Observation of Quality

Being a writer involves being a reader. It's no big surprise that most writers are very discriminating about what they read. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I know that when I read a badly written article, it can cause something akin to nausea. I'm not talking about a few typos here and there; think tense shifts, there/their/they're and your/you're misuse, etc.

So for me, being fairly unproven in the field, it's gratifying to see that writers who I think well of are fond of the same things that I am. To me, it's a small acknowledgment of my ability to recognize quality which then allows me to be more confident of my own judgment.

For example, I'm a gamer in every sense of the word. I just love games, whether they be board games, card games, or video games. So I end up reading a lot of articles about games and gaming.

Among other things, I own a PS3. To keep up to date, I follow two websites fairly regularly: PSX Extreme and the Official Playstation Blog. Being a bit of a social networker, I've reached out to both Ben Dutka, PSXE's editor-in-chief, and Jeff Rubenstein, the Playstation brand's Social Media Manager. Not long ago, Jeff posted something through the Playstation Twitter feed with a link to Ben's review of the upcoming game Heavy Rain. I replied to it that I was glad to see Ben's work get some much deserved recognition (it really is a fantastic review and well worth the read) only to get a reply fairly quickly from Jeff about how much he likes Ben and the rest of the PSXE team's work.

While it's not as good as seeing glowing praise for my own work, seeing someone agree with the glowing praise I give to someone else's work has its own good feeling attached to it. For me, it adds to my self-confidence in my ability as a writer. And whether that's valid or not, sometimes it's what I need to be able to keep writing, which can only improve my ability. So it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.