this needs a title but i can’t think of a title so it’s just an aside without a title

I feel like years and years of hard work has allowed me the privilege to take this time for my own work, say no to projects or things I don’t really want to do, and focus on getting excited and making things.

So the plan has been to take August off (except for @Midnight on the 19th and two installments of Critical Role, both things I want to do because they’re fun) to just write and be creative.

I thought I’d have some progress toward finishing one of these writing projects by now (since it’s Thursday, after all), but  I’ve spent this week recovering emotionally and physically from GenCon (more on that later when I can properly organize all those thoughts).

For the longest time, I’ve felt guilty if I take time to do things like watch movies or read a stack of comics, and even though I remind myself that part of my job is to be familiar with and inspired by the things I want to create, the loudest and most insistent part of my brain does a lot of “umactually…” at me a lot of the time.

But here I am, watching almost two movies a night, reading on average a book a week, playing and learning lots of games, and generally just doing my best to feed my creative side, so it’s ready to go when I ask it to work with me to turn ideas into stories.

This feels strange, but also good.

Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

68 thoughts on “this needs a title but i can’t think of a title so it’s just an aside without a title”

  2. The stuff you’re doing – books, movies, games etc are not only for your work but they’re also good for your soul. They provide you an outlet and / or a respite. For me it’s books and music and movies. They keep me sane.

  3. Part of the creative cycle of most every creative I know is the feeding stage … we feel guilty doing it, most of us, but eventually learn that it’s essential, then allowing ourselves to actually enjoy it. Fancy that! 🙂 Glad you’re diggin’ it.

    Gray Haired Duffer 1,962

  4. Creativity isn’t an endless well from which you can draw over and over, without replenishing it. By doing what you’re doing, you are being a good custodian of your creativity–and yourself. Carry on.

  6. Yes, feeding your creative side does help spawn ideas while in that creative mood but there is that other hand that gets enjoyably comfortable.

    Now get on to writing about all the awesome news we’re hearing about Battlefront huh!

  8. I heard you on Chris Hardwick’s show this past time and I think it is safe to say you have deserved the rest (even if you don’t think you do). I’ve watched some of the UROK vids you’ve done and it is uncanny that what you’ve gone through some of us military veterans have seen the same thing, except it starts happening to us as a result of emotional trauma of some kind, sometimes we don’t even know it ourselves.

  9. The thing about being a creative is that you NEED the downtime to recover, otherwise your creativity will go on strike …

    The thing about being an achiever with a work ethic is that any time spent not working creates a flood of guilt …

    (I also struggle with the whole “what do people do when they’re not working?” thing. Like, there’s only so many hours a day I can fill with stuff that’s not work. Then I kind of wander back to it unconsciously and have to stop myself.)

    Walking that tight rope is exhausting – and you’ve been doing it a lot longer than most of us!

    It’s both the blessing and the curse of having the privilege to engage in Creative Work as a job …

  11. Where’s non-judgmental ninja when you need him? “You should take time to refuel yourself however you feel is best, Wil.”

  12. The same way you need to eat to fuel your body, you need to relax to fuel your mind. Looking for inspiration and passion is vital to all artists. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

  13. I was just thinking today how I don’t have enough time to do all things I love or to learn new things that I have always wanted to know how to do. I wish I had a more flexible schedule that allowed for mass exodus from work for a whole month. Call me jealous!
    You work hard, you are always on top of your nerd game, and pleasure outings for the rest of us (i.e. GenCon) are often work for you. Take your time, as much as you want, and reassure your brain that it deserves time to chill, too. Enjoy your you time.

  14. Lately I’ve been having the opposite of a mid-life crisis. I’m almost 40 years old so I’ve been telling myself that a lot of my interests are childish and my enthusiasm for them is bordering on infantile. I tell myself it’s time to grow up and be an adult.

    Then I realize that I pay my bills, work at a job from a remote location, and get the important stuff done. I also look around at what ‘being an adult’ is all about and realize it’s still a high-consumption lifestyle just with different status markers.

    I decided that I have enough life experience to find depth and meaning when I need it but that also means I know the important of play and just having fun without there necessarily being any deeper meaning than connection with family, friends, and community.

    Taking all of August off is a great decision. Serious tenured professors take sabbaticals so why not entertainers? Even Bill Gates took his famous time-outs at the height of Microsoft’s success. You have nothing to feel guilty about. Enjoy it. A break from Twitter would probably do you some good as well. I usually take February off.

