When you manage a team of nine or so writers, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks and forget to make time for team building. But for a group of creative people collaborating intensely, trust is key to happiness and productivity. And trust doesn’t grow as naturally over a cube wall as it does over food and drinks after a team outing to the latest Pixar film.
The En Masse Writing team is lucky in that most of us have worked together in the past, some of us on more than one project. Heck, one of us even gave birth to another. We’re a close-knit team, and we like to hang out together even after hours (Cantina Night, anyone?). But as a manager, I try very hard not to take that for granted. So we take over large tables at various downtown Seattle restaurants at least once a month, and when we can, we troop down to the movie theater to recharge our creative batteries. Or downstairs to Starbucks for an impromptu coffee-on-the-boss, just so we can hang out for a bit between deadlines and blow off steam.
Another awesome thing I try not to take for granted: the writers love to play TERA together—especially now that we’re starting to see the content we’ve been working on in places where previously the text was in Hangeul (Korean). It’s amazing to see the characters coming to life, speaking the words we’ve written, telling their stories, and layering in bits of lore here and there. The writers play TERA on and off all day as they research the characters and locations and quests they’re writing about, and yet they’re always happy to jump in and play just for fun, which tells me we’re doing something right. And it’s yet another great way to reinforce the bond between us.
As I write this, I’m celebrating my first year at En Masse. When I started, there were only a handful of people in the office, and I was the only writer. Over the past year we’ve built a solid team that has collaborated with our counterparts at Bluehole Studio to create questlines with global appeal. We’ve written and edited thousands (upon thousands) of words of story and dialog. We’ve filled our website (as well as quite a few others) with TERA lore and information. And we’re only getting started.
Here’s to another great year working and playing with my amazing team.