Hi, I'm Micky

That's been my life in many ways but let's focus on just one for the time being: how I became a writer. I started at Blizzard as an artist. 2-D, then 3-D. During that time I edited game scripts and wrote dialogue and in time I became a voice director. For a few years I was writing boss lines and trailer VO for World of Warcraft, then auditioning actors for the parts and directing the voice sessions (I can't tell you how rewarding it is for a writer to cast folks who can speak your words so close to the way you hear them in your head).

Some authors would rather watch Manos: Hands of Fate repeatedly (without the Satellite of Love crew commentary) than write an outline. Here's my advice: if you're not on any kind of real schedule, and you do your best writing through exploration, go for it. Strike out into the great wide open of literary discovery and see where it takes you. If, however, you're working on an assignment with a deadline, or you're co-authoring a project (like I did with James Waugh on Curse of the Worgen), outline! It makes a lot more sense to map out your story up front and to identify road blocks when you're dealing with 10 pages or less than it does to just toss your map in the lake and wing it, even if you think you've got it all worked out in your head.

The midday sun fixed its unflinching gaze upon the sands of Silithus, bearing mute witness to the multitudes forming ranks outside the Scarab Wall. It continued its passage, though to the masses gathered below, it seemed as though the orb had stopped to cast down unrelenting waves of heat until the vast armies simply collapsed from exposure.