I don’t have a big network of creatives I know. I have my editor, my cover artist, and a voice actor that has been surprisingly difficult to get a hold of (but I know she’s going through a lot so I’m happy to be patient). I know one successful writer who has become a full-time editor (the extremely talented Stephen Kotowych), and I used to run a writers group that had one successful writer who then moved to Colombia to teach English. But that’s kinda it…
Oh, I also know a few other podcasters. Most of have since stopped podcasting, tragically, but I know a few that were quite good.
Anyway, the whole reason I bring this up is because I firmly believe in doing whatever I can to help other creatives. That usually means paying them for their work and avoiding any use of LLMs for anything remotely creative, as a bare minimum, but it also means things like talking about other podcasts when I record my own (usually as a “Hey, I’ve been listening to X-Y-Z, you might enjoy it!”). It means sharing table space at a convention to help other authors get some visibility. And it means promoting my friend’s stores when I have the opportunity (like the wonderful friendly local gaming store Valhalla Games in Kitchener!).
This past weekend, I had the chance to help out a guy do a Battletech-related thing. He needed me to hop onto a Mechwarrior 5 server, and stand around in a Mech so he could get shots of it for a project he’s doing. And since I happened to have a free day, I figured… why not!
Turns out he didn’t realize he needed a heap of mods, and I needed those same mods, and so several GBs of downloads later, and he had run out of time.
It was a little frustrating, but only because if I were going to request somebody help with one of my projects (and I do! I frequently ask friends to lend me their voices for recording), I try to have everything ready for them, to make it as seamless as possible. Here’s your script and a highlighter if you want! Here are drinks, that’s your mic, do you have any questions, etc… etc…
This guy was just… sorta… “Hey, I need help. I guess we’ll figure out how it will work later!”
Felt weird. I hope I can still help him later (although a free weekend night is exceptionally rare!), but it got me thinking about how I try to help others and what I expect from others when they offer to help me…
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!