It’s easy to think about writing a book or think about creating a game – following through is where it can get tough.
Being stubborn and having perseverance are important but don’t mean the same thing.
Stubbornness is holding fast to an idea and perseverance is moving ahead, despite obstacles.
Once we invest effort into an idea, we tend to hold on to it. That’s good, to a point, because we’ll have thoughts of “how will I deal with x, y, and z?”
But is your idea a good one?
Time will tell. Maybe a little luck too. And certainly how you deal with stubbornness and perseverance.
- J.K. Rowling was turned down by several publishers.
- Madonna spent years working to be a dancer. One night she filled in for a singer.
If Rowling had accepted rejection or Madonna held fast to being a dancer, we might not know of either one.
I’m no Rowling and no Madonna (lol, on many, many fronts!) but I am inspired by them and hope that I can balance stubbornness and perseverance wisely.
My kid’s book series, ChuChu Chicken & Pedro the Goat, had been an idea for 7 years. Now the first two are being edited and the first is being illustrated. The InDesign templates and ISBN numbers are ready and they’ll be published in November. This project took a lot of perseverance. =
My games are a different story (oh no! no pun intended!). =p
I started with a “euro” game and, a few months and some playtesting later, the concept and components are defined. Looking at self-publishing, just like my books, I ran into reality! $26 in components plus a homemade game bag. =(
Do I rework the game to use fewer components and change die-cut tiles to something easier? Change the graphics I’ve spent hours on plus the Kickstarter page? Give up the dream of a maker movement, non-offshored, game?
The Rowling/Madonna moment!
My decision – move it to the back burner but create a new game that will be self-published. Mint Tin Pirates was born and, thanks to game design meetups, Mint Tin Knights came about too. Two games will make for a more interesting Kickstarter in August.
But . . . what I thought would be a genius reworking of Pirates to become Knights felt like an unimaginative reskinning of Pirates. It would feel like a ripoff as a Kickstarter reward.
Ugh, another Rowling/Madonna moment! o_O
Like the first one, this turned out to be good! o/
Mint Tin Villagers! A 2 person cooperative 10 minute filler game with a vastly different feel to Pirates.
Time will tell if I’ve dealt with stubbornness and perseverance wisely.
What about you? Any ideas you’d like to move to projects – why not this week? (^.^)
