When I started this blog, I had a grandiose idea of what I wanted to do. The topics are based on the days of the week. Musings for Monday and Fun for Fridays. etc. It was a good idea, but I ended up pretty much just ignoring it and writing about whatever I wanted to write. Because that’s me. That’s always me. I’m both very rigid and very not-rigid. I’m rigid in that I like to follow a routine. I get up, do my hour of Taiji in the same order with only the weapons rotating each day (parts of it), feed Shadow, get the coffee going, and then clean Shadow’s litterboxes. I also take my meds and brush my teeth in there.
I message Ian, check the RKG Discord, do the Wordle and then the Octordle for the day, all the while having videos in the background. I write my post for the day, then work for my brother. I play some games, then do my fiction/memoir writing. 2,000 words. That’s what I do every day. Of course, I feed Shadow two more times during the day (breakfast, lunch, supper). He also have a bowl of dry kibble that he can eat throughout the day and two bowls of water. I also leave water in the bathroom sinks because he likes to drink from those as well.
That’s my daily schedule. However, what time all that actually happens at wildly varies from day to day. I woke up late today 10:30 a.m. and didn’t really get rolling (after my Taiji routine) until 1:30 p.m. because I had to run to Cubs and there was some drama there. Apparently, they had just started a stamp program and did not train the cashiers how to use them. My favorite cashier had to deal with it with the person before me and complained to me afterwards.
Now that I’m changing things up and going to migrate to video (hopefully), I think I need to be more structured about what I do. But, again, this is fighting in my brain. I am rebelling at the idea of following a schedule, but the pragmatic side of me says I have to build a brand.
I know that the most successful way of being a content creator is to find a niche and flog the hell out of it. Make everything related to that niche and go buck wild. Have merch, will sell it. It’s the tried-and-true way of doing it (tried-and-true for a job that is a decade old, really).
There are variety content creators, but it’s still within a topic. Like video games. Someone can be a, say, a Pokemon streamer. Or someone could be streaming games, but different ones. Maybe in a genre or maybe not. Or someone streams indie games.
Northernlion became knows for his Binding of Isaac streams. He did that for many years before he slowly started branching out. It was interesting watching him during the transition because it wasn’t always seamless. Oh, he also did some Dark Souls streaming, which was interesting.
The last time I checked in, I watched some of his Elden Ring playthrough. I did not care for him any longer because he had adopted a ‘disapproving dad’ attitude that was so ubiquitous on Twitch. That admonishing your watchers persona that is so off-putting to me.
I know people eat it up, but I do not care for it. Except when Gav (from RKG) does it–I’m not sure why it’s different. Getting put in a timeout by Gav is something we all want and dream about. But it’s clear that he’s doing it as a joke. I mean, the other streamers are as well, but it’s…I think it’s because Gav does it very briefly and is laughing as he does it. At any rate, I couldn’t watch much of Northernlion’s Elden Ring playthrough, sadly.
Part of my issue with Twitch in general is that so many of the personalities are so fake. I don’t like screaming, which so many of them do. I also don’t like that so many of the women feel they have to be harder than the guys (in video games). It’s really sad and frustrating at the same time.
I have my umbrella idea for what I want to do. But it’s very broad. It’s not like ‘play every Souls game as a caster to infuriate the fanbois’. Which, honestly, actually sounds like a fun thing to do. Deliberately playing From games in ways that will enrage hardcore fans. It would actually fit under my umbrella (being deliberately vague about that for now).
Hm. I was joking about that, but I may put it in the rotation. It’s a drum that I’ve beaten for quite some time now–that the hardcore fans are shortsighted and gatekeeping with their ‘you have to play it this way’ nonsense.
I do think it would be good to stick to a schedule. Say three videos a week. Each on the same day and in the same genre. So, say, one video on cooking GF/DF on Monday, one ranty video on Wednesday, and one video game-related video on Friday. That way, I would have both the routine that is good for getting your shit out there and the variety that is good for my soul.
I think the important thing right now is just to try. I can ruminate about it forever, but that’s not going to move me forward. At some point, it’s counterproductive in that I’m just talking about it and not doing it. It’s better to try and fail than to not try at all. Especially as I do not need to upload anything that doesn’t work out.
My problem is that I imagine everything that could possibly go wrong and that weighs me down to the point where I’d rather do nothing than something. That’s what keeps me mired in the muck for much longer than is necessary. Again, this is something I admire about my brother–he just does shit without worrying about the consequences.
I have my first step–I have thought of a name. I know at least two of the videos a week I want to do. The problem is how to do it in a manageable way. And with one of them, I will have to do other things first in order to do–see, even now as I’m describing it, I’m thinking about how I want to do this one thing, but as widely spread as possible. I am not good at focusing on one or two things. I know it’s the right thing to do, but my brain refuses to do it. That’s something I’m going to have to work around, but my brain is saying, “Hell to the fuck no!”
I say that I’m envious of my brother’s ability to just do shit, but I know the reason why I’m not able to do it. Reading the post on AAM about the decision coach, there were more than a few people who were like, ‘Just make the decision already. Use a pro/con lint and be done with it.” If it were that easy, everyone would do it. That’s just now how it works.