This post is copied and pasted directly from the post of the same name from on my Patreon account. If you want to view it, it can be seen here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/37718255
The quarantine has been exhausting as I am sure everyone
knows. The stress of having to keep working, and taking care of yourself while
the dark shadow of the news pulls down your shoulders. Itâs overwhelming on the
good days and numbing on the worst, to the point of pushing someone to become
distant. For me, that means watching movies and TV (all of âMindhunterâ in one
sitting for example).
Before I go much further, I am going to make my decision
here clear: I am going to suspend my
Patreon. I am going to stop charging people, what is here will continue to
be left up but no new posts will be made for the foreseeable future. This has
taken some thought, so this post will be public and is also a little longer
than my previous written posts here. Over the past 2 months I have had a few
important, or at least big impact events occur. This quarantine is one of them.
The second is finishing my 2nd semester of college. The third is realizing that
I have fallen out of love with creative work. All of these have congealed into
an anxiety monster that has stopped me from accomplishing much of anything.
As some probably know, I am currently a student at Champlain
College for a degree in Game Art & Animation. With the conclusion of the
spring semester I have finished my freshman year (the first of the four for my
degree). Fall was a thrill to be a part of and ignited an energy to work and
get things done. I was finishing assignments, I wasnât late often and I felt
incredibly productive. This lead into winter break, where I wrote upwards of
8000 words of game text in mini supplements. With this I felt prepared for a
new year and was confident in my ability to release some creative work.
When I started my spring semester I had fun: taking on new
duties as an RA and with the assignments in my new classes. However, I quickly
started to feel overwhelmed, this was mostly due to how I was viewing my
assignments. I was finishing them at the last minute or with just the goal of
âgetting them doneâ but I wanted more than to just âGet them doneâ though. I wanted to enjoy the process. As I
fell more and more behind the anxiety started mount to the point where I was
sick. I was crumpled over, tired and crying, unable to pick up a pen unless I
was absolutely forced to. My grades were âokayâ, except for one class by the
end of the semester, but finals week was the last straw that pushed me into
disconnecting from my own creativity. In the process of finishing out my spring
semester the quarantine hit. Normally whenever I had a downer mood, over my
semester on campus, I would go outside for a long walk. Or I would go downtown
to the bakery, or the coffee shop which was off campus. I couldnât do that
anymore though as I was no longer on campus and it was no longer safe to do so
even for the businesses in my hometown.
I was stuck without my normal brand of Band-Aids for how I feel. That left me stewing with my thoughts and in a place where I couldnât even budge on any of my ideas. I couldnât even finish something to have it finished. In this ârelaxedâ state I ended up watching tons of movies and even watched all of Patrick (H) Willems YouTube videos (a very good video essayist on films and film-making). Which was great but even that wasnât enough to keep me out of my slump, or to pull me out of where I was emotionally. It just was enough to keep me thinking about movies and the TV shows I have been watching.
In all of this I was able to start the process of taking
anxiety medications with my doctor and will be working with him to continue to
seek ways to moderate this anxiety. Which leads me to thisâŠThe work I did over
this semester and during winter break was different, different than what I
thought it was. What I wanted from creating was to enjoy the process and care
about what I was making. To be proud of what I write beyond just hitting the
finish line, which consistently has been what I have been doing. Each of the
mini supplements I have written so far have felt like they had kernels of what
I love and enjoy but I never felt when finished, fulfilled.
To remove the excess stress I am currently on vacation and
learning about short meditations. I am also taking out of my routine excess
stressors (such as my monthly Patreon commitment). This is in the hope that
after I am emotionally reset or back to a state of normalcy I can create with
the emotions that I desire. To make things and have fun doing so through
careful time budgeting and reasonable
productivity expectations.
That is it! That is where I am currently at, I will be
taking extra care of myself to make sure that I am okay and able to reconnect
with my creativity.
And now for a short Q & A!
I know that this leaves a number of questions for those who
want to continue to follow what I create. This also brings up questions of what
I will do on my Patreon going forward with it closed down. I hope I can provide
some answers here, if you have more questions please comment or reach out and
Iâll answer the best that I can.
Q: Are you okay?
A: I will be fine! I am only able to make these decisions
because I am conscious of the state I am in and what I am able to handle. I am
emotionally okay! I have been doing better as I have been preparing to write
this post and as I am currently writing it. I actually am taking great care in
how I am writing this post and feeling good about how it has gone. The summary
of my state: I am good and have been getting better. I have a really good
support network made up of my family members and my partner.
