Urgent Request for Telltale Staff
Hello. I am trying to find and reach Telltale Staff, as I cannot find any links in which I can reach out to someone at Telltale; all I can find are former staff members, and Customer Support. In the latter's case 2 days ago, I was notified to reach out here in Forums instead.
I am an aspiring writer who has independently created a comprehensive, complex story over the past 6+ years that I would dearly like the opportunity to request an audience with Telltale to pitch my story to them. I believe it carries a lot of potential to bring a high quality story that can greatly revive an old Telltale IP, or possibly even establish a new IP entirely.
If anyone from Telltale Staff sees this, it would mean the world to me to be able to have the opportunity to present this idea to you.
If anyone else who knows where I can find and contact the appropriate staff member/department of Telltale to message with this, please let me know ASAP.
Comments
Telltale is no longer the behemoth it once was (and no longer owns the rights to many of its old IPs). They are pretty well occupied now with their current projects and have made it clear they don't have time for additional ones. Even when Telltale did have more staff, they mostly worked on stories with built-in fan bases already, not completely original ones. Sorry, but I think you would be better off pitching your story to another company.
Just some words of encouragement
You didn’t say if you had a portfolio of writing for video games or other media in your post. Building one would probably be the first step in pitching your idea to telltale. Telltale is a well known studio with a focus on narrative, so your experience is probably what will get your idea in the door more than the idea itself.
Hope you get to bring your vision to life!
In that case, circumstances do work in my favor just a little bit, as the old IP I have in mind does have a fanbase, and I believe they COULD pick it up again, if said IP is still under their belt. I do know that they've been working on a new IP with the Expanse, but yes, this would definitely be a future thing, if it even gets to happen. I only say that it could become a new IP, if Telltale decides to not pick up said old IP again; The story I wish to pitch does have potential to be modified into its own IP, without using any of said old IP content. That said, it has the most potential if it gets to take place within the old IP. That original IP idea can be pitched to other companies, but the original idea I can only pitch to Telltale, as that is where the most can be made out of the story.
I've never officially written for any media or company before, but I do have 6 or so years of experience writing fan fictions and other stories, recreationally and online. I don't know if that'll mean much, but at the very least I could share some of my writings with them so they could see what I could bring to the table; my only official(?) writing achievement was in winning a short story writing contest in college 2 years ago. But personally, I would hope that they at least hear me out in regards to the story I'm hoping to pitch, because we never know; maybe they might actually like it, maybe they'll like it but want to make some changes, maybe they'll reject it but offer me the opportunity to try writing a new, different story for them... or maybe they'll just reject it entirely, only time will tell. But, win or lose, I'd be happy to have at least been able to share my story with them.
I’d like to share some thoughts with you. I hope you find some use in them and if not I still wish you the best in your pursuits.
When you’ve written recreationally and online for six years, you’re not an aspiring writer, you are a writer. If you’re aspiring to write professionally then that is a very different ballpark. You’re writing to get paid. There might be a negative connotation or impression from that, but it’s really not a bad thing. There’s just tactics that have to be involved along with your craft.
I’m not a professional writer. I was an aspiring writer, and if the stars align I might make it a reality some day, but I have researched into the field enough to know what’s involved.
When you are a writer, you are essentially a brand. You are selling your writing style. There’s creative freedom, but there’s also discipline in how you channel it. It’s the art of conveying ideas in an effective manner.
Obviously if you’re eager about any art form you know how important it is to hone your technique, but there’s also snowballing and networking. The goal is gripping writing that travels, and to do that you need the name and the means to broadcast your work. The fact that you won the short story contest is a good thing. Merits do not dictate good writing, but it communicates that what you wrote spoke to the audience. Keep it up.
If you get overwhelmed remember the snowball; the only way it will get bigger is if you keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing. You want something people will remember.
You got this. I have faith in you.
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it!
And as a matter of fact, you worded it better; professional writing is exactly what I want to do for a dream career; to make a living writing the stories that can be made (most likely by whatever company I'm writing the story for) into movies, shows, or my personal favorite: Video games. It's my passion, and this Story I've spent so many years writing (hopefully) for Telltale, is my passion project.
One of my biggest experiences in writing growth was, surprisingly, through online roleplaying with countless other people in online communities, such as Discord. It really gave me a lot of experience in researching and portraying as a lot of characters from many fictional platforms in a wide variety of entertainment media, and also helped me construct stories that are flexible and reactive (for better or worse) to the actions of other roleplayers; a lot like what Telltale does with their games!
Thank you for the encouragement, and I do hope that you too can achieve your goals and dreams as a fellow writer. We all have stories to tell, and I really hope that those who we want to hear our stories, hear them.