That actually sounds quite fun, one might think. But what does sober reality look like?
It’s 8 a.m. The children outside are screaming and waking me up. For a brief moment, I hate them because I had too little sleep. In the next moment, I hate myself for hating them, because after all, they are on their way to school and already doing something productive. I turn back around.
At 10 I wake up again. I know that Schuhmann has surely been spinning since 8 a.m. this morning, keeping the site running. I also know that I look like the living dead and could surely sleep until noon. My bad conscience drives me out of bed anyway. Or was it the playing children from the school across the street making such an unspeakable noise? I navigate around everything, have breakfast, and shower, trying to look somewhat human. I do something trivial, a task that doesn’t require my brain. Doing the laundry. Vacuuming. Lying in the sun.
Only around 11 do I finally turn on the PC and check the list. “The list” determines how I plan my day now. It contains the current news that have been unearthed from the depths of the internet. A new skin in Smite, a new boss in World of Warcraft, some idiot in America has swatted someone again, and new information about the upcoming Rift update.
Some texts practically fall from my fingers. When it comes to World of Warcraft, Smite, or the eternal sexism debate in video games, I fall into a little writing frenzy. 400, 500, 600 words are rarely a problem. An exciting topic, plenty of content, and lots of room for personal opinions. Works.
Those are the fun things, like Mecker Wednesday and almost all news about games that I enjoy.
The unpleasant tasks
Other texts are more challenging. Let’s take the Rift news. I haven’t played it. Writing a little article about it that informs people and also conveys the impression that the author knows what they are talking about is not so easy. Maybe the topic will simply vanish from “the list” if I ignore it long enough. Most of the time that doesn’t happen – but if it does, I feel bad. It would have been my job, but I’ve put it off until it’s no longer relevant. Well done, Cortyn. That’s how you get ahead in life.
I do take my work seriously. I want to do well even with news that I don’t like at all – if I have to. Overcoming the inner demon is, however, difficult. If I have to spend several hours researching a topic just to understand the basics, the task doesn’t become very attractive. And yet, I sometimes write that too – but if I write something, I want it to be good. Because rolling your head over the keyboard can be done by anyone. I don’t want to be like everyone else. I want to write good texts. Just like every good worker wants to do good work. Ah, damn.
At around 2 p.m. the day is finally structured. At least for me. Schuhmann has surely been figuring out who publishes which news at what time since 8 a.m. this morning. When he’s particularly stressed, I leave him an anime picture that stretches across “the list“. Cute girls with big eyes. It’s actually meant as a gift, but I believe he thinks I want to annoy him.
Anything goes, nothing is mandatory.
Currently, my area of responsibility is between 2-5 news articles per day. I could probably produce significantly more if I wanted to. And that’s where the problem lies. I don’t really believe that I’m lazy, but incredibly easily distracted. I just wanted to find out the name of an item in WoW that I needed for a news piece, but suddenly I’m in the middle of a pet battle. And I still have to do the weekly raid. Or I could engage with that nice paladin up front and role-play for a moment …
At 2 a.m. I then look desperately at the clock. What started as a short RP has turned into a full evening program again. The Skype call asking whether we want to “play a round or two of Heroes of the Storm“ didn’t really help either in utilizing my productivity.
Sometimes, when the green tea still doesn’t let me sleep, I write a news piece for the next day. After all, a new card for HearthStone has been announced. But basically, I’m just soothing my bad conscience preemptively, knowing that I will have it again tomorrow when I roll back over in bed at 8 a.m.
It’s 4:30 a.m. The sun begins to dawn and I turn off the anime. The bed calls for me.
I check once more on the list. Title: Monday Special. Author: Cortyn.
I enter “Yes” in the “Sent?” column. And then this text is done. I love my job.
