thoughts as the year winds down

I went into this year with the singular thought that progress over perfection. I have the on going problem of having so many ideas in my head, so many ideas started, but so few things actually finished. I suffer highly from shiny object syndrome in the worst of ways and in the last few years I focused a lot on not starting new projects but instead on muscling forward on several open projects. And I will say for the most part that was a good idea. I have so much stuff or Ascent of Crystal Tower that I am so proud of, I got the Juneteenth TTRPG event I wanted to do up and off the ground (I did it TWICE in fact), I did a major update to Hot off the Press that I am super proud of, I have several story ideas in various stages of outlines that are projects that I started years ago. However the biggest thing that I learned during my no new projects phase was just because I wasn't starting on new projects didn't mean I didn't think of new projects but instead of jumping on them while they were "hot" I filed them away in notes apps and later Obsidian to come back to when I finished one of my open projects. Only other than Hot off the Press (which I am BACK working on) nothing actually was ever finished which is very much a problem.

So this year I tried a different approach, progress over perfection, instead of obsessing over getting something right on paper the same way it was in my head I wanted to simply get things done. And then the universe decided to laugh at me. After having spent the better part of two years unemployed/under employed I got a mostly full time job and suddenly all my own projects fell to the way side. After talking about doing more TTRPG Actual Play producing I joined up with Find Out Productions which took up a lot more of my mental bandwidth than I originally thought it would take. So in the end we're at the tail end of October going into November and I haven't finished anything. And I'm sure no one is surprised when I say that feels bad man, feels real bad.

But the year is not over and I still have some juice left in me. Deadly Crescendo's over on Find Out Productions is almost finish airing and I'm trying to part ways with or at least cut down the hours at my dayjob (that's a whole different post unto itself). So starting next week - not in November - I'm going to do a little test run on refocusing myself on things I'm interested in, excited by, a like doing. And what does that mean? Well more writing from me over on Signed Ionie, working back on my various game design projects - like I said I'm back to editing and making notes on Hot off the Press again - and it also means instead of picking back streaming up on Twitch instead focusing more on making videos for Youtube. Yes, I find setting up for streaming miles easier than filming and editing a video however I am infinitely more passionate about filming and video editing than I am about streaming. Streaming is a fun thing to do but it doesn't ✨Spark Joy✨in my heart.

The way this experiment is going to work is I spent the last two-ish days making myself a schedule and a reoccurring task list of the minimum things I need to do in order to be successful. Some of them are things I was already doing - like tracking my time - and other are modifications on behaviors I already have - taking actual notes about what I'm doing when I track my time - and then combining these actions to accomplish my three goals

1) Write more original fiction & fanfiction

2) Make games and tell stories through games

3) Film and post more videos to YouTube

And as I do this test run starting Monday going into December I'll be doing my best to figure out what does and doesn't work. Is what I have written actually the minimum I need? Can I meet that minimum requirement when I'm having a Bad Time™️? Etc, etc, etc.

So as always, watch this space and please look forward to me hopefully sharing the results.

Signed, Ionie | Yo! It's Me Ionie | IMANI! ✍🏿 CREATING STUFF & THINGS ✒️ | Offprint

The writing and creative diary for projects under the pseudonym of Ionie Annette Burns.