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What creative projects have you been working on?
This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.
Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.
If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.
I've been building a pizza oven. I have no masonry experience. It's been a year long project because I have very little time to devote to it but I did just recently complete it. It was born from my wife telling me I wouldn't do it.
One of life's most powerful motivators :)
Does it make good pizza?
Yes! It takes about 30-45 minutes to heat up but can bake a pizza in about 5 minutes. I've been using a combination of hickory and pecan but think the pecan is better as it burns longer.
I'm going to try baking potatoes in it this weekend. Wrapping the potatoes in foil and putting them in the back under the coals should work but I expect it to take much, much longer than a pizza.
That is rad. I bet things taste better because of all the work you put into the oven. Would love to see a picture or video of it in action! How did you know how to start the project? Did you follow some sort of guide?
I didn't follow any guide. I just had an idea of what I wanted in my head and went with that. A couple rough sketches to get measurements in perspective was all I went by. It's not beautiful and I'm sure someone experienced in masonry could have done a much better job but it works great and makes us both happy. If I ever build another I have learned where to possibly do things differently. A couple pictures of the oven are posted. If anyone would like more details on the build I'll be happy to elaborate.
https://imgur.com/a/jeTz0DV
That’s really impressive. Thanks for sharing!
This reminded me of something my parents used to make was called "Hobo Stew" where you took 2 layers of tin foil, put some slabs of butter in the middle, THINLY sliced potatoes, onions, green peppers, mushrooms and add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Take a hamburger patty and squash it as flat as you can and put it on the vegetables. The trick is in folding the tin foil. It should look like a sheet of paper with the meat/veggies in the middle. Take the top and bottom of the "sheet" and roll the edges together making a nice seal and then roll each side inward until it makes a nice seal. The tinfoil is layered in case you tear one layer while flipping. Depending on the temperature of the grill/griddle/pizza oven flip it every 5-7 minutes and within 15 minutes or so it should be done. The juices from the burger meat, butter and vegetables makes a kind of gravy (hence the "stew").
Apparently they got the idea from an old cookbook my grandpa used to have about using the engine in your car to cook meals when you travelled. Something like this: Manifold Destiny
Currently I am working on a series of video essays about music theory, in particular looking at specific songs (mostly in the pop/rock spectrum) from a functional harmony perspective.
I had been giving music theory lessons to a friend of mine and I realized that some of the songs I was using to illustrate certain functional harmony concepts would make for good material for this kind of content. I guess I'll upload the videos to YouTube or something when I'm done with them, though I'm not really sure how to go about getting an audience for this kind of thing (or if there even is an audience to be had). At least I am enjoying making them, and among my small circle of musician-friends they might be helpful.
There’s definitely an audience. Lots of people dig music theory. YouTube isn’t a bad place to start. Talk about what you love and find interesting. The audience will follow!
I agree! I subscribe to Howard Ho and would likely also subscribe to what OP is proposing.
Sharing a chanel like that with high school and college level music theory professors might be nice if you want to grow an audience. Collecting these on a webpage and gathering other public domain/free to use resources on music theory is even better - university libraries (if they have a music program) would likely include those resources on one of their libguides/reference guides.
My department only has audio involved in our program related to dialogue and foley, but I'm putting together some resources for that area, so I know colleagues in other areas may find these resources of yours helpful to link to!
That's a really interesting idea. Can you point me in the direction of any university library guides to see what you mean? My main concern with this idea is that I don't have a formal education in music (actually I have a degree in chemistry, of all things). All my music theory knowledge is self-taught, or in cases when the needed idea doesn't seem to exist, invented. As a result, I suspect I have at least some opinions that diverge from 'establishment' music theory. So I'm not sure how comfortable I am being seen as a 'music theory authority', as opposed to just a music hobbyist with interesting/insightful ideas.
