Here we are in a new year! Well.. we're 3 months into it now, I suppose. I'm always a little behind the times. Anyway, what do I want to accomplish, creatively, in 2022? Let's explore this question.
I love to do a few things, generally:
1. Draw stuff. Whatever the fuck I want to draw. I hope to do this as much as possible in 2022.
2. Make shit up. The great magic of RPGs is their potential. Every game could be a million and one things. I want to make up a million and one things.
3. Publish stuff. I have been self-publishing books and zines and comics since 1988 (87??). It fills me with joy and pride to hold the finished book in my hands. I do not believe I published anything in 2021 so I'm really hoping to get some books out in 2022.
So far this year I've been mostly focused on design, writing, layout for a few books. At this time, there are at least 3 books I could finish and publish this year. GOZR (finished, just working on the publishing end), Doomslaker B/X (tons of work, mostly done), and Hellion Cross (my third Troika! book, probably 75% complete).
I have this crazy notion that not only might I publish those 3 books in 2022, I might also publish a 4th book... a pinup art book. But that's a distant possibility. I have the material, of course.
This all depends on my energy and focus. But I can tell you that GOZR is done and will be out in the world within a few weeks. The other books are largely finished, but still need a lot of work. So who knows? By next month I might be in a death metal band living in Spain. I dunno.
\m/
ReplyDeleteYup. Finishing. I didn't put anything out last year. :-(
ReplyDeleteI did play test the crap out of my homebrew D&D rules though, so I wasn't completely stagnant.
Finishing though, that's a biggie.
A creative friend and I have this mantra "Finish It". It needs to be revitalized. Because we can noodle and doodle all day and be happy and all that. But if we actually want to publish books then we have to finish the books. It is what it is.
DeleteIf you just want to create and don't care about publishing or being published, then rock on. But if you want the thing in hand, you gotta finish the thing.
I think the internet ate my reply, lemme try again. Here are Heinlein's rules of publishing. The 3rd rule breaks many people, as they keep fiddling with stuff so are never done. 4 and 5 will get people who are too scared to expose themselves to the world. I get that one. Big time.
DeleteHeinlein's five rules
You must write.
You must finish what you start.
You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
You must put it on the market.
You must keep it on the market until sold.
Yeah, with regard to writing RPG content you almost can't adhere to rule 3. Because you almost never get it right on the first pass. You find rules that are broken or you play the game and it feels wonky so you gotta change it up. Different beast from what Heinlein is talking about. But the idea is the same... don't over think it. You'll never finish.
DeleteThat actually happens to me a lot. I rework and overthink everything. I have hundreds of iterations of certain projects because I can't settle on a path.
Yup. It's not just about finishing the major content, it's also about knowing when or what "done" actually is. It's never really finished, it's more about it being fit for consumption.
DeleteNovelists will write infinite drafts of a thing to the point that all the verve is washed away. They learn it in school from writing teachers, and it feeds into the perfectionism and anxiety so many of us have.
My dream is to be able to just do a thing, then walk on to the next thing. And that's what I do with Black Pudding, to be honest. None of that is overworked or second guessed. But I do have this unhealthy need to make sure when I publish a game and not just a wild ass collection of stuff that the game itself is somehow perfect. Never gonna happen.
DeleteYes please! Doomslakers BX!
ReplyDelete