My big break came when I answered\u00a0a Wizards\u00a0of the Coast open call for novel ideas set in the Forgotten Realms setting in early 2000. They were looking for some new novelists, and I sent in a submission package that eventually led to Temple Hill, my first novel.<\/p>\n
As for breaking into games, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was working on my Masters in English at the\u00a0University\u00a0of\u00a0Alberta\u00a0(also in 2000) when I saw a small ad from\u00a0BioWarein the English Department newsletter. They were looking for writers. I had the contract for the Forgotten Realms novel under my belt, and\u00a0BioWare\u00a0was famous for the Baldur\u2019s Gate series, which was set in the Forgotten Realms. It seemed like a natural fit. I started working in the spring of 2000 and everything just took off from there.<\/p>\n
For those of you who haven’t read my original fantasy trilogy… why not? If you like the way I tell stories in my games, you should check them out. If you loved my Star Wars and Mass Effect novels, you should give these a shot. I honestly believe you’ll enjoy them immensely. Learn more about my Chaos Born novels<\/a> here!<\/p>\n For those of you who did read (and hopefully enjoyed) my Chaos Born books, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is you’ve got a complete story all ready to go – you won’t have to wait 10+ years to find out how the story ends! (Ahem.) But as of right now, that’s all you get; there aren’t any plans to continue the trilogy. (But if you’re a big Hollywood producer looking to snap up the rights, hit me up on my CONTACT<\/a> page!)<\/p>\n I’ve always got a few things cooking in my kitchen. The best thing to do is follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and check my NEWS<\/a> blog regularly. And visit my NOVELS<\/a> page to see a complete list of my latest books!<\/p>\n You\u2019ve probably heard this before, but the truth is there is no magic formula or easy answer. Write, write,\u00a0write. Revise. Rewrite. Write some more. Send your stuff out and be ready for rejections. Many, many, many rejections. If the rejections make comments, take them to heart. Don\u2019t necessarily change anything, just be aware of what they are saying and reevaluate your work.<\/p>\n Obviously I’m aware of the controversy surrounding the endings, and I think anyone who played the games is entitled to voice their opinion (in a respectful and mature way).<\/p>\n As for me, I didn’t work on ME 3 at all and I haven’t played it yet, so I don’t want to comment on the endings until I see them for myself… and by see them I mean play the entire game, not just watch some out of context video posted on the net.<\/p>\n I’ve ranted about people having opinions based on out of context snippets of content before; it happened to me with both my Revan novel and the last Bane novel. I believe if you don’t experience the entire piece then you aren’t really getting the full effect.<\/p>\n I also don’t want to talk about previous endings that were kicked around, because we always knew the game would evolve, so there were a lot of things on the table… and none of them were beyond the vague idea stage. I do talk about this in my March 15 <\/a>news update, so you can read that if you’re curious to hear the long version.<\/p>\n I worked on the Mass Effect franchise for several years while living in Edmonton. But eventually I decided it would be better for me and my wife if we moved to Austin, Texas. Since the ME series was being developed in Edmonton, it wouldn’t have been feasible for\u00a0me to continue on as lead writer. Instead, I transferred over to the Star Wars: The Old Republic team to work on it. I have since retired from BioWare to work on a variety of other gaming and non-gaming related projects.<\/p>\n The third novel in the Bane series \u2013 Dynasty of Evil \u2013 hit shelves on December 8, 2009. Check out my\u00a0Novels<\/a> section for a summary and\u00a0pic\u00a0of the cover art. Right now there are no plans to do another one, but you never know what the future holds.<\/p>\n I actually address this in the Dynasty of Evil entry on my Novels<\/a> page. You can check out the full story there.<\/p>\n Okay, this is becoming a theme. So… the Revan novel continues the story of Revan and the Exile after the events of KOTOR 1 and 2. But it doesn’t complete Revan’s story. The novel bridges the gap between the original KOTOR games and what happens in the Star Wars Online MMO developed by BioWare. If you want to know what happens AFTER the Revan novel, you’ll have to play the game. Or check out the Wookieepedia Revan<\/a> entry if you just want a summary of the story.<\/p>\n Not really. I don\u2019t have anything to do with hiring people – I’m just a writer. If you want to break into the industry in general, check out the\u00a0Game Developers\u2019 Conference<\/a> and\u00a0Gamma Sutra<\/a>, a website devoted to game developers. I\u2019d also strongly recommend the\u00a0Guildhall at SMU<\/a> \u2013Bioware\u00a0hires a lot of people from that program, and they have a great placement rate.<\/p>\n No. Absolutely not. There are very strong legal reasons I can\u2019t look at submissions, ideas, or unpublished work from other writers. It just opens the door to all kinds of messy litigation, so I don\u2019t do it. Aside from that, I\u2019m juggling two careers right now. Between working on games for\u00a0BioWare\u00a0and writing my own stuff I don\u2019t have time to help other people out with their projects. Besides, what you want is a good editor, not a writer. I know my own style but I probably can\u2019t help you with your work \u2013 editors have an entirely different set of skills. Plus, I need time to work on my golf game.