Of course, there is room for disagreement even among formally-trained music theoreticians. A lot of times an explanation for (say) a certain chord change might be made using one of several overlapping concepts - i.e. borrowed chords/modal interchange overlapping with discrete modulations which overlaps with a superposition of keys (especially adjacent keys on the circle of fifths). I even tend to embrace this ambiguity and explain from multiple angles. But I suspect an academically-oriented resource would be expected to have a more centered approach. Which is why I am curious to see others examples of similar, mid-to-high level content and gauge whether my videos would be seen as equally accurate.
I think that helpful resources can be just that - helpful resources. It's always great to have credentials or authoritative status when looking at resources, but this is also something that librarians in higher ed teach as part of the curriculum for information literacy (Evaluating sources - authority).
As someone who learned how to find the relative minor by going down three half steps when my dad taught me piano and who struggled with circle of fifths during theory classes, I personally really like the approaches that "embrace the ambiguity" as you say and which provide alternate ways of looking at things!
Here are some links to some libguides that I think show some good variety - I chose AI for this example because this is a field with a lot of quickly emerging tools and services that can be difficult to evaluate trustworthiness for:
University of South Florida
This guide shares a lot of resources for using AI responsibily and gives context but also links out to various tools.
College of the Mainland
Again, this guide has information about AI but also links to a lot of resources, some less well documented than others.
Pratt Institute
I'm doxxing myself here but this is a libguide that I made along with a graduate assistant of mine. I collected a lot of resources for the guide and my own critera for evaluating the sources was basically:
If all of those critera are met and it represents a helpful addition to the guide, I will include it. All librarians have different approaches, some are much more conservative than I am in the resources they share, some few may be more liberal.
Here is a link to a libguide on Evaluating Sources from my institute (I did not make this guide but I have created similar guides at previous institutes - it's a good example of general guidelines that we recommend for students to use to evaluate sources but of course, we also use the same general guidelines when we are looking at articles, journals, videos, websites, etc!)
I hope some of that was helpful! Basically, I think that collecting compillations of interesting resources from small creators and hobbyists is a valuable thing to do - I would venture a guess that other info professionals would likely agree that the subject and angle of your videos would fall into this category! Happy to answer any other questions :)
That sounds awesome! If you end up creating a YouTube channel and posting it here I will definitely subscribe!
I'm heavily involved with volunteering at a local community theater, and next year we're putting on a show titled The Play That Goes Wrong. For those unfamiliar with it, the premise is an amateur theater is putting on a murder mystery, but everything that can go wrong does. This includes (but is not limited to):
We're going to have our work cut out for us building this set...
That sounds really fun, and exactly like the kind of live performance I would love to see.
I am an educator on summer break, so my creative goals this summer are to finish several diamond painting kits and do some acrylic paintings for my home. I have a goal of creating a seasonal painting which I swap out on a specific spot in my kitchen each month to bring some fun decor.
The next goal is to convince my husband to purchase another bookshelf so I can expand my space... I'm running out of room!
I'm currently working on game art for a client. But I have a whole list of things I want to do on the side but I've not gotten to doing it. I have a resin kit I want to play with. I've never handled resin before!
I also just finished a 2 year long tabletop campaign with my group, and I'm very tempted to draw the characters or turn the epilogue into a mini comic or something.
I've been working on a short sci-fi film for a few years now. Have had some luck in the past doing drama and comedy, which are a lot easier and cost a lot less. Sci-fi is my passion, though.
Currently working on test shots for FX, which has been very time consuming. Keep buying more and more gear and upgrading my PC to be able to accomplish what I want.
The script is almost 6 years old now, and I just want to finish it! Of course, money just keeps getting in the way. I'll get there, though.
I've been doing some freelance comedy writing over the last few months, and I'm finding that my desire to write keeps growing at a pace that my assignments can't satisfy, so I'm setting aside time for a novel. I've written long-form fiction in the past, but I always end up flying by the seat of my pants. Because of that, my projects are always much shorter than I intended or I just abandon them. This time, I'm going to set aside time to flesh out a full outline, as I've found that has really helped me with my freelancing. I've been pitching a few ideas to friends, and I think I've settled on the premise that I want to write. I'm scheduling myself for the book's first writing session this weekend. Should be fun!