  15. Sounds like you’re doing exactly what “taking time off” is all about. You deserve it!

  16. Taking time to recharge is necessary, regardless of how our stupid brains feel about it. Trust me on this; I’m a teacher about to dive into spending another year with 8th graders.

  17. What has the world come to when we feel guilty for taking a vacation? I feel like work has the same kind of impact as cell phone addiction, we always have to be doing/ reading/ absorbing something. Enjoy your time, do those things you want to do.

  18. It’s funny. I was doing my usual: running scenarios in my head about some hypothetical idea that just randomly popped into my head. Turns out the random thought involved you (don’t worry, not a stalker :p) and I’d imagined talking about something similar.

    You know. Being creative is one of the harder things to maintain over a long haul in any career. The worst thing you can do is feed the workaholic in you (I know this beast) and not look up once in a while.

    I work in startups. Long hours, lots of stress. One thing I learned not to long into my career was when to say Yes. You say No to family, friends and life because it becomes routine, it’s the steady path (and the paranoid path…gotta be sure things are running smoothly, gotta be sure things succeed so you’ve got something to retire with later). But every so often (and fairly regularly), you need to stop and say Yes to your family or even yourself.

    I’ve fought and continue to fight with CEOs and presidents who want to squeeze out every ounce of productivity from employees. Ultimately, that break away from routine, work, etc. will make you more productive anyway. Besides, the stress of not taking a break every so often takes its toll.

    Enjoy your time off. I envy you actually. Would love to take a month off to reset. At least I’ll have a week of Seattle and PAX 🙂

  19. Again, thanks for taking 30 seconds at GenCon to say hi and give my little guy a high five. It truly did mean the world to him. He was smiling the rest of the day! I know it’s rough out there but for my little boy that 30 seconds made his day/week/month. I hope you know that.

    1. That’s awesome! I’m so happy that you guys had some quality family time together, and thrilled that a tiny interaction with me could make your son so happy.

  21. I totally know that voice. Right now, it’s telling me to go back to researching grad schools and finish reading a book on leadership when what I want to do is read the new-ish Neal Stephenson and eat sour patch kids. Sometimes, you gotta stab that voice with a q-tip. It’s perfectly cool.

  22. I think it’s great to be able to stand back and survey the grounds of your surroundings and realize that you need to re-coup. That’s the mark of a great person. You provide (and assist in providing) so much content and I’m certainly thankful for it! I hope you find the fuel for your thought because I am positive only good things will come of it.

  23. I find it draining to be creative and try to get my brain to cooperate with what I want to do, when I put so much effort into what I do to afford the creative stuff (corporate America job) while trying to build my stuff to a place where I can afford to be my own boss and focus mostly on the creative. So what I’m saying is…do it. Take the time. Feed your creative soul. Because you can.

  25. When you deplete your stores of creativity or social energy on big projects and events, you need to rebuild them. There’s never any shame in taking time to build that back up and it can be incredibly calming to just accept that this is something you need, not just some guilty pleasure.

  26. Please continue to take care of yourself. Your fans will wait for your reappearance. We want you to be happy and healthy.

  27. Off topic, but do you think there will be a crowdfunding of season 4 of Tabletop? I need a season 3 along with Titian’s Grave on DVD. 5 gold and a party!

  30. Good for you! Was glad to hear you mention you were doing so on Not Radio-Free Burrito. Taking time to recharge is one of the most important things to do for creative minds, and yet one of the most difficult to actually make yourself do. I wish I were better at making myself do it.

    Looking forward to seeing you on @midnight, Critical Role and at Rose City Comic-Con! It jazzes the hell out of me that you’re going to be there for the second straight year.

  31. Thank your for sharing, it’s good to hear that other people struggle with this and then find ways to make time for themselves. Taking time to enjoy myself is something I also struggle with, especially when I feel like I have been very non-productive due to a bout of depression. I have been working on a better balance in my life this year but yeah, it’s tough. I’m glad you have found the time and you are enjoying yourself. Continue to enjoy your time off, you do good stuff and need time to recharge.

  34. Give the mans his break. He more than deserves it. I just wish I had find this sooner instead of looking the internet for reasons Table Top wasn’t up again. Get some rest Wil there is a lot of weight on your shoulders, respect your body and soul mate and come back better than ever.

    All the best from a friend that you don’t know.

  35. The smart fans know that the time you spend away will turn into knowledge and joy that you will share once you are ready. Take all of the time you need for yourself and for us.

  36. If you don’t rest you won’t play and if you don’t play you can’t work!

  37. Please carry on with your amazing work, Wil. You are an inspiration for so many people and you’ve always been one of my idols ever since I saw Star Trek TNG for the very first time as a little boy. Thank you for everything.

