Mini-Post (June 2021) - The Summer of Gaming Events, Virtual Edition
Advice on how to keep your sanity during this part of the year
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It’s one of the busiest times for gaming journalists—E3 Season. Or, as we know it in these times, the Endless Summer of Conferences and Pain. Things do seem a little more condensed than last year, where months of conferences frayed on our sanity just as much as lockdown did, but there are still multiple weeks of events and news to be had. Well, presumably… not even E3 seems to know what’s going on with their own event.
Did I mention all the game releases, too? It’s a lot. Today, we’re going to talk about events season, and what you can do to keep yourself healthy during it.
1. Keep Track of Event Times
This first tip might be the hardest, really! You can’t really plan for conferences and events if you don’t know when they are. Easier said than done, though—without E3 to confine most of the conferences, companies just announce their stuff wherever and whenever. Use something like Gfinity’s excellent Upcoming Games Events round-up to keep on top of the conferences, and add them to your calendar app, if you use one.
2. Keep your pitches related to events, or other timely subjects
Events season is wild for everyone, and that includes editors. If you pitch them a feature or something else that can probably wait for a news-heavy publication… well, it will probably wait and get drowned out in the hundreds of other emails flooding in. This can be less true for smaller/indie sites, but some of them also try to take advantage of the excitement with articles and features tailored to the season.
So, try to keep most of your pitches…
Offering to help with news shifts for event season
Features/content related to various conferences
Help with game releases coming out during event season that staff may not have time for
Of course, as with anything pitching-related, there are exceptions to this but generally keep it in mind when sending emails this month.
3. Make sure not to take too much work on
It’s really tempting to say yes to everyone when you get a bunch of editors in your inbox asking for help—especially when freelancing relies on how much work you do.
But if you take on too much work, you’ll burn yourself out, miss deadlines, and other not great things. Make sure you know what’s happening when with point number one, and then gauge what you can do with work you have already accepted before saying yes.
Trust me, you’ll make a lot of money during this season anyway!
4. Make sure your food situation is worked out!
This sounds silly, but if you’re going to be working long shifts, make sure you have your kitchen stocked. Healthy snacks like fruit will keep your energy up, and coffee will generally be better for caffeine than soda or energy drinks. Also, make sure you have meals that are either easy to make or prepared in advance! Unless you’re planning on eating out or getting delivery, that is. Just make sure to eat.
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