Is freelance writing your full time job?
If not--and you don't mind my asking--when do you typically have time to work on these projects? I'm a writer as well, but I work in education Monday to Friday from 8am to 5, and most evenings I only have enough energy to microwave some garbage and fall asleep. I'm told this is just adult life, but I really do not want to spend the next few decades repeating this cycle.
Different commenter here, but you touched on an idea I've been thinking about in terms of my work-life balance, and the choices we can make.
I feel like the advice young me received was to choose a profession I loved; I don't recall anyone pressing the importance of time + income in that equation, which is a bit of a shame.
Once I was in the workforce a couple years, I realized I'd have to make compromises to balance: 1. personal fulfillment, 2. a comfortable-to-me income, and 3. my time/energy. (I realize this is privileged, and many people have to work incredibly long hours to scrape by.)
Banal routine is often part of a working adult's life, but I think we have some individual control in the type of routine we fall into by balancing these 3 factors.
Eg: Some people work unsatisfying, high-paying careers, and use their income towards passions; vs. others who sacrifice income for job satisfaction.
Another approach is balancing job structure. Eg: long daily hours, but also long periods off/sabbaticals vs. easier, lower-stress day-to-day jobs, but without long vacation periods; or the freedom but insecurity of freelancing vs. structure but security of a job.
I've changed strategies over time, and I'm pondering another change now (though, a bit afraid of the unknown). I hope there's something here that helps you find a balance that works for you.
And yes, a few lucky assholes have lots of money, time, and fulfillment, but screw them! :)
Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I am very much a part-time freelancer. I work in vocational rehab, mostly with high school students, so I'm education-adjacent as well, with a similar schedule. I probably have less take-home work, though.
My writing schedule usually looks something like this: I wake up a little earlier than I need to and write 10 pitches. I turn off the self-editor and just let the bad ideas flow. If I have time, I might look over something I wrote recently to punch it up, but that's unusual. In the evening while watching TV, I'll work on an outline for an assignment or actually write one at a very slow pace. On the weekend, I usually pick a few hours to get out of the house and go to a coffee shop or brewery or something and put my nose to the grindstone. I understand that this schedule wouldn't work for everyone, and it might eventually stop working for me.
I wish I had a good answer for you. I relate to what you're saying. That's sometimes how I feel as well. I often say that, for someone who claims to love writing, I hate actually writing.
I think what's working for me now is that my work is actually pretty structured. If one of my pitches gets accepted, I usually have a template for it and can get started right away. It sort of lowers the mental energy threshold for starting the task and lets me get to the fun part of writing. That's obviously not always possible, and I find that I procrastinate more on assignments that are more off the beaten path. Additionally, I write more when I am in a good place with my mental and physical health. When I'm stressed out because of work, my output drops significantly.
I hope that you found something useful in all of that rambling, and I wish you luck in the future. Adult life might mean being responsible, but it doesn't have to mean being miserable.
I am STILL plucking away at my series.
Book 01 is on semi final edits.
Book 02 is on first edits.
Book 03 is pulling the nano written bits and expandng/combining/fleshing them out.
Good for you! Most don't even make it to those points
I’ve been designing a new style of cardholder/wallet. About a year ago I got into leathercraft, with the intention of making the perfect wallet (for me) that includes a spot for an air tag, money clip, at least 6 cards, and is more or less the same thickness of a “sandwich” style or ridge wallet. It took awhile, but it’s almost done!
That’s awesome! Are you intending to eventually take it to Kickstarter or anything? This might sound silly, but I’m a wallet… collector? That sounds wrong, but I’m not sure what would be right. I’ve backed several wallets in crowdsourcing platforms lol
That’s cool! I’m a bit of a collector as well. There’s a few samples out in the wild and if all goes well, I’m planning on a kickstarter. Shoot me a pm if you’re interested and I’ll keep you updated!
