(no) more side projects, and the #hobby300
Jan. 3rd, 2019 08:46 pmSo, this morning I watched ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emoslasher stream some work in progress on the big commission I commissioned last year (and which has been held up by the poor lad needing to take on smaller, easier, quicker ones in order to turn some money around and er, continue living indoors). It's all five of my horrible Giovanni characters together, it's looking REALLY good so far, and I wondered (o how I wondered)...
There seems to be demand on the ST Vault for <i>novels</i> of all things, and I kind of have the bare bones, at least, of a two-hundred-year soap opera spanning three generations of horrible Venetian necromancers. Is there, I wonder, a novel in there? One that I could actually sell, for money?
I don't know. I probably shouldn't be taking on more side projects. I'm... not exactly overwhelmed, but I'm aware that I have a registration to research draft due this month, and that Vampire textbook chapter at the end, plus a pantomime to direct and act in (and build sets for and check up on costuming for and aaaaa), and the small matter of needing to write a minimum of three articles a week to earn an acceptable living (or two and a couple of proofs to break even). And then, by the end of February, the writeup of my transmedia Frankenstein paper from last year. And the final registration due at the end of March. It's a lot of plates to keep spinning. I can do the work, but prioritising day to day is a bit nerve-wracking.
So of course I've also decided to do the #hobby300 on m'social media (mostly Twitter and Instagram). Basically, I solemnly swear that I will spend at least 300 days of this year "doing hobby" - something that pertains to a tabletop wargame. For me, that currently means finally painting up my backlog of Vampire Counts models - a Ghoul unit I've had primed for what feels like five years, the Zombie Dragon my good pal Jimmy gave me a couple of years ago, and the assortment of rare characters I eBay sniped for and then sat on for ever and a day. And a second Black Coach.
It's all in a good cause - I mean, it's something to do which involves sitting on my fat duff in a different room than usual - and it means they'll be ready for a tournament I'm going to in March. I wanted to take my new Tomb Kings army, but they're shaping up to be just as brittle as the old models, and it's an awful lot of painting, whereas the core of the Vampire Counts army is already done... and there's a treacherous little voice suggesting that maybe if I had a bigger collection of Vampire Counts stuff I could actually play big games without having to scrape... Basically, I've got buyer's remorse there, like I do with three quarters of the hobby stuff I buy. I just like buying models and putting them together and selling them on: that's been almost all I've done since 2015.
I dunno. But the point is it's another commitment. Another plate in the air. I can hold it together, but come March I'm gonna fall on my ass for a week. No more side projects. Stuff that spins out from core activity. Gotta get some control back. At least if I'm selling a short novel on the Vault it should actually make me some money...
emoslasher stream some work in progress on the big commission I commissioned last year (and which has been held up by the poor lad needing to take on smaller, easier, quicker ones in order to turn some money around and er, continue living indoors). It's all five of my horrible Giovanni characters together, it's looking REALLY good so far, and I wondered (o how I wondered)... There seems to be demand on the ST Vault for <i>novels</i> of all things, and I kind of have the bare bones, at least, of a two-hundred-year soap opera spanning three generations of horrible Venetian necromancers. Is there, I wonder, a novel in there? One that I could actually sell, for money?
I don't know. I probably shouldn't be taking on more side projects. I'm... not exactly overwhelmed, but I'm aware that I have a registration to research draft due this month, and that Vampire textbook chapter at the end, plus a pantomime to direct and act in (and build sets for and check up on costuming for and aaaaa), and the small matter of needing to write a minimum of three articles a week to earn an acceptable living (or two and a couple of proofs to break even). And then, by the end of February, the writeup of my transmedia Frankenstein paper from last year. And the final registration due at the end of March. It's a lot of plates to keep spinning. I can do the work, but prioritising day to day is a bit nerve-wracking.
So of course I've also decided to do the #hobby300 on m'social media (mostly Twitter and Instagram). Basically, I solemnly swear that I will spend at least 300 days of this year "doing hobby" - something that pertains to a tabletop wargame. For me, that currently means finally painting up my backlog of Vampire Counts models - a Ghoul unit I've had primed for what feels like five years, the Zombie Dragon my good pal Jimmy gave me a couple of years ago, and the assortment of rare characters I eBay sniped for and then sat on for ever and a day. And a second Black Coach.
It's all in a good cause - I mean, it's something to do which involves sitting on my fat duff in a different room than usual - and it means they'll be ready for a tournament I'm going to in March. I wanted to take my new Tomb Kings army, but they're shaping up to be just as brittle as the old models, and it's an awful lot of painting, whereas the core of the Vampire Counts army is already done... and there's a treacherous little voice suggesting that maybe if I had a bigger collection of Vampire Counts stuff I could actually play big games without having to scrape... Basically, I've got buyer's remorse there, like I do with three quarters of the hobby stuff I buy. I just like buying models and putting them together and selling them on: that's been almost all I've done since 2015.
I dunno. But the point is it's another commitment. Another plate in the air. I can hold it together, but come March I'm gonna fall on my ass for a week. No more side projects. Stuff that spins out from core activity. Gotta get some control back. At least if I'm selling a short novel on the Vault it should actually make me some money...
