I am someone who really enjoys writing and have for a long time considered doing it a bit more “professionally.” As an outsider to the writing profession, I am not at all familiar with all the ways in which creative writing could lead to a career, or at least a fulfilling and enjoyable hobby. I picked up this book to see what animation and game writing is all about, and even thought I’ll probably never do any of it for a living, this book still taught me many valuable lessons about these very exciting creative fields.

This book contains a truly remarkable amount of useful and actionable information. About a third of it is dedicated to animation, with the rest covering video games. Material is aimed at the beginners in these fields, although many later concepts may require some prior experience with animation or game writing. The book is filled with thorough and detailed examples and case studies, and it gives a very good overview of what sorts of assignments and work are the game and animation writers expected to encounter. In my opinion, this is not exactly a book for absolute beginners, and some prior experience in writing, animation, or game design would be highly recommended. The book ends with a few excellent tips and suggestions for actually finding animation and writing jobs. The bad news is that there are no easy shortcuts and the straightforward entry points into these fields. One needs to be very dedicated and willing to take a lot of different assignments and routs before really making it as a writer.

The book comes with a companion website, with a lot of additional material. It is overall a very comprehensive resource. Animation and game writing is definitely more art than science, but a book like this one can help avoid much of the aimless wanderings and learning by trial and error. It is very well written and exceptionally helpful. I highly recommend it.