Very, very slowly working on painting minis for the Oathsworn board game. The slow pace is due to a) me prioritizing other hobbies because I get frustrated at my lack of painting skill, and b) my painting space being a shared space that's being much more productively used by my wife right now.
I’ve been working on a worldbuilding project. I’m not sure if it’ll end up being short stories or something more, but I’m enjoying just putting down my ideas on paper and developing them a little more.
I've been working on assembling my electronics workbench for a while now, adding to it and improving it since around November of last year.
This is how it looks as of yesterday - I added better lighting that shines from above and behind me when I'm at the bench, wired in all the lighting controls to a central switch on the right, added cable and probe management and various equipment additions.
It's been a hobby project of mine, but now it's looking like I can use it to start up a side business buying industrial electronics at auction, test and/or repair them, and start up an eBay store to sell them on. It has me excited.
Very cool! Pretty awesome to be able to fix and bring new life to broken electronics. I need to learn some of that, I feel helpless when one of my devices stops working 🫣
That's a great setup!!
I've got a similar setup at work, minus the microscope and oscilloscopes (got a microscope at home but I don't dabble with anything complex enough for the oscilloscopes).
What sorts of things do you fix?
Various stuff. I'm a general tech contractor among other things and have a bunch of M18 Milwaukee tools - haven't had a tool fail yet but the batteries are expensive and can be had much more cheaply if you get ones that either don't work or don't charge all the way - I've bought a bunch of the big 12.0AH batteries for cheap and got those working properly, which was very worth it - they are $250 each new.
Other test / bench lab equipment. I on/off watch ebay for 'parts / not working' test equipment to check, clean and repair either for myself or potential future resale. There's equipment to be had for under $100 that is thousands new and, if it can be made functional, can be sold used/repaired/working for the $500-$1,000 range.
One example: I just got a really nice Kikusui PLZ334W Electronic Load at a local industrial auction with every item listed as uncertain condition / untested / not working / no returns. This model goes for over $2,000 new and can be had used/working for around the $1,000 mark at lowest (usually). I got it for eleven dollars. It works. It was absolutely filthy inside and out, but it works. I'm in the process of disassembly and thorough detail cleaning right now - this unit is a keeper, going to add it to my bench setup.
Other stuff (also from industrial auctions) are PLC control hardware, servo drives, servo motors and PLC 24V heavy duty power supplies - same deal, this is expensive stuff and sells used/functional on eBay for between hundreds to over a thousand dollars (for the thousand range, that's usually the heftier servo motors and high-output servo drive units). If I can get them in uncertain condition for cheap and either confirm working or repair, then clean and show good output in pictures, that's good money right there and I can do it at home on my own schedule.
There's general utility too - I'm more able to fix and maintain normal random stuff around the home, like our robot vacuum or a touch-lamp that stops working right.
Arrows and leather stuff.
That sounds extremely cool - what kind of leather crafts? reenactment type of works, or just to wear around casually?
Belts and straps mainly, but I've also made a back-to-hip quiver for my arrows and some arm guards. One of my arm guards appears on the Tandy Leather website, so I'm super happy about that. I'm looking to expand and make more stuff like knee pads and fashionable items, practical items, and cosplay gear. Though my dream is to become a cordwainer... that would be my peak form, I believe. Then I could dress people up and down and match their belts and shoes to their wallets and purses.
Congrats on the arm guards being on the website, that's awesome to hear! One of my friends used to work at that shop, so it's kind of a lovely thing to see how small of a world it is.
I could absolutely see cosplay gear being a lucrative side gig to all of that, especially with the explosion of popularity D&D has with certian generations. People dressing up as their favorite characters and who aren't afraid to spend a little to get truly timeless, quality results.
Currently working on a YouTube video series exploring my mental health, poetry and love of video games via a short form horror story
The first video is just an introduction to me and the concept of the void.
