deliberately, and in a ponderous manner. How then to use that skill in a fast moving, high pressure office environment and call it a job of work? Writing for a games website or magazine isn’t for everyone. Many of you will have started out dreaming of writing novels or creating game scripts and gravitated towards games journalism as a more attainable dream. It’s those who always knew they wanted the hustle and bustle of the journo’s life that will find it easiest to step into the working world of the games press. If you’re imagining yourself wearing a trilby with a card that says “Press” on it in big black letters, typing vigorously with people shouting over your head as bits of paper are passed to and fro, phones are ringing off the hook where you can barely hear yourself think but you’ve got a deadline to meet then you’re on the right lines and you’re going to be okay.
Editor of Official PlayStation Magazine, Tim Clark, has been cracking the whip for years, turning young people with a love of gaming and writing into fully fledged journalists who can get their heads down and knock out an issue of one of the biggest mags in the business every single month. He took his nose off the grindstone for a moment to tell us what it takes to work day in, day out in games journalism.
RU Kirsten: What’s your background in journalism? I heard years ago that you started off working in porn. Is that true and if so did you get to see many boobs?
Tim: That is true, and I suppose I have seen a reasonable amount of boobs, but probably like only 20% more than the average man with a broadband account. My first job after leaving university was as a researcher for the now defunct L!VE TV, home of the News Bunny and Topless Darts, where I drifted onto the late night desk. My job initially involved booking strippers and therapists to appear on The Sex Show, but I ended up re-cutting the softcore US stuff for series like Exotica Erotica and Compromising Situations. More problematic were the dodgy old ’70s European films our programming director used to buy. I used to get really detailed notes from our long-suffering lawyers about what had to be cut. “I’m not sure what that is on her leg, but it’s got to go.” Anyway, after that folded I ended up working as executive for on-air promotions and presentation at Playboy TV UK, which remains the most glamorous sounding but least actually sexy job I’ve ever done. The office was in war-torn Hayes (Slough’s poorer cousin) and I was commuting a couple of hours each way. The work was easy but dull – I was writing the nightly continuity announcements, doing some scheduling, and booking edit suites. I once got a call at three in the morning to say that the channel had dropped off air because I’d worked the maths out wrong. After six months I quit, and was told that if I’d stuck around I could have gone to some water park in the US with the Playmates. I was so bored by then that even the idea of going on slides with the Bernaola twins left me cold.
RU Kirsten: How did you end up working in games journalism and what was your first job in the industry?
Tim: I left Playboy for a job as an assistant producer on the videogames channel at the (also now defunct) Network Of The World. It was supposed to be this ultra-swish portal for broadband users, but this was in 2003 when no one even had broadband. Yet we had a warning on the front page effectively telling you to do one if you only had dial-up. Even by the standards of dotcom madness it was an incredible place. There must have been about 300 editorial staff there across the various channels, all on good money, with all the fruit, chocolate and pop you could guzzle. (I managed seven cans in one day to beat our sub in the Cherry Coke Challenge.) They were burning through millions every month and we knew it couldn’t last. The guy who ran the website left, and because they knew I could write a bit I ended up doing it, growing it from a one-man band to a proper team with three writers and a full-time sub. Obviously no one read us, but it was a great schooling – one of the writers is now working on Aliens Versus Predator for Rebellion while another writes scripts for Emmerdale.
RU Kirsten: Do you find you have to use very different skills as an Editor compared to when you were a staff writer? Is it a difficult climb from being a staffy all the way up to running a big magazine like Official PlayStation?
Tim: It’s not hard in the sense that most of the editors I know started at the bottom and worked their way up – you just need talent, dedication, passion. The usual stuff. The tricky part is getting your superiors out of the way. There are plenty of editors who’ve been in place for years, creating a career logjam of people underneath them unable to move up. The skill sets are absolutely different though. When you start out as a writer you invariably narcissistically focus on your pieces, your section, and making sure you shine, often in competition with the other staff. I certainly wanted people to think my words were the best. As an editor though, you need to pull the entire magazine together, unify its tone, set its vision, and hopefully inspire those around you. I write a lot, lot less these days – and truthfully I miss that a bit. But what I love most is the process of managing the people around me. Everyone requires a slightly different tack in terms of motivation, and working out what people need to hear from you isn’t always easy. The team on the current incarnation of Official PlayStation Magazine were all either hired by me, or people I’ve worked with for years. Just being around them is the best part of the job. They’re all so talented and committed that really my job is a case of channeling their energy in the right direction. And maybe sprinkling a little cayenne onto their intros every now and then.
RU Kirsten: What sort of experience do you look for these days in a young writer looking for their first job? Have you found the number of people applying for positions and the standard of applicants have risen over the years?
