Back in Action

A few months ago on Facebook, I talked about the problems I was having finding the motivation and energy to do just about anything but specifically my creative endeavors. In June, with the help of a therapist, I started working my way back to… working. After looking at my previous plans, I’ve realized a few things about what I’ve been doing that’s been overwhelming me. I’ve always had a long plan for Old School Evil – besides the 7-8 novels, I started working towards a YouTube channel and returning to a 3D-printed action figure. My to-do list was way too long, and I worried about getting all of it done with my slow pace, and frankly, I’m not in the best health. After my friend Jason Gross passed away in October of last year, it made me a lot more concerned about my overall health, and I think that contributed.

I’ve made some changes in my plans going forward. For my novels, I’m focusing only on Old School 3 right now, and if the other books down the line never come to fruition, that’s fine. I can’t continue to push myself to publish anything other than my current book, and if I take another 4 years to do so (that’s how long it took The Rejects to come out after the first one), I’ll have to live with it. I’m also completely abandoning YouTube and my 3D-printing plans. Maybe I’ll pick them up later on down the line. Instead, now I’m just making up a quick and easy to-do list each day, and crossing each item off is really helping boost my spirits. Over the last month, I’ve finally been able to make some progress. It’s not a lot, like taking baby steps into the shallow end of the pool, but as my therapist said, “it’s better than nothing.” Okay, I can’t remember if she said that exactly, but I’m paraphrasing.

I have been reading through what I’ve written so far of Old School Evil 3, and it’s gotten me more excited about returning to it. I read a section a day, at first just to reacquaint myself with my work, but more recently, I’ve been taking notes and making edits. I haven’t written any new material on it, but I’m ready to. I have also been working on some articles for The Retro Network/Geekster and Rediscover the 80s. I feel refreshed writing those things and I feel like the day or two it takes to write them is just the right amount of work, so I’m not getting overwhelmed again. I plan to do a few more before the end of July, and once August hits, it’s back to work writing on Old School Evil 3.

I’ve also discovered, looking back at the last few years, that this problem of mine always rears its head in February or March. I have no idea why it’s then, as my birthday and my wife’s fall in February, and our anniversary is in March, but there are no other commitments, and we don’t do much to celebrate. She thinks it’s because I can finally relax after the busy holiday season. Whatever the case, I’ve decided next year, I’m preemptively planning to not accomplish anything in those two months instead of fighting against it and burning myself out even more. Hopefully, I can continue working through the rest of the year with no issues if I just take a break then.

So yeah, I’m feeling better and getting back into the groove of things. Expect to see some of my stuff online a bit more in the next month. Thank you for checking this out and for sticking with me during this difficult time.