The second video is expanding more on The Void and anxiety
The Third video is on a small hiatus due to budget/technical/mental health issues.
I've been working on getting back into landscape painting - packed away my oils and studio stuff THREE whole years ago when I moved across the country for work. I spent lots of time over the past few years with my sketchbook; traveling across the state and taking lots of scenic, "boy this should be a painting", reference photos.
Work has been busy, time consuming, and stressful. Long hours and long weeks don't help motivation to be creative. However, to unwind a bit I started doing some small value/composition studies (in gouache) last week of some of my favorite reference photos... Which motivated me to finally unpack my art stuff and set up a small spot in a spare room with my easel. Now I just have to try and remember how to hold a brush and sling some paint.
I've been slowly rescuing my wooded backyard from English Ivy and other non-native plants. This spring I discovered a densely wooded area about a mile from my house that has a bonanza of native ferns. I've transplanted about a dozen and I'm looking forward to a slow and steady restoration over the next few years.
So I probably screwed up my first post on Tildes because it links to a page with no context. I had no engagement and so likely didn't do a good job of posting, but it gives details. My buddy and I are making a board game and have used AI to flesh out the initial concept, story, art, and gameplay.
We are at the point of having a full version working and play testing mode! We had to use our human brains to get this functional and fun! We hope to give it out for free in time for Christmas ;)
If it's any consolation, I skimmed through the video so I could tag it appropriately. The subject matter is not my particular cup of tea, and 2 hours is a pretty big time commitment even for someone who is interested in board games and AI, so that's probably why you didn't get much engagement, not because you did anything wrong... but the quality was good from what I saw of it, your room looks cool, and I think your beard is awesome. ;)
Thank you and I suppose my intention was to provide my link as a reference instead of the "main event." That ks for skimming the video and beard kudos!
Tildes seems to be about textual communication and so my initial comment laid out the main points. The linked VOD optional.
My Tildes comment was to get feedback with lots of text! Haha.
Here is the meat from my first post:
Ah, in that case, since you were looking to start a particular discussion, it probably would have been better to make a text topic with the prompt/question as the title, and then just linked to your podcast in the text body to provide the additional context. That way more people would have read the headline, known what to expect, what you were looking for, and gone to the comments immediately. Whereas after clicking the link and seeing the 2 hour long video, quite a few people probably didn't even make it to the comments section.
One of my favorite recent pet projects has been Bad Gravity: https://lgms.nl/p/badgravity/
It's meant for one thing: getting a feel for orbital mechanics. No math, no downloads, no payment, no rocket building "crash course" before you get to orbit, no constant running out of fuel: just planets (point masses), a craft, and N-body orbital mechanics to interact with.
It works for the purpose, I learned what I wanted, but for anyone who isn't me: the UI is nearly unusable without a proper introduction and it requires arrow keys (no mobile replacement yet). The best I managed is the little intro messages at the top left.
I'm mainly stuck at figuring out what the UI ought to look like
Such a neat project! What’s going on in the picture with the bus and cloud of smoke behind it?
Unlucky for the bus but lucky for you to get such an interesting shot!
I'm working on an interactive digital art piece to create a multisensory non-text based experience for interacting with gpt4.
I work in higher Ed with interactive and digital arts students and even this group do not understand the techmology and some of that seems to come from writing it off. There are a few reasons people seem averse to the technology: fear; underestimating the capabilities ("it's a glorified auto complete/Markov chain" or experience with the inferior 3 or 3.5 model making them think they know the limits of the technology); presumption that this is slow moving and/or underestimating the role it will have on them in the workplace (even as artists and designers); simple lack of exposure (less than a quarter of US adults have tried it and a much smaller fraction have tried gpt-4).
As one small attempt to get folks to engage with the technology, my project is an installation where a visitor can walk up to the terminal, type literally anything in, and gpt4 will respond with sound and light. Then it will share the explanation for the display in the terminal.
