Well, I brought this up in yesterday’s post, but this week has basically been a long exercise in not getting anything done, and I’m still figuring out how I feel about that. On the one hand, i recognize that sometimes I have to push a bit outside of my comfort zone and do things that are hard for me, and that this will necessarily reduce my capacity to pursue my regular interests, if only, perhaps, temporarily. On the other I’ve maintained a cherished practice of freaking the fuck out whenever I spend more than a week without making substantive progress on my game, and who am I to flout tradition?
So, basically, nothing to see here. No progress on the site: I still need to get a mailing list set up so that people can subscribe to it the way they can subscribe here. No progress on the game: I’ve made tentative steps towards finishing up the player animations and made numerous false starts towards getting a stone tileset done – it’s probably going to be more than one, actually, since it turns out the kind of stone formations typical of most caves are so strange and otherworldly they’d look completely out of place out on the surface world – but definitely nothing substantial. Generally speaking, zero substantial progress for two weeks.
Eh. I’ve had worse dry spells, games-work-wise, and generally for worse reasons.
The fact is, at the point I committed to a streaming schedule for the week, this became what was going to happen. I just got tired, and once I got tired I found it impossible to work. I’m going to be rescheduling my streaming schedule soon – I’m thinking maybe Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 8am-9:30am – and also I’m going to be trying to take some steps to both increase my available pool of energy and to consume it more efficiently. The conclusion I’ve come to from my experience with exhaustion and procrastination and productivity and everything in between is that if you want to actually get shit done you have to be honest about how things affect you and under what circumstances you can work. It’s pretty obvious that, as I am now, I can’t maintain the work schedule I want and the streaming schedule I want at the same time. This might change with practice! We’ll see.
In the meanwhile: Changing the streaming schedule, maintaining a regular sleep schedule, and possibly looking into more ways to address the anxiety issue, since I think that presents a big background drain on my energy levels.
Sorry I don’t have any nifty tilesets or animations to show off this week. So it goes. Hopefully next week!
I am really enjoying your blog posts. As an artist who works a day job to support my art habit, I relate to a lot of what you write about. Thank you.
I’m glad! Sometimes it’s hard to tell how many of the words I write are actually getting read, so thanks for letting me know.
I have not been very productive in creating art during the month of April. So I empathize with you. But I am also inspired by the fact that you are working through it and have a plan to move forward. Motivates me to get working!
Liked your post on the way it feels wen we find it not easy to make things work the way we want . The anxiety, uneasiness still remain ..but it does happen at times with many of us , keep going . Beautifully reflected .
I know exactly how you feel. I have been experiencing similar kind of ‘drought’ situation, with no thoughts to put down. I am kind of exhausted and feeling numb. I am just browsing and reading through many things in the hope that somewhere, something may click, to stream into my thought process! Good luck!