Journalists’ Secret Handshake

I always feel like when I make just a little bit more money on a story, or get into a magazine with a slightly higher circulation, I’ll feel like a real writer.

But right now, whenever I receive a press pass, I think I’ve tricked the event organizers into letting me go. When I receive review games, I worry that the developers are wasting a copy on me. They’ll send me a game, just for talking about it? That can’t be real! While I’m getting better at calling myself a writer, I still think it requires qualifiers. Yeah, I’m a writer, but not like a real book or anything! Fake writing! On the internet! Yes, just like your friend who posts pictures of her cats on Blogspot! Only not about cats. Wanna see a story I did in a publication you’ve never heard of, about a game you’ve never heard of?

So this weekend, Harold was a guest Big Apple Comic Con and I went along with him. We were barely inside when I was asked for directions to press registration.  Over the rest of the weekend, several guys at the con asked me which artists I was covering or who I was writing for. Even though I was really just there with Harold, I felt like a proper writer.

I’m going to assume it’s because I seem like such an awesome indie journalist, and not that my smalltalk skills resemble pre-story interrogation.