Life Continues

Life seems to revolve around cycles and my life is no different. The quarantine has gotten to me, but at one point I thought I had found my rhythm once again. I was wrong. It’s been hard to focus and write my weekly blog.

Granted there has been a lack of Amtgard content to write about, so it might be forgivable, but it’s gone beyond this blog. It’s touched all of the content I’ve been creating. The most obvious is this blog.

Amtgard

As I said the Amtgard content has been slim but there has been some videos in the last few weeks that I can write about. One is the Sword Path AMA organized by Guin. I was able to listen to about half of it. It was a pretty good, although lengthy, discussion. You can watch it HERE.

The other video I watched featured Oromis teaching how to weave a belt. You can watch it HERE. It was interesting and there are some good tips there, but I’m not sure I have the patience to make a belt like that.

Beers with Baelnorn

While Beers with Baelnorn is Amtgard I wanted to give it its own section. I did my stream on June 4th and it went pretty well. I was worried that it wouldn’t be as long as the other streams but it was an appropriate length, a little over an hour and twenty minutes.

The focus was enhancing Amtgard outside of running the games themselves. I had been thinking about it for weeks but unlike the previous streams I didn’t write an outline till the night before. I figured that would be my downfall, but it went well. It helps I was thinking about it for weeks before I sat down to write the outline.

I was worried that it would be incoherent but I was told that the transitions were smooth and appropriate. I’m glad it was. I have a horrible dislike for my face and voice and I don’t like re-watching content that I record so it’s nice to get feedback.

There was also viewer participation which is also nice. I even managed to find an overlay so you can read the chat on the YouTube play back, which I think makes it a lot easier to follow if you didn’t watch it live. You can watch the video HERE. If you have any questions let me know.

Next month I think the topic will be Companies and Households. I’ve already written a companion article, Service Households. It covers a lot of what I’d like to cover in a video, but the video will be a little bit more broad.

Twitch: Synth Dad

Last time I talked about streaming on Twitch. That endeavor has also suffered. I have not been able to keep a schedule. The biggest reason is performance anxiety; it’s real people. I have had a lot of conceptual help and overall emotional support from Uriel, which I really appreciate. Still, it’s been hard.

I hope that I will get the drive to continue this journey. I think if I can get over the anxiety I will be in a good place. Uriel has already seen some improvement in my streaming and I’ve only done about ten videos, including the Beers with Baelnorn. It gives me some hope that it will become easier and less anxiety inducing.

The goal is to stream three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12pm to 1pm PST. You can follow me on Twitch HERE. I’d appreciate the support. Once I get into the grove I think I’ll be doing a series I call Nostalgia Runner, where I play old SNES games. The first one will be Chrono Trigger.

Novel Writing

My current novel, Philip Clowes, hasn’t suffered as much, mainly because I usually work on it sporadically. I post a section of the story each month on my Patreon. I’m managing to stay ahead of the curve though so I haven’t posted more I’ve written. It helped that I had a large chunk of it done before I started posting it. If you’d like to read it you can find it HERE on my Patreon. Also, if you like the content, consider becoming a Patron. It would be much appreciated.

The last few weeks I’ve found that I haven’t written any of the actual story of Philip Clowes. I got to a point where I needed to work on some background material, specifically a magic system. I have avoided working on background material because I have a tendency to get lost in it and stop working on the actual story. I find that to still be true.

I’ve been trying to a magic system so that I can make sure that magic in the setting is consistent. I realized when working on the next scene that if I didn’t create some order and make rules that govern the magic system of the world that it could easily get out of control. Most importantly, I might not be consistent.

If I create a consistent rules system I can use it as its own plot device. For example, if I have all these rules and I break it at a specific point and in a specific way, then that can tell it’s own story. It will give me another story device to use.

The problem is, I’m hard to please when it comes to such details. I’ve pulled from a lot of sources to create my own system; something that is complex and unique but I’m not satisfied. I have a basic construct of how someone gains access to magic that I’m reasonably happy with but when it comes to the actual spells I’m floundering. Perhaps I’m trying to get overly detailed, but I’d really like to to know the details before I start using magic in my novel.

I’ve gotten further on the system than I thought I would have but it’s really frustrating. I’ve had a few days where I just had to walk away from the screen out of frustration. Hopefully I’ll get to the point again where I will be able to work on the story.

The Future

I don’t know where this leaves me for the future, but writing this blog has helped kick start my motivation again. Hopefully I’ll have enough content to write another blog next week. If you haven’t already noticed this blog has gone beyond talking about Amtgard and I hope that is okay with my readers.

Once Amtgard starts back up in my area my usual content will come back, but as it is, if I am going to continue writing the blog I’m going to have to put content other than Amtgard in it. I’d love to hear from everyone.

If you like my content consider becoming a Patron on Patreon. You can see my Tier 2 (Cousins) and 3 (Besties) supporters on my Patreon Supporters page as well as find out how to become a Patron yourself.