The First Video – The Climb #867

Thursday 8^th July 2021

Today was my first day back to work on various things after a week long WoWcation for patch 9.1 in World of Warcraft, and I managed to get a load done.

My task list currently has been dominated by doing intros to video projects. My idea is to have the intros in different formats ready to go. I can then just stick content behind them, and quickly export. I’m using some of my experience from doing the stormchasing here to work out how to turn out content quickly. A lot of that speed comes from having the things you need ready and to hand. Prep is everything.

So I’ve been doing intros for my Youtube, The First Draft, Write Productively and Warcraft in different aspect ratios so I can quickly create content for Youtube but also TikTok and Instagram. I don’t have plans there just yet, but I have the tools if I do. This has involved sourcing copyright and royalty-free music, creating logos for each of there, and creating art assets for Thumbnail graphics and social media promotion

I also did my first video. I took a clip from my Twitch of me reacting to the latest Warcraft cinematic and stuck my Warcraft intro on the front. And bam! Uploaded! I’m really pleased with this, and hopefully this will be the first of many.

I may have produced the file in a low resolution though – which is a bit of a novice mistake. But the idea is to move fast and learn with each new video.

It sounds like a lot of work and it was, but I also got a load of writing done. Between the various stages of intro creation and video production, I managed to do a couple of writing sessions and get another 2000 words done on the novel. I also wrote a couple of scripts for further videos.

I reckon in total I wrote about 3500 words, which given I seem to need to ramp up, is an impressive first day. Admittedly the ideas have been percolating for a week, but I’d told myself that 500 words would have been acceptable on my first day back.

As a result, I feel I accomplished a lot today. I still have insecurities about these projects that makes me want to wait and consider rather than put them into action, but I’m trying to combat that in me a little. Perhaps with so many micro projects on the go, there’s not the opportunity to say to myself “stop and think about these for a while”.

I absolutely think that stopping and thinking often really helps my writing. It’s why I can write more in 2 one hour sessions with an hour of gaming between than I can writing solidly for 3 hours. But I need to mentally separate ideas from actions. The projects are experiments that I’m totally willing to have fail. The real measure of success is my ability to move fast on them.

I’m hoping to get another video done tomorrow. I filmed all the content for it today so it’s just a matter of putting it together and creating a voiceover. That’s something I’ve never done before.

And of course, in the midst of all this I want to progress The Accursed.

Lots to do over the next couple of weeks, and I intend to have fun doing it.