Don't forget, if you're new to RPG writing but want to make a start, please contact Onyx Path and follow the submission guidelines on http://theonyxpath.com ! It's very important to follow the guidelines, so please do it.

What follows is some submission writing advice!

Attach a completed NDA with your submission or we won't read it. That's an easy one.

It never hurts to attach a brief covering letter (a couple of paragraphs at most), telling us who you are, if you've had any previous credits (they're not essential), and the games you most want to write on. Don't be self-deprecating, "amusing", or tell us how bad our games are.

Your submission shouldn't go beyond 1,000 words and is best if it's a roughly even mixture of setting and system. It shows you can fit into anywhere on a book. You don't need to invent a brand new system though. See the next Tweet.

My common advice is write your submission for the game you know best, and write 300-500 words of descriptive "power" text, i.e. "Percy Grumbleduke created the Levitate Discipline in 1765 CE while Anwar Branagh of Clan Von Vandervon besieged his tower in the Alps, etc. etc.

Follow that with 500 or so words of the first few dots of the Discipline / the first few Gifts this tribe uses / a few sample Cinematics, etc. and again, don't reinvent the wheel. Study existing powers of this type and follow that system set up to write your one.

This all shows you know the game and its system.

The next tips are general writing advice before getting back to the meat of submissions:
- Avoid passive voice
- Spell check
- Read your work aloud, as it'll show you if your sentence structure is bollocks
- Avoid adverbs

Back to the meat.

You may make a submission for Werewolf and find your first game is Aberrant. You may make a submission for Dystopia Rising and find your first game is Scion. Writers are assigned word count where the word count is needed. If that happens, learn the new game.

You may make a submission and never hear back. We get a lot of them.

You may make a submission and hear back over a year later. I know this, because I've hired writers who submitted drafts many years before.

You may make a submission and get hired immediately. This is rare.

If you don't hear back, wait three to six months and make a new submission but for a different game. Show you know multiple settings and systems. It helps!

If you worked for us in the past, it's possible we've not hired you recently because we're trying out any number of the 200+ freelance writers we hire for our books. Just send an email to ask if there are any spots, and by all means ask for feedback on your last assignment.

My final thought, for now:

The freelance industry, as with most contract work, operates largely on a "don't ask, don't get" basis. If you're waiting for work to come to you, you need lots of good credits for your wishes to come true. For most of us, we need to hunt down work.