I'm aiming to engage art students specifically here - I'm hoping that a multisensory approach, within the framework of an interactive art installation with is the "language" they speak, will allow for an experience that gets past the initial barriers and provides something interesting to think about as they leave.
Regardless of whether LLMs are just "glorified Markov chains", are good or bad, creative or dead ... The technology is out there, open source models like Orca and Vicuña are gaining capabilities, and workplaces are being remade. Ignoring this is not a viable option. I have my own take on all of the above but that's not salient for this work. As someone from an information science background, I think knowledge is power and I hate to see people walking around unprepared for the transformation that is to come.
(Incidentally, do we have a specific tag for discussing ai/llm development within ~tech? Still getting used to the subtleties!)
I've been working on the same 30ish page comic for the past few years now. I accidentally screwed myself by trying to write a romance story as someone who hates romance in order to pander to middle school girls on Webtoon, so its been a struggle to even force myself to work on it, let alone actually finish it. I think I need a new story at this point, but I can't come up with anything else so I'm stuck rewriting the same thing over and over again hoping this time I'll actually like it.
Hopefully you can eventually find a piece that you find more enjoyable to write! It stinks that you feel stuck writing a genre that you don't like.
Your situation makes me think of when I was in my high school writing class and we had to write short stories using randomly assigned genres. I remember being stuck with a genre that I did not enjoy reading myself and that I had no idea how to write about. That assignment was very difficult for me because I didn't know enough about the genre to know what made a piece good or bad, or what made a piece enjoyable for others to read.
Mine is so boring, bought a new sketchbook and have been trying to use it as frequently as I can.
And that's it.
I’m in my mid 40’s and working toward buying land to create a homestead. I’ve made a hydroponic tote to have a better understanding of gardening and plumbing since it’s made from mostly pvc. Once I’ve nailed that down I’ll work on maybe creating a small rain barrel system to feed the tote once it runs low on water. I figure I can take these skills with me when the time comes to buy the land and get started.
I am working on designing a fun little trash bag holder that I can use in my car. I am using a magnetic phone holder that clips into one of my air vents to hold a small trash bag. The phone holder came with two pairs of metal stickers to adhere to the back of a phone case so the magnet has something to hold on to. The magnet is also surprisingly strong, and it holds onto the metal firmly. Even if you shake it around violently it still holds on strongly!
What I'm trying to figure out is how to design a 3D printable little decorative thing that I can adhere one of the metal stickers to. I like to have the option to change out decorations. So I'm trying make it a two piece mechanism that has a base with the metal sticker attached to it and a decorative piece that locks onto the base and can be changed out.
I'm probably making it needlessly complicated, but I feel like if I'm having fun and learning new skills then it is worth it.
Still trying to re-work a screenplay I've been chewing on for years. The procrastination bug has hit me hard.
Omg I love your sense of humor! Both the cursed photos and the TNG flamingos! I would love to observe and overhear someone discovering a cursed photo. Please do post a pic of your flamingos when done, such a fun idea!
I'm current in the process of building a remote control lawnmower.
It started as a way to avoid going near the trees when I mow the lawn because I take a massive allergic reaction to said trees every time I touch them. I searched Google for other people that have done similar things. I saw one guy's project where he attached wheelchair motors and an alternator to a gas powered push mower that he controlled with a Flysky. Saw another project where someone converted a riding mower to electric with 3 12v motors in place of the pulleys. I decided that I liked these ideas, and combined the 2.
