Writing for TheGamer

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I love lists! (Case in point here.)

They cater to the organizational part of my soul, and they also appeal to my predilection for nonessential items that contribute diddly-squat to actual effort but can appear to be a productive part of the planning process.

Side note: Daaaaaamn! Did you guys see the alliteration at the end of that sentence?

Anywaysies, I love lists!

I’ve already published a few list-related posts on this here bloggy thing, but I’ve completely forgotten to give a shout-out to the website I work for, a website that lets me write lists for work. (Awesome, right?)

TheGamer is an entertaining site that I contribute to. It has a bunch of features and listicles about gaming and pop culture, and it’s updated every day, so there is always new content.

Side note: I only recently found out that the word “listicle” is an actual word used to describe list-based articles. So all those BuzzFeed lists you read are technically called listicles.

My adoration for lists and video games has definitely come in handy over the course of writing for TheGamer, and despite the supposed superficiality of writing lists about fictional sources, this job has really fulfilled me in a way I’m only just beginning to appreciate.

I could not consider my life my own unless I was spending it writing. No matter how trivial my lists might seem, TheGamer is allowing me to share my writing with a wider audience. And it is totally awesome when my words connect with another person.

A while back, I wrote up a list about Darth Vader. For one of the items on the list, I talked about the Rogue One Darth Vader scene, the one where he absolutely murdalizes those Rebels. I praised that scene heartily as I wrote about it. I have friends who are only casually into Star Wars, and before Rogue One came out, they kind of thought Darth Vader was a joke. I can’t say I blame them. In the first movie, Darth Vader kind of just ambles around, looking threatening but not actually doing anything scary. So no matter how much I tried to convince my buddies how terrifying Darth Vader could be, they didn’t really believe it or understand what it felt like for me when I was a kid and Darth Vader swept into a room with a long dark cloak and a helmet from hell.

via: geektyrant.com

But that hallway scene from Rogue One showed all of my friends the might of Darth Vader that they hadn’t seen before. It showed them the Darth Vader I had always known was there.

I have to admit, I got very nostalgic as I was writing this list.

After that list was published, a man reached out to me on Twitter. He went out of his way to tell me that he appreciated my words regarding that moment, saying he felt the exact same way.

That was it. That trivial, clickbaity list did not win me any accolades, but it did reach one person, and that’s all I can ask for when it comes to my writing. I just want it to reach one person. And that’s it.

(I mean, if it reaches more than one, that’s great, but let’s not split hairs here.)

And TheGamer, May the Force Be with Them, gave me the opportunity to do that.

Here’s a link to their website. Give it a look-see, if you want. You may be surprised at the passion that these list-writers bring to their lists.

I should know. I’m one of them.