Bootstraps

Apologies for the hiccup in weekly Smatterings--that'll be fixed right away.  

This isn't much for you to smatter, perhaps, but I've been thinking a lot about what it means to make the next step in a professional arts career.  I've been thinking about promotion, and what to work on, and how to present one's self and products, and how to do it while maintaining a regular life and job, and how hard it seems, and how I know that so many other people have done it successfully.  

And how many have not.  

I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and his theory that it takes 10,000 hours of true, focused practice to become a master.  And I just read this article http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/issue/featuredstory.cfm?story=3 about being an entrepreneur for yourself, because you are your product.  What struck me most was this little quote: "If your skin crawls at the idea of trying to sell anything, let alone yourself, try approaching the challenge as you would approach a role. As former talent agent Phil Carlson suggested to me, think about it as 'the acting you have to do in order to get to do any acting.'"

Oh, the article is about being a professional actor.  But I decided it may as well be about game design, which then meant I should view all of this as the game I have to design (and play) in order to get to do any game design.  That makes it a bit more... undaunting.  Right?  

A bit of fun, at least.  

Before I ramble too much more, I suppose it comes down to this: how much do you enjoy the activities you truly love?  And how much do you let get in the way of those activities?  

I can't imagine feeling more accomplished over anything than I would over completing a large video game project.  Hell, even a small one.  Nothing else appeals to quite the same extent that designing a unique, compelling, funny and interactive world filled with interesting choice does.  

But I'm fat.  And there sure is a lot of me to get in my own way.  

Time to shed some of that weight so I'm easier to lift by my own foot accessory ropes.  

Exactly.