Tim: I think the standard probably is rising, just because kids are so much more media savvy these days and it’s easy for them to have their own blogs and be active on forums. Obviously I’m not going to hire a troll, but just think about how much an average gamer engages with the written word now – even if it’s making jokes on GAF – compared with ten years ago. As for the numbers, we’ve had north of 200 applicants for a production assistant’s role on our new digital product. Many of whom were very competent. It’s clearly a tough time to be a graduate.
RU Kirsten: What sort of hours do you expect a new staff writer to do on the magazine and what is the sort of work they are given when they start out?
Tim: Technically, our hours are 9.30 to 17.30. As far as possible I try to stick to those. Obviously you end up working a few late nights on deadline, but on our mag we’re talking about 20.00 or 21.00 rather than midnight, and I’ve rarely worked weekends just because I think you need some decompression time. I’ve been at Future for eight years now, and have seen some magazines where they were perpetually running behind and in the office until all hours. And I’ve also seen writers burn out and leave the business. The truth is that in both cases the magazine is being badly run. I’m lucky enough to work with Helen Woodey, our operations editor, who keeps the workflow ticking with Quartz precision. The real problem in terms of time is the games themselves. To play the games properly our writers have to put in the hours out of normal office time. Which can be an issue, especially when you’ve got a family, but other than doubling our headcount there isn’t an easy solution – and to a degree I think that’s a covenant you enter when you decide to work on games. I mean, if the idea of playing something new at home in your own time is so heinous, then you should probably think about doing something else anyway.
RU Kirsten: It must be a shock to the system for someone new to the industry. How do you mould a writer who is by their nature most likely a thoughtful, slow working, methodical person into someone who can batter out several articles a day?
Tim: Well for starters I reject the idea that you can’t be good and fast. If you’re going to be a professional journalist there’s a good chance you’re going to have to turn copy around to tight deadlines without letting the quality slip. So man up. Personally, I always prided myself on being quick. Sitting there like the tortured artist while you try to come up with the mots justes for your Need For Speed preview is only going to piss the subs off. ‘Make it brilliant but make it now’ is probably what I’d say to you.
RU Kirsten: I remember when I first came in to your office many years ago and someone asked for a good expression for something or other and you just rhymed off about five without taking a breath. How the hell do you do that?! I’ve been a games journalist for six years and I still can’t do that.
Tim: I’m just really good. That, and I’ve always had this obsession with language. I remember the other kids at school accusing me of swallowing a dictionary (I think they said dictionary) because I was always coming out with the big words. These days I can’t stand people being overly florid, and am usually trying to pare down the language to be as efficient as possible, but the love is still there. I remember we had this brilliant French teacher who challenged the entire class to think of a word he wouldn’t know the meaning of, and the best we could manage was ectoplasm because we’d just seen Ghostbusters, but I was amazed by someone who had this total command of language.
RU Kirsten: Online games coverage is really picking up pace and it seems games mags are no longer the first port of call for hardcore fans. How has this affected the way the mags are being run? Has it changed the way you cover games? What feedback are you getting from the readers?
Tim: Well, for one thing it means we have more feedback than ever – with readers able to interact directly with us via Twitter (twitter.com/OPM_UK) and our Facebook group. But yes, online is incredibly important now, especially for news. My view is that magazines – not just games magazines – have to be things of beauty, offering long-form features with insight and real depth, if they’re to remain viable. If you look at some of the heritage stuff we do on old games, or when we really go to town with a cover feature and what we can do in terms of page design, then I absolutely see a bright future for magazines. But there has to be that same commitment to quality from everyone, from the staff writer up to the publishing director, for it to work.
RU Kirsten: Websites like Ready Up, where members of the community have their own voice are becoming more and more popular. Do you think community journalism will have any far reaching effects on the games press?
Tim: I think the effects have already been seismic. The notion that we are handing down tablets of gaming wisdom from Mount Olympus is over. Information is everywhere, and increasingly I see it as our job to cut through the bullshit and bring you the interesting stories. I think you can also make a comparison with sports journalism here. I’ll read both fan stuff to get the raw, emotional reaction, and also stuff from the papers and pro websites because I want smartly written opinion from experts. I know ‘expert’ is a dirty word these days, but why shouldn’t someone be called that if they’ve got years of experience and a big contacts book?
RU Kirsten: What’s your number one tip to budding writers looking to get in to print journalism?
Tim: Write all the time. Start a blog. Identify which writers you like – not just in games, but in cookery, motoring, whatever – and ask yourself why you like their words. What elements of style do they use? Don’t copy, but absolutely do be prepared to break down why someone else’s copy flows and yours doesn’t. Keep writing. Show people. Get feedback. Don’t give up hope. I read about how hard it is to break in, but I’m about to commission a kid who contacted me via Twitter and sent me some links to pieces he’d written. Sure they were rough and ready, but the spark was unmistakably there. More than anything though, I advise you to read Orwell’s rules of writing.We used to have them pinned on the wall, and if you follow them meticulously you won’t go far wrong.
Thanks to Tim Clark there for his advice and insight. For the next and final lesson don’t forget your cap and gown.
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