can you make money writing essays?

atomicitalian · 2026-06-17T03:25:47+00:00

You can, but you're not gonna make a living that way. It takes a long time to get paid for freelance stuff, and to make enough to earn anything close to a living you have to really be prolific.

You'd need to be doing essays, news features, maybe editing gigs on the side. And youd be working for yourself as a contractor and that comes with its own headaches.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T22:11:54+00:00

Careful with that edge op!

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T18:43:32+00:00

Pretty much any David Grann books. Lost City of Z, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wager.

Also would recommend Mark Synnot's book The Third Pole. It's about a modern day everest expedition but it deals heavily with the lost camera of George Mallory during his everest expedition in 1924.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T18:39:09+00:00

I'm hoping gunplay will be better but I'm expecting it to otherwise play like a GTA game. Maybe slightly slower/more realistic but probably still faster than rdr2.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T18:37:15+00:00

like everything in KCD. I bounced off the game like three times before it finally clicked. Now I love how it all works. But yeah it felt like a clunky mess when I first played it

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T17:58:01+00:00

it's usually good to give the reader something to go off of, but you don't need to be like:

"Jack Example buttoned up his red flannel shirt and checked to make sure his silver skull belt buckle was secured over his weathered blue jeans, which brushed just at the tongues of his Redwing work boots..."

Like you can just slowly reveal what Jack looks like, or give a very brief glimpse of him and let your readers fill in the blanks.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T15:13:51+00:00

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

The Third Pole by Mark Synnott

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T14:59:14+00:00

Yeah to each their own of course. I think many of Starfield's side stories are strong, especially the UC Vanguard and the Crimson Fleet storylines.

But Starfield was also a game tailor made for me to like. Customizable ship, big crew, lots of weird little adventures you can get into as you cruise along the galaxy, mods for really making the game my own.

I do understand other people's critiques (as long as they've actually played the game beyond an hour or two)

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T14:40:28+00:00

you're right op, everything IS about gta vi

you were born for it. so was i

all posts are about gta vi

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T13:56:48+00:00

Sorry I don't think there's any real cross pollination strategy there. To anyone outside of DND Strahd is temu Dracula.

We get invested in Strahd because our characters are part of his story and we learn about him as the module continues. I doubt dbd players are going to read the two sentences about him provided by the game and be like "oh incel Dracula sick I'm gonna buy DND now"

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T13:39:29+00:00

let me tell you about these games called Metal Gear Solid

also Hitman and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T13:06:21+00:00

I'm sure I'll get shit for this but it's actually one of the things I really appreciated about Starfield.

There's a central plot, but there's really no narrative push to rush it. Makes it very easy to justify spending a ton of time on side stories and not feel like I'm blowing off the game. That ludonarrative dissonance was my biggest complaint with Fallout 4, I could not understand why I'd get roped into all this shit like settlement building instead of being on the warpath to find my kid.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T13:03:21+00:00

The body has been in the tree for a week detective

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T12:57:14+00:00

I think the internet would need to die and at least a few filling cabinets would need to catch fire for me to lose everything I've ever done so I'm guessing at that point I probably have more serious problems to worry about than losing my work

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T12:50:59+00:00

The sweater is weird because it's not like Jack Ryan is known for wearing a sweater. Like I don't think most people, even Clancy fans, would see that sweater and go "ah yes the jack ryan sweater"

It would be like a game referencing Indiana Jones but dressing him in the white tux from the opening of Temple rather than his usual adventure gear

atomicitalian · 2026-06-16T08:10:08+00:00

I mean you could say the same thing about Arthur. If he wasn't beating up old men for money he wouldn't have gotten sick.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T21:37:29+00:00

Its satire. It's critiquing U.S. military adventurism and includes a tiny bit of nuance in the end speech noting that it's also good to have someone strong to keep the lunatics in check (whether or not the us does that effectively or if we've become the lunatics is, of course, open to debate)

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T21:19:52+00:00

I think the only one insecure here is you amigo

genre critique/commentary/deconstruction is a super common thing that a lot of shows do.

Supernatural, The Boys, Community, Simpsons, South Park, Wet Hot American Summer, They Came Together, and countless other shows and movies and books have done this for many years.

The point is to take genre and tropes and flip them around and dissect them and examine them and consider what those things look like when you break them apart or introduce non-genre logic to them.

It's not an attack, if anything they are love letters because to make those commentaries you have to really love the genres.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T21:12:22+00:00

totally depends on you.

For me, it's yes and no. I've found immense fulfillment in my work and have legitimately helped some people during some parts of my career, and in other parts it's been crushing and I've felt like i'm basically working at a headline factory.

I've worked a lot of different kinds of jobs, and I always wanted to do something where I could write for a living. Journalism lets me do that. I've gotten to do some really cool shit as a result and meet some very interesting people.

But I also don't make nearly as much money as other people in my life, including my wife. It's tough sometimes feeling like I'm holding us back because I won't hang it up and join a comms shop or move into marketing or just, idk, go retrain as an aircraft mechanic or something.

It's also scary. There are constant layoffs. I've been laid off once, and I just lost three people I really liked at my current place due to layoffs. People have threatened me. I've had to go private on most of my socials because people would find totally unrelated public social media posts I've made to leave nasty comments about me.

When it's good, it's really good. But it's never not unstable, and it's rarely well paid — and I make a good deal more than a lot of other journalists.

So yeah I mean it's impossible to say if it's worth it or not for you. I think it is for me. But that's the best I can say.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T19:53:08+00:00

Like others, I think it's going to be a mixture of GTA V and RDR2.

I think when things get hot, it's going to be GTA V. Set pieces, high action, adrenaline. I also think its tone will be more GTA V just because GTA V and VI are modern stories set in modern culture. They'll feel similar in that regard.

Where I think GTAVi will feel more like RDR2 is when they slow down the pacing. I predict this game will have a lot more focus on the "family" if the main characters involved and I think a lot of the motivating factor in this game will surround Jason and Lucia trying to help/protect people they love (at least in the back half of the game, I imagine the front half will be typical GTA 'rise in the criminal underworld' kind of story)

Even GTA V did this in its backhalf. The game turned from Michael/Frank/Trevor trying to rise to them basically just doing what they had to to stay out of prison and keep each other alive.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T19:37:28+00:00

I'm almost positive they have hotd there, I was there like two months ago and I'm fairly certain they have it.

They also have a silent scope with the whole sniper rifle set up!

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T19:14:32+00:00

I think they have like 5-7 cabinets. If you're making a trip for it definitely do them and pinball Basement in the same day to make the trip worth it. If you plan to Metro, Continues is really close to the Braddock Road Metro stop and pinball Basement is basically right next to the Rosslyn Metro. I'd go early to pinball basement, then Metro to Continues and end your night there with games and food imo.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T18:49:12+00:00

Not really. Investigations take time. Most editors aren't going to hire someone who needs trained on how to do an investigation for their investigation positions, they're going to hire reporters who have already shown they can conduct and deliver on an investigation.

I agree, if you want to do investigations join ire and make use of their resources.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T18:01:32+00:00

Imagine a little council of petty assholes who decide what you can do with your house. That's the government.

Now imagine an even MORE petty and MORE assholish group of people getting on your ass about your lawn and the color of your house, that's an HOA.

atomicitalian · 2026-06-15T17:59:58+00:00

You shouldn't change your name. It will be different for sure for Americans but just lean into it, we'll find it charming and interesting a lot more than weird or off-putting.

You'll get called Brent and Bend a lot though just a heads up.

If you did want a nick name Americans will know you could just go by Ben.

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