  38. Just ask your wife! I bet she 100% supports your creativity even if part of your brain tries telling you you aren’t working, lean on your partner! I can only imagine how exhausting it would be to go to a convention like that where everybody wants a piece of you! Take time to recharge!

  40. It’s called Down Time. Something that people who earn their living in the creative fields understand to be NECESSARY to re-charge the creative juices. Enjoy your time off.

  41. Are you still doing the brewing thing? Does the month of August contain any special beer projects too?

    2. Neat! I’ve seen the Eden Project. Hopefully you have a chance to see other gardens in Cornwall, because they are pretty great. Especially the lost gardens of Heligan.

  43. Thanks Wil for sharing that – my daughter and I have guilty binge-watching pleasures, but it’s really more about occupying one’s mind so it can calm the frick down and the anxiety strategies and meds can take effect (and therefore brains become becalmed enough that cognitive processes and creativity can freely blossom again). I’ve had to encourage her to realize that TV, books, even teh intarwebs are OK to use as a temporary diversion when things get uber-stressful. Having you and people like Jenny Lawson and Stephen Fry be honest and open about mental health issues is so important for those of us who suffer and particularly the youngpipples – one day there won’t be a stigma. Won’t that be splendid! Not that it’s your job to be a spokesperson – but it’s appreciated when you share.

  44. I always have to laugh at myself for feeling guilty about sitting and reading a book, or catching up on YouTube videos or any of myriad of things that I do instead of the usual “work” – and I work in the book industry!
    Recharging and enjoying parts of our life that don’t normally receive 100% of our attention are necessary parts of moving forward; somehow, we need to be supportive of each other as we do this. There is nothing wrong with reading a book and petting your cat … you (and the cat) will benefit in the long term.
    Enjoy, relax and be inspired.

  45. Don’t know if this is what you intended, but it is nice to know that someone as successful and prodigious as yourself still struggles with being”productive enough.” Beyond the creative reboot, downtime is just a necessity of being a person. Enjoy the reprieve.

  47. What you do for your community has its anchor in all the things you feel guilty about taking time off for. You NEED to do this, to give us the things that your fans crave. You do very good work, in all your endeavors. Titansgrave, your blog, TableTop, and all the other myriad things you have your sorcerous fingers in.

    NONE of your followers who are following you for the right reasons will begrudge you an iota for refilling your proverbial cup. And those that do will only do so because we love your work(s) so much and might miss it, even if only temporarily. Artists HAVE to refill that cup, and despite what some people might think, you are an artist. Not an actor (although that’s a part of it). Not a Producer either. You’re an artist, crafting entertainment in a way that those of us who grew up alongside you have fulfilled our vicarious dreams through you … and learned quite a lot along the way. You’re an artist because you know the craft … you know what makes those that follow you tick, and touch us in a way that VERY few people that aren’t like us really and truly understand. You are our Renaissance Man for the 21st century.

    We’ll still be here, waiting for that next nerdist/geekist 10th wonder of the world that you somehow pull off, whether it be via blog or some unknown production you surprise us with.

    You do good work, Mr. Wheaton. Don’t ever forget that.

    I still have The Wil Wheaton Project on my DVR, and I rewatch it from time to time because it is hilarious (I was seriously depressed when it was cancelled … it was MY show!). I downloaded Titansgrave to my Plex server because I am a DungeonMaster and love every minute of what you and your team helped create (I still need to buy the book though, damnit!), but I still watch it on YouTube with adblock off because I know it helps.. I just don’t want Titansgrave to disappear off my radar, and want my 7-year old to see how much fun role-playing can be. My son watches Tabletop (well, some of them …), and we have our Friday Night TableTop adventures BECAUSE of you. Those Friday’s are special to me now, because it’s the 30-60+ minutes of time that you inspired, and time I get to know aspects of my son I might otherwise have not known.

    Or, in a tl;dr version: Fuck everyone. Do what you do best, and recharge when you need to. Your fans aren’t going anywhere 😀

  48. I call it “Filling the creative well” (not my own saying as I’m sure I’ve heard it elsewhere first) and I also have a hard time taking off writing or working to do that! You’re not alone.

  49. Yep, the odd thing about being self employed is feeling guilty when not working every waking moment.

    But you have it right. Take time to be you. It may seem indulgent but its so important – particularly if your primary billable talent is creativity.

  50. Wil, not sure if you are aware, but some looser made a Tabletop Mice and Mystics video with your face that is nothing but a big ad.

Comments are closed.

Related Posts

Recent Posts