Q: What type of creative work are you going to work on?
A: For the remainder of the summer I will be working on
whatever keeps me interested. Just work that excites me and is rewarding to
finish and complete, this includes practicing 3D modeling, continuing the
online math course I am working through, and learning how to blog all over
again.
It seems important to me to set up small goals that can be
accomplished but that I can also take my time to complete them. That way I can
focus on my personal enjoyment over finishing a project. I am hopeful and
confident that I can get into a positive groove by the time that school starts
up again in the fall.
Q: How can I stay up to date on what you do?
A: If you want to follow what I am doing publicly (blog
posts, art, game related works, etc), then I am going to recommend subscribing
to both of my blogs for notifications:
As I will be sharing my latest work in blog post form here
along with any announcements of products. The movies blog will be there to keep
people up to date on what me and Beau watch along with our movie
recommendations. My personal website will have more writing work, including
short fiction and any articles that I work on. If I find any meditation tactics
that work for me, they will likely also be shared there in reflection essays.
If you want to just get the most important information in batches sent to your email inbox, you can sign up to my mailing list here. http://eepurl.com/dHBnLT
My Twitter is @thomasanovosel (https://twitter.com/thomasanovosel)
if you want to chat or see mostly jokes. However as I am focusing on my blog
more I will be trying to take a backseat when it comes to my social media as it
distracts me from my interests more often than it keeps me informed on my
favorite subjects.
Q: Will you still be doing commissions and work for hire?
A: Yes! I will still be completing my current workload and
taking on new commissions as I receive them through private messages and email.
I still have a need for money to cover my personal bills and debts, so I canât
turn down any work. That work is what pays for my needs and also my
entertainment budget (movies, books, documentaries, etc).
But I will be avoiding monetizing my personal work or
hobbies when possible to avoid its connection to my financial status.
Q: Now for a fun question, what movies have you been watching? And what
books?
A: That is a fun question which seems out of place and also
very self-serving for my own interests. Right now I am currently reading Italo
Calvinoâs âIf on a winterâs night a travelerâ, Terry Pratchettâs âHogfatherâ,
and am working on finishing an audiobook of J.G. Ballardâs âThe Drowned Worldâ.
Hogfather is a whimsical book, Calvinoâs is poetic fantasy, and Ballardâs is a
short apocalyptic sci-fi book.
As for movies, I have recently just rewatched The Invitation
(2015) a tense horror movie about a cult from the director of Jenniferâs Body.
I have also been rewatching The Birds (1963) for a writing project; I think
that I have actually watched it 3 times in the last week and have dozen pages
of handwritten notes on it. That project whenever it is finished will be up on
my personal blog.
If you havenât heard of The Birds, itâs an Alfred Hitchcock
movie about the beginning of a bird-pocalypse where birds have started swarming
and murdering humans on the California coast. It also has a romance plot that
is fun!
If I was going to recommend some books, here are two that I
think are excellent (keeping in mind that I like horror and so will recommend
horror):
- Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones: This is the
best werewolf book I have ever seen! I know that I have not dug incredibly
deep into werewolf media, but this book sets an incredibly high bar as it
imagines the life of werewolves when they are changed and when they are
not.
- The Beauty by Aliya Whitely: This book isnât
incredibly long but it includes mushroom people having sex with people and
creating weird human mushroom babies in an apocalypse that has killed all
of the women. The twist is that the mushroom people grew from the graves
of the dead women of the world.
Thatâs all!
I know that this is a lot of information. That some of this
information is me being vulnerable and open with everyone who will see it, but
I think that it is important for me to keep it open for myself. I also wanted
to be open with my followers here as this shift could lead them to be worried
about me. Being honest and detailed hopefully will reassure anyone who had
those concerns that I will be okay and have all of the support that I need to
work through this.
Until I complete a blog post or have more to say, thanks for
being here! Thank you for understanding! The Patreon will be off so that it
doesnât charge anyone, I will leave up what I have posted so far and if
anything big comes up Iâll be sure to share a link to it here.
Much love,
– Thomas N.
Addendum:
This post was written up late night on Sunday the 24th. It is unrelated to any recent news. The reason that it was not posted then was so that I could have time to sit on it, reread and edit. As well as to make sure that the decision I had been sitting on for most of the month was a decision that I wanted to follow-through with.