Other people are posting about more practical stuff. When I said you can’t really “be” an author, I was nitpicking about what the word means. An author is a person who has, at some point in the past, written something.
If you have ever written a thing, you are the author of that thing. You are an author forever. (If the thing got published, you are a published author. Forever.) But it doesn’t say anything about who you are or what you are doing now.
I have spent years surrounded by authors, and they never called themselves authors. They were historians, philosophers, critics, theologians, freelancers, etc. If one of them said he was an author, a possible response might be, “Yes of course, but what have you been up to lately?” It doesn’t really work as an identity.
Maybe it’s a minor point, but I find it useful to think that way.
@TechDragon610 I haven’t always been interested in the gaming industry, as a game developer, to be completely honest. Although I’m an avid gamer, making a game never came to mind until I discovered ChoiceScript.
As a kid, I never actually read any gamebooks. I don’t think I’ve even laid eyes on something like a gamebook, in physical form, in my whole life. Which kind of saddens me. As I said in my original post, “Popcorn, Soda … Murder?” was the thing that brought me into the word of multiple-choice fiction, but it wasn’t until several years later I started avidly reading Interactive Fiction. (<-- this actually wasn’t clearly stated)
There’s just something about having a choices in games that makes me feel so much more involved in the story; like I’m my own character, instead of someone scripted to act or feel a certain way.
These games – CoG’s and HG’s – have truly made my day(s). When I was sad or lonely, I could wander away from reality and find adventures among adventures.
I’m actually a rather negative person. I give up too easily. I let fear drag me down. So it’s nice to remember these things.
@BabbleYaggle Ah, I see. That was my second assumption. I read an article recently (just about) stating the same thing. And it’s pretty accurate. I suppose I do use the term “author” as a broad term; I guess I think of it as, “Someone with a successful piece of writing (like a book).” But I’m still unsure what EXACTLY I would define myself as.
