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I'm a Writer, because I blog and write Standard Operating Procedures for a living. I'm a Writer, because I referee tabletop Role-Playing Games and write adventures for my friends.

Late last summer, at the Gen Con gaming convention (One of the biggest in North America), I've met many awesome people from the Role Playing Game (RPG) industry and others like myself, sitting at the edge of it. Many of them are Writers.

I don't know why they are Writers, but I'm a Writer because, given the opportunity to write about the things I love, I would do it 12 hours a day.

Hell, I'd rather write than sleep!

Along with spending time with my family and gaming with my friends, writing makes me satisfied and happy. It brings me in the Flow: Time just stops existing while I spew stuff my mind makes up on the spot, my fingers flying on the keyboard at a speed that nearly matches my excited geek diatribes.

I'm a Writer, and I post my stuff on the Internet because I chose to ignore my doubts and stopped listening to my Inner Demons. I knew I had talent and I've managed to get a lot better since I started writing on-line 18 months ago.

I would love to become a published author of RPG material. In fact, I already am but more projects could become reality by next summer. I'd go absolutely geek-crazy to see my name on a Dungeon/Dragon/Kobolds Quarterly (RPG magazines) article.

If there was a way to make a decent living out of it, I'd quit my job in 5 minutes and never look back. Thing is, in the RPG industry, gamers won't pay 400$ for a printed game system. While some would spend such a sum for getting a graphics cards just to play this "One computer Game", you won't see this happening in the RPG industry. Writers are paid like crap and amateur writer/fans often give out their work for free.

(I'm sure the same thing occurs in other writing fields.)

That's not freaking fair but that's life. I understand why it's like that and thank God that the people in the industry are so nice.Quite often, just having a quick chat (or better yet a game) with a designer you admire makes up for all the work you poured into that adventure you wrote to run for your friends.

Be that as it may, I do not currently have the courage to leave my current job and jeopardize my family's security to pursue the dream of writing full time. I do it in my free time and I make plans...Writers deserve better.

That's why I buy copies of new Role Playing Games I like. I want to support the creators like I hope others will support me some day.

Writers may be paid peanuts, but they deserve all the support they can get. Same thing goes for the talented, gutsy niche bloggers out there. They deserve more recognition for the awesome stuff they've been writing these last few years.

Just look at what Joss Whedon (Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)did with Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Maybe there is something new out there to make it in the current system.

Therein lies the solution, or so I would like to believe.

Toying with perceptions, making truth out of lies and unmaking the impossible, isn't what being a Writer is all about?

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