Man.
Well, there's actually some forward motion this time!
Completing this by ECCC obviously wasn't possible, but in retrospect attempting that would have been a nightmare, which I thankfully recognized not long after the last post. I'm tempted to give myself another deadline and finish this by Sakura Con, but I think I'm jinxing myself at this point. I'll get into that below.
Even before then, I was hoping to finish this during my extended break, but I think it would be a shame for a project like this, which had been anticipated for at least a couple years, to be worked on in hiding. Instead, I will actually begin the carving process on Twitch this Friday @1pm PST, which is coincidentally my 4 year anniversary steam!
Leading up to this week, I took some time to reevaluate my approach to this project and others, because in 2023, I didn't finish any of them live on stream (see previous update). I looked into what I was doing and why it didn't work.
I came to the conclusion that I need to put less emphasis on stream-exclusive art and interruptions like channel point redemptions (for the uninformed, it's like an internet version of "dance, monkey, dance!") that often derail work for several minutes. While entertaining, switching gears leaves me mentally scrambled.
Second, I was setting schedules based on times that were best for gaining interest and exposure, but now, I'll willing to compromise those and focus on what is best for me. If my entire day is rearranged around streaming only, it feels too much like an obligation, which leads to inevitable burn out. It surprises some people to hear that preparing to go live can take an hour or two, and afterward (at least in my case) requires a full evening of decompression.
Finally, this example is very much relevant to this man-o-war project: a hard deadline no longer works with my current life style*. I enjoyed the go-with-the-flow era while it lasted, but I work best by creating milestones, marking what I hope to complete by certain dates.
Will it work? Well, we'll have to see.
You can harass me about it on my Twitch channel.
Anyway, see ya Friday.
*About lifestyle changes? Going beyond Twitch, there were some hard truths I had to accept which led to me changing the way I conduct my business in general. Currently in progress as of 3/12/24, but this will be expanded upon in my Wellness Update.
