Dreaming – Continuing To Grow And Challenge Ourselves

My family loves Broadway musicals and listens to a lot of soundtracks, especially when relaxing at home. Recently, my daughter’s play list keeps “randomly” selecting The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha. I love this song, yet until I listened to it numerous times recently, I didn’t realize it was relevant to my freelancing. The famous line in this song is “To dream the impossible dream,” but it is a couple lines later in the song that keep coming back to me…

“And I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I’m laid to my rest”

Dreaming in this song is defined as an aspiration or goal. Questing is the active pursuit of that dream. This song encourages us to strive for our dreams, for only then will we know peace. Success is not the ultimate end goal, but the striving is what makes us better. Yes, we hope we succeed at many of our dreams, but even those we do not help us grow. This song really has me thinking about my own dreams in life, and I want to share some of my freelance dreams and how I am questing for them as a way to encourage you to quest for your dreams.

• Become an RPG Editor – Currently, I work mostly on freelance rpg proofreading projects with only a couple small projects as an editor. I would like to continue to develop my skills and experience to the point where I can be a full editor on major projects.
• Become a Tabletop Game Manual Writer – I have proofread two board game manuals. I would like to build my skills as a proofreader and editor of game manuals with the eventual goal of being able to help publishers develop and write them. Game manuals really can set the tone and experience of a board or card game. To know I am helping others learn and enjoy a game would be a wonderful feeling.
• Mentor Others in Freelancing – I have been blessed with some great mentors to start off my freelancing career. I would like to develop the experience and build the reputation where I could someday mentor others as well. This blog is a small start toward that dream.

Now that you have read a few of my dreams and my quests for them, what are your dreams as a freelancer in the game industry? How are you actively pursuing or questing for those dreams?