Getting Back In The Ring

I've put this off for far too long.

If you read that sentence and heard Ian Holm's Bilbo in your head, then we're off to a good start because that's exactly how it sounded when it came to me. I've been away from a couple of things for too long now and it's time to get back to it. What am I talking about? Gamemastering and writing. I believe I've taken steps to help fix that. 

First one's easy: start running more games. As you can see from last week's posts, I've started running a mixed online/in-person D&D game but that's just the beginning. While I love my Ottawa playtesters, I need to whip out a lot more playtests for ScreenPlay and stress test this mofo. Which is why I'm looking into starting up a semi-regular online group to do that very thing. Details are still being worked out and I haven't established anything other than a fist-clenching oath to get it done, so stay tuned. If you're interested already, comment below. 

The next is as critical to Gamemastering and playtesting and so much more: writing. With my career and personal life demanding so much attention lately, my time at the keyboard has suffered for it. That needs to change and I may have something to help fix that. Sure, sure, setting aside time is great and a lofty goal but I need something suitable to my current lifestyle. 

To paraphrase the South Park kids, I learned something this weekend. I'm a morning person (who also likes staying up late but that's a different matter altogether). The sooner I can get to a task, the sooner and better it will be done. Over the weekend, I happened to wake up extra early on Saturday while the missus slept in and spontaneously decided to finally clean up the garage. With nearly three uninterrupted hours as people sipped their morning coffees and stores prepared opening for business, I cleaned and ended up with a better result than originally intended. Get an early start, get better results. Translation: I need to write something as early as possible in the day to get something done. 

My plan (and it's Day Two right now) is to not putz around on any social media until after I've written at least 500 words on a project or personal entry. (Yes, that includes blogging since I can write that much easily in one sitting. I should also note this doesn't include work's social media as I gets paid to tweet for them.) 

Has it worked out so far? It's already the second day and I have an opening legend for High Plains Samurai and a blog post talking about how I'm going to get more writing done. So far, so good.