Back From Vacation! ...Now What? (Patreon)
Content
SO THAT BEING SAID...
After thinking about it a bunch, I am really considering going back to one video a week for LGR. Either that or I have to seriously cut down on the scope of what I do for each video. I'd rather not do the latter.
What I'm trying to avoid is having to put aside a project I'm 100% mentally committed to just because "Monday's video isn't done" or whatever. Which leads to the main project getting sidetracked and Monday's video becoming a less-researched 'throwaway' video, so to speak. It feels increasingly silly to me to produce a video just to fill a time slot when I'm the only one imposing a time slot in the first place.
Thing is, I like a rigid, self-guided schedule. Holding my own feet to my own flames is what's helped me do pretty much everything of note in my life, creatively speaking. And the original intent when I began "Videos Every Monday & Friday™" was to produce one smaller episode for Monday and then Friday would get the deeper content. Sometimes that works as intended! Most of the time it ends up where I have two beefy episodes by the time I'm done. Great for the viewers, not so much for the creator.
Part of this is that things... go wrong. Things always go wrong. It's not inherently a bad thing, it's part of the process of covering retro tech and games. Truthfully, I enjoy the troubleshooting process and finding solutions! That is, if I have time to fix the thing and then start on another thing in the meantime. Otherwise it feels like I'm rushing and that inevitably ends up one of two ways: a lesser video and me in a clear headspace, or a deeper video with me in a bad headspace. Guess which one I go for more often than not.
Inevitably, I then start an "easier" project and something will go wrong with that as well, hence exacerbating the problem. Research is required. Games are not working. Software has software problems. Parts be dyin'. Once these are fixed on my two videos for the week I immediately begin on the next two projects. Like, that very day. Time off? Pscht. Repeat ad infinitum for the past several years, hence me seeking a change.
Now, there's always the possibility of hiring someone to help on larger projects, buuuuut I'm not quite there yet. I thoroughly enjoy each aspect of making LGR videos, plus I'm not comfortable just like, letting someone in my house to work on stuff. And man I hate working remotely, plus I don't have a great internet connection so sharing 100 gigs of files twice a week is out of the question. So if I ever go down the road of hiring I'd want an office space first, something I've been looking into for several months.
Regardless of what I end up doing, I know that I cannot maintain the whole 50-70 hours a week thing forever and also stay sane. Which is interesting. I used to work similar hours doing overtime retail work and at the end of the week I didn't feel nearly as drained as I do now. When I had a day off, I had a day off. But the truth is that when your work manifests itself as publicly-consumed media, stuff that's watched by (currently) 6+ million people per month in 227 countries and territories around the world... and thousands of them provide input on your work every moment of every day... eh, it ends up taking more of a toll than I ever anticipated, or experienced, back when I roamed the waxy floors of big box retail spaces dreaming of doing YouTube full time.
Anyway. All that to say that nothing is changing immediately, ha. But I'm considering changes to the schedule that will likely go into effect soon. There is sadly no exact formula for balancing quality and quantity when it comes to producing this kind of content, but I hypothesize there are healthier options than what I've been doing.
If/when I eventually shuffle things up, the singular goal in doing so will be to keep to keep my head in a positive space in order to make the best stuff that I can. Thanks for the support as always 👍