Wednesday, July 4, 2012

In the Shadow of Lead Mountain: Too Many Projects!

Blah, that was an unintended break I took from the blog that grew and grew. It wasn't because I didn't have anything to post or the will to do it but just the opposite. I have way to much. Too many projects, too many pictures to sort and crop, too many miniatures to catalog, too many lists of post ideas and partial drafts. Too many little things to obsess about. I have some of my best work from five years ago I've never posted anywhere and most of the stuff so far has been done at least two years ago.

And that's just the blog stuff, saying nothing of how crazy the idea of painting all the miniatures I have in front me, finishing all the terrain projects I have going, and running all the adventures I have lined up. If this is the first time I'll say it it won't be the last, that the blogosphere is a hobby within a hobby, and painting figures another hobby, and making maps one, and writing adventures, etc. ad infinitum. When I have a window of hobby time in front of me just the idea of which hobby today can slow me down all by itself.

This just to say it can be too much. It's highly likely this is a familiar story, especially if you're a blogger yourself. I know I'm in good company and I'm sure there are many who are biting off more than I am. Balancing spending time with friends and loved ones, doing professional development, other creative and intellectual pursuits, etc, comes with the territory, I know. Rather than complain let me take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of the bloggers of the blogs I follow do and how easy you all make it look.

What am I doing about it. Well, one of the main reasons I started the blog was to help me organize my projects for myself. Another was to make my collection meaningful. An uncatalogued collection is something of a liability while a cataloged one is an asset. Anything you don't where and what it is and what state it's in is useless. With that in mind I've spent this Independence Day morning sorting through pics and post ideas and I now have over forty posts lined up with pictures already taken, etc that shouldn't be too hard to bang out. In the past few weeks I've also been tackling physical organization of the stuff and am making some inroads.

I also think I'll make a few posts on this topic itself, about workflow, organization and project management, and maybe we can share some ideas and help each other out. Despite the occasional creeping chaos I've made some recent strides that are worth putting down in the blog.

And for now, if you're up to your neck in projects or conversely you've done some things to get organized lately sign off below.

9 comments:

  1. Discipline is one of the hardest things to deal with. Is far too easy to amass projects and far too difficult to find time to actually complete them. With a touch of discipline I think good things can happen and progress can be made. Excellent post, I am very interested in the psychology behind this stuff (what makes us tick).

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts, Ghola! Yeah, for me the killer was grad school ... before then I was pretty good about being reasonable, but something about always having more schoolwork and no time for my own figs meant I kept piling up project ideas for one day, and then when I was done and finally had that time, I tried to do all of it NOW. I am disciplined in some ways but turning down a good project idea feels like turning away a little orphan child who shows up at your door in need of a hot meal. ;) I'm working on it!

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  2. Oh, I hear ya. I go weeks at a time not painting a thing because the lead mountain is so damn big, and my attention just drifts from one project to another.

    I'm trying to focus, though, and pick a class of monster or whatever to 'finish' -- so I might start on all my unpainted snotlings say, but then I stripped 2/3 of the old ones so I'm in the red! Or I decide "I'll paint all my hirelings" or "I'll paint all my bugbears" and that works out a little better, except I inevitably find/buy/trade for ONE more and the feeling of accomplishment is sort of diminished. So I still have two kobolds to paint, and several lizard men and bugbears, despite 'finishing' them earlier. But when I manage to 'complete' a section of the collection, it sure feels good.
    Now that I'm on hiatus as DM I expect to find more painting time too.

    The toughest discipline I'm trying to impose on myself is to get honest with myself about what figures I really WANT as opposed to 'like having' ... I think I could easily sell or give away a hundred minis I'll never paint...but it seems like a lot of effort to even work out trades/sales. Eventually, though, I think I'll try to get rid of a decent slice to make room.

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    1. Thanks Mike! I remember yours was one of the first D&D collections that was really organized around the encounter group unit and I definitely have set out to do my collection that way too. I also try to say what is important/will have a lot of utility in the game (goblins, captives) and what is niche (leucrotta, yetis). My group is level one and I'm pretty proud of all the groups I have so far (over a dozen groups and as you say it does feel good!) but I often look at a scenario I want to run (say the keep on the borderlands) and think, ok, I've got goblins, orcs, bugbears, lizardmen, a minotaur, kobolds, but I really need to do these gnolls, cultists and hobgoblins. About your stragglers issue, could they maybe go in a dedicated "stragglers box" and you could agree not to worry about them until any one group reached a headcount of five or so? Then you might get that sense of accomplishment again for doing a reinforcements unit.
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  3. Hardest part is the bloody time. Ironic: didn't have the cash back then, didn't have the skills, but had loads of time. Now with the decent skills and a lovely Paypal account to buy back the classics there's nary a moment to even open the boxes in between the face-punches that are the 'adult-life.'

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    1. You said it, absolutely. When was a kid I had some really nice figs and a lot of crap filler, but neither side got much painting action. I was so meticulous and cautious. I would paint one here and another there and doing a unit was a huge challenge despite al the free time. Nowadays I've have gone back and gotten all the figs I really wanted back in the day just as you have. Now that you mention it, I do this to the point that my high accession rate has become something of a problem... yeah, when I get new arrivals I'm lucky if I can get them all sorted in the right boxes that same night. Saying no to deals on ebay is another kind of discipline I could benefit from and one I've been thinking about lately.

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  4. Don't fret, Spook! There are more important things in life than worrying about your pleasurable hobbies! =) Take you time, paint what you want and post when you feel like it. Many claim a blog have to be updated on a regular basis. That might be true for blogs with no content but opinion and ramblings, but specialist blogs can get away with monthly or even bi-monthly updates. As long as there's some painted lead on display! =)

    I know exactly what you mean with blogging about your hobby being a hobby within the hobby (or a meta hobby). I tend to do my blog typing stuff on the train to and from work, or in the sofa in front of the tv keeping my Mrs company. All to not waste quality time or hobby time.

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  5. I agree with Phreedh. Maybe its long hair, or the living in Sebastopol, but my attitude about hobby stuff has changed. We have to remember that its supposed to be fun, and not a drag... man. I used to try to run the biggest game at the Convention. Now I just try to make sure everybody has fun.
    I'm still all for amassing huge piles of miniatures, but I don't sweat the boxes of lead. Will my mound of Gorkamorka stuff ever get painted? Probably not, but its there if I need it. When I get the inspiration, it will get done.

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  6. Thanks Phreedh and Overlord! Phreedh, yeah, doing the blog stuff in those spare moments is smart. I'm trying to make use of my lunch hour for that and will see how it goes. I'll also try not to sweat it if I don't have regular output when that happens. Overall I've got a lot lined up so we'll see. Overall BFtD has been a great fun so far and I definitely have a lot lined up to keep it going.

    I also took a forced break from the home computer for a few days when my monitor gave out and I was waiting for a new one. I'm back now with a sweet new 23" IPS panel and hopefully a more zen attitude after the forced relaxation!

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