First I found an old 48" 3 blade deck. I figured the wider the deck, the faster I can mow and the less battery power I'd need overall. It's heavy and from the 1970s, but it's solid and had no real rust. I saved the blades to reuse, which shouldn't take much modification. Then as I was looking around for wheelchair motors, I stumbled onto the fact that hoverboards are powerful enough to move up to 270 pounds and are incredibly easy to reprogram for remote control. And they can take 4.10/3.50 x 5 tires and inner tunes to give it extra grip. I still have to wait for the remote controller and the STLink V2 programmer to find out if in can use just one hoverboard or if I need 2. But if I need 2, then it becomes a 4x4 zero-turn, so that's not a bad thing. Next I figured out that 12v 3000rpm 895 electric motors have about the same torque as a gas powered push mower, which is what was likely used on the electric riding mower project. Combined with some fuses, some relays and some 12v batteries for the motors and one for the various extra electronics, I shouldn't need high powered contactors or massive fuses to deal with. The motors run at 200 watts, so I shouldn't need anything more than 20 amp fuses and standard car relays running directly from standard deep cycle batteries connected to each motor individually. The hoverboard has its own 36v battery and charger. Recharging everything may take some effort, but the electrical work on the project itself shouldn't be complicated.
I have an old hoverboard ready to reprogram. I spent $100 on a new 36v battery, the STLink V2 programmer, and a noname remote control and receiver. I'll spend another $100 on the motors, blade attachments, and various wires and bits. The tires and inner tubes I found on Walmart.ca for $65. And the batteries will be deep cycle electric scooter batteries rated for 12v 55ah, which is overkill but there are some good deals on Facebook marketplace at around $120. The deck was $30, and the hoverboard was free plus $40 in gas to pick it up. I have an old bed frame that I'll reuse the steel to make the frame. Add another $50 for relays and fuses, and the whole project should come in around $500, or about the cost of a good electric 20" push mower. Unfortunately it won't be ready to use until about October, but it'll be ready to go for next year. And then I can finish off my trailer hitch snowplow with an old winch to lift it up.
I've been a smut/NSFW writer for a few years now and am finally hopping off of the commission train. At first, I was shocked and overjoyed that peopel were willing to pay for my work - still am, honestly, I'm so appreciative of everybody that enjoys it - but the constant grind and my ADHD preventing me from actively working on stuff was just killing my drive.
I felt awful every time I would tell somebody I'd get another 5k words by Wednesday, and then by Friday I'd barely been able to even open it up. Thank God none of my commissioners ever called me out on it or were otherwise combative - each and every one of them was super polite and understanding. Still, I felt godawful, so I made my most recent commission my last one for now to get back to writing the stuff I got started with in the first place.
Man, has it been nice - being actually excited about a piece, writing about the stuff I want to write about, not worrying at all about fitting in stuff that I either don't care about or am actively disgusted by... it's nice. I've already put out one short story that's been fairly well received, and the next thing I release will be the first part in a three part finale to finish off the current chapter of my overarching story that got me relatively popular in the first place. Not sure how much I'm allowed to actually talk about my work on here, which is fine, but it's not like I can vent these feelings out to people I know IRL!
I've been doing the same line of work (not commissions, however) for around two years now, and I definitely sympathize. I can reliably hit 1.5k words a day when I'm feeling well, but maintaining that speed day after day with a deadline always in the horizon is so hard. I don't like throwing words on the wall like this: I like taking my time, sitting down and thinking about what I'm writing, even if that only means I get 500 words down by the end of the day, but with erotica that's just not possible if I want to make a living.
It has helped me that I have other writing projects on my mind that I reserve time for. I have a fantasy book that I'm working on, and having it on my mind has done a lot to keep me sane, even if I can't always put words down because of work. I have a constructed language that I'm building for it, and I've done a ridiculous amount of worldbuilding... having some kind of creative outlet that is separate from work has done a lot of good for me.
I'm very on/off - and by that I mean, when I'm off I can't do any work at all, and when I'm on I will burn through 10k in just a few hours. I write mostly stream-of-consciousness, only stopping to correct grammatical mistakes, and then do a bare editing pass just to make sure everything sounds right in my head when I read it, so when I really get going I can just zip through - then the juices stop flowing and suddenly I'm looking at the page with disgust, not at what I've written, but because I just can't write more.
I used to do significantly more editing, but obsessing over every word slowed me down to a crawl. I hate publishing prose that isn't 100% perfect, but that's life, I suppose. I think the most I've ever written in a day is 4k, so good on you! I wish I could write at that speed, even sporadically.