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t care. Don\u2019t send it to me. The last\u00a0thing\u00a0I need are ideas. I have more ideas than I\u2019ll ever use. Ideas are the easy part. Everybody has ideas. Transforming ideas into something suitable for public consumption is the hard part; that\u2019s what I get paid for. That\u2019s the art and profession of being a writer. If you really think your idea is good, then you turn it into something useful. Either that, or pay me a hefty up-front fee and I\u2019ll do it for you. But I don\u2019t work cheap.<\/p>\n No. Most Canadians are polite, helpful and modest. I\u2019m actually on a special list of Canadians authorized to engage in rude and anti-social behavior, along with Tom Green, William\u00a0Shatner, AlexTrebek, Jim Carrey and Wayne Gretzky. (Just kidding. I don\u2019t even know those guys. Please don\u2019t sue me.)\u00a0\u00a0Plus, I live in\u00a0Texas\u00a0now, so I\u2019m getting more belligerent by the day.<\/p>\n Karpyshyn\u2026 it\u2019s Ukrainian:\u00a0Kar-pish-in. Rhymes with suspicion, condition and musician:\u00a0kar-pish-in. And if you don\u2019t know how to pronounce \u201cDrew\u201d I can\u2019t help you.<\/p>\n No. Let me brutally honest: Star Wars is the biggest game in town; they have authors banging down their doors to work with them. I had to publish two novels and write the 2003 game of the year before the Star Wars people would even talk to me, so unless you\u2019re an established sci-fi author with numerous novels to your credit they don\u2019t want to hear from you. If you are a well established author, then you don\u2019t need my help \u2013 contact them yourself.<\/p>\n Yes. No. Maybe? That\u2019s tough to answer. I think agents can make things easier, but they don\u2019t necessarily guarantee success\u2026 nor does the lack of an agent equate to failure.<\/p>\n I sold my first ten novels without an agent, but those were “work-for-hire” – novels written in existing universes or settings (like Star Wars or Mass Effect). These novels have very set contracts, and as the author you don’t actually control any of the rights.<\/p>\n However, when I wanted to sell my own work I decided it would be good to have an agent. Luckily, Ginger Clark <\/a>over at Curtis Brown Ltd. decided to represent me based on my previous works, and she managed to sell my original fantasy series (the Chaos Born trilogy) to Del Rey. I honestly believe I got a lot more out of the deal because of her, so I’d say she’s totally worth every penny of commission she gets.<\/p>\n One thing I will mention is that you should NEVER pay an agent any kind of up-front fee.<\/p>\n No, credit goes to EU Cantina, a group of Star Wars fans that helped me out. All code modification and graphics (excluding the three characters on the homepage) were done by them.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tie. Seriously, I can\u2019t answer this. First, it\u2019s not really up to me to make that kind of call. Second, it really depends on the situation. You can probably find rule books for various Star Wars role-playing games that will give you stats allowing you to compare relative strength. But from an artistic and dramatic standpoint, this kind of question has no \u201cright\u201d answer. Each character has strengths and weaknesses, and they grow and change as their stories progress. On any given day, at any given time, under any given circumstance anyone can win or lose. That\u2019s what dramatic conflict is all about.<\/p>\n Okay, so nobody really asks this. But I like to brag about it. Yes, I qualified to appear on Jeopardy. The episode aired in March of 2000. Here\u2019s a cool page showing all the details of my Jeopardy experience \u2013\u00a0J! Archive site<\/a>. I finished 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n You ever been on Jeopardy? No? Then I guess I finished ahead of you, didn\u2019t I? Besides, my buzzer was sabotaged when they saw I was going to win. It\u2019s an anti-Canadian conspiracy. That\u2019s my story and I\u2019m sticking to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How did you get your start in writing and video games? My big break came when I answered\u00a0a Wizards\u00a0of the Coast open call for novel ideas set in the Forgotten Realms setting in early 2000. They were looking for some new novelists, and I sent in a submission package that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drewkarpyshyn.com\/c\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are you working on now?<\/h2>\n
What advice can you give to aspiring writers?<\/h2>\n
What’s up with the ending for Mass Effect 3?<\/h2>\n
Why did you leave the Mass Effect franchise?<\/h2>\n
When does the next Darth Bane novel come out?<\/h2>\n
What happened at the end of Dynasty of Evil? I’m confused.<\/h2>\n
What happened at the end of the Revan novel? I’m confused.<\/h2>\n
I want to break into the video games industry. Can you help me?<\/h2>\n
Will you look at my story, novel, video game script, screenplay, etc?<\/h2>\n
I have the best idea ever for a novel, game, movie\u2026<\/h2>\n
You seem pretty full of yourself. Are all Canadians arrogant jerks?<\/h2>\n
How do you pronounce your last name?<\/h2>\n
I want to write for Star Wars. Can you help me?<\/h2>\n
Do I need an agent?<\/h2>\n
Did you design your web page yourself?<\/h2>\n
Who\u2019s stronger \u2013 Darth Bane, Darth\u00a0Revan\u00a0or Darth Vader?<\/h2>\n
I heard you were on the game show Jeopardy. Is that true?<\/h2>\n
Third? Isn\u2019t that the same as last?<\/h2>\n