Still, you should be proud of yourself. Writing is extremely mentally taxing and is tied to your health. It's not always going to be possible to write more—and that's okay. Remember to set limits for yourself. You shouldn't beat yourself up because of mental health out of your control.
Same to you, man - I have days where I'm practically begging my brain to let me get a consistent 1-2k a day, even 500. I've been trying to find some good ADHD meds or nootropics that help me get past that block, but no luck yet.
A quilt for my grandson's 10th birthday. He loved the one I gave him when he was 1 so much that he wore it out, lol. I've done a lot of sewing in general. I lost my job at the end of April and other than applying for jobs, sewing is about all I've done. Though now that I finally found a new job, I'm shifting toward making work-appropriate tops rather than fun-to-wear ones.
Some time ago A Name in the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons OSR community created The Gygax 75 Challenge, in which you, using quotes from and light supplementary to an old Gygax letter/article, create everything necessary to kick off a D&D campaign in the style of Gary Gygax in 1975.
I’ve been working on this off-and-on for months. I’m at what is arguably the most difficult part - creating and stocking the initial dungeon - and it’s taken most of these months to progress. I’m not near done or anything, but I am excited about the world still.
It’s heavily inspired by M. John Harrison’s Viriconium stories and other pulpy, dark adventure science-fantasy, so lots of moody, dark pastel deserts, “devolved” protomen, sorcerers, flesh-eating lizard people, and invaders from out of our dimension through the lens of a vaguely 1600s European mode living in the ruins of a greater time.
Don’t know when I’ll finish it, but I’m still enjoying the process and letting the ideas knock around.
Trying to push myself to finish the first book in a series I've been worldbuilding for since high school. It's been twenty years in the making, in that sense. It started as a sort of sci-fi playspace in my head: just a place to daydream. A decade(ish) ago I mentioned some ideas to a friend who liked it, and it's continued to evolve over the years.
A few years ago I wrote about 80k words of a first novel, as a semi-productive procrastination tactic while finishing my doctorate, but I desperately need to edit it. The connection from the middle section to the final setpiece(s) is something I've been grinding my teeth over: I had the ending in mind, but I've rewritten the final leg of the final chapters/act countless times. I think I'm letting perfection be the enemy of good (and I'll be lucky if it's even good), so I just need to be done with it, and start on the next couple (I have the endings in mind, which become the setting for the next, essentially).
I'm also into watercolor painting, but put that on hold to force myself to write, and unfortunately it means I haven't done much of either. My strategy is to just chip away at it, but I find it too easy to muster up excuses during the week. I think I'll have to do what I do with exercise: get it out of the way in the morning, so I can't use the excuse of being drained after work. I don't want to turn creative time into work itself, but I also need to ensure that it becomes part of my daily life, again. Anyone have other strategies that work for them?
Three-sided cards.
A bit more than two years ago I got a free inkjet printer, put ink in it, and realized the ink would dry up if I didn't print something regularly so I challenged myself to print something every day.
I standardized the way I did things, decided I wanted to print something on the back to explain the front like this
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110409706406856531
and added a QR code to a "third" side on the web. I also got the idea of putting them together in groups to cover large areas like
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110542853660777197
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110607498804590869
and developed quite a few variations such as 3-d cards that can be viewed with red-cyan glasses like these
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/110469284908973891
I just made design #318, which means I haven't quite been managing one a day, but as time as gone on I've moved away from making individual cards and towards making groups of cards.
I have to admit the "web side" is the weakest bit right now, for one thing I don't have a good answer for how to present the back side of the 13x19 cards I print of now. My ambitions for the cards overlap with "the metaverse" even though they were developed before that term was announced. (I can afford to give a set of my 3-d glasses to a room at a conference and mine are better image quality.) Right now I am experimenting with something that annotates the cards on a Hololens 1 and I'm planning to bring an experience inspired by that to phones.