But what is really important here is that you have to be on the lookout for projectitis in whoever you choose to associate with. It’s okay for you to drop project and pick them up whenever you want but when you collaborate with people it’s another ballgame.

I now have less and I seem to be able to manage them all right so far. But the beast is lurking at the next corner, with another mind-eating idea.

In regards to never finishing – I don’t know if this is strictly true. I find many of my projects have a 3 year cycle to them (I return every 3 years or so). I know that its sad that I am old enough, and have enough projects, to know this, but it’s true!

I always try to finish my projects. The question is just whether I will live long enough!
.-= Me (or I)´s last blog ..Classic inspiration =-.

I am in a rotational DM/GM situation with my gaming group and I had started a home brewed 4th Ed. Campaign and proudly guided my players all the way to 6th Level. Currently we have another one of the guys GM’ing but I have gotten woefully little done for when we pick up my campaign. I have a basic outline of my overall story arch, but I need to get some adventures on paper so I can hit the ground running when we pick my game back up. Like I said, I just haven’t been inspired lately and feel as though I am at that ‘wall’ described by some of the other posters and commentators in your original post. I think I will just swallow and try to push past it and just get it done.

@DNAPhil- It just so happens that I was able to get some training through work in Project Management, and I have a week long course next week. It’s funny but even though I want to learn more for work, I also chose that training to see if I could apply it to my writing/gaming projects.

I used to be a self-employed programmer, one of the things I used to keep me motivated on building an RPG was to put my programming skills to use on it. Yes I too cut down alot of elegance to get it up and running, and now am spending twice as much time revising it to try and do it right…

But when you have something thats “complete” up its a lot easier to keep motivated to “perfect” it, then to struggle to build something perfect to begin with. “The perfect is the enemy of the good” or some such from Voltaire.

So try using your software skills to make an interactive atlas or encyclopedia for your world building, see if the familiar form makes it easier to chug though, its what I did.

Best of luck.
.-= Zzarchov´s last blog ..Schrodinger’s Character =-.

In my case, the solution is to be self-employed, and thus highly aware that if I don’t finish the project, nobody will.

When it comes to fantasy world-building and fiction-writing, I only seem to get to about 2% completion before I run out of steam.

@Paul: Hey man, glad to have brightened your day. I don’t think money is a bad motivator. You need to eat. Hell, I’m not ashamed of putting ads here because it allows me to go to Gen Con without robbing my family of much needed vacation funds or begging my readers for donations. I think that all motivators are valid to get a project done.

For me, money is the motivator. I know it sounds wrong, but if I know someone is paying me for something then I feel like I HAVE to finish it. Come hell or high water.

Maybe I’ll finish it someday

@KaosInc: I think you out your finger on it, peer pressure and financial investment are two incentives that can break the projectitis cycle.

@DNAPhil: Wise words from the Project Manager GMing Gnome! Thanks for the pointers!

@Bartoneus: I think that perfectionist people, like I feel you are, tend to put projects aside because they feel that it will never be good enough. The project sucks’ phase is especially dangerous for them.

@Martin: Welcome to the blog. Having a campaign crash due to lack of inspiration is a possible corollary to projectitis. However I’ve seen it be far more acute in GM with gamer ADD. I’ve heard about GMs never lasting more than 2 sessions before wanting to play another game/campaign.

@Zzarchov : Welcome to the blog! I like your ‘sentence a day’ trick. Establish a bare minimum that you will do on any given project every day. This is a great trick!

@ZedZed77: Yeah, it reminds me of the Get Things Done approach. As long as the list doesn’t explode into a 10 page thing. Then again, if it does, some projects should probably be culled.

@Steve: Projectitis is probably far more encompassing than nerd-ville. But I tend to write about things I know about and the tribes I belong to. You are entirely right that nerd/geeks love to through ideas around and love starting discussions with ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…’

It’s just that I see so many cool RPG projects crash that I think as a community we would gain by more discipline and, possibly, more leadership. I’m curious to see how the new Nevermet Press imprint will tackle this very real issue.

@Nathan: There’s nothing like tacit commitment to kick’s one ass into gear. As long as it’s not promising things on your blogs. Speaking of which, don’t I have a PDF to churn out today?

@Flying: I hear ya on culling projects. I have been known to collect them like they were Pokemons made of Crack cocaine. Good show of getting rid of the TV. Did you chuck it in the street from your apartment’s window?

The projectitis bothers me only at my hobbies though; work- and school-related projects are much easier for me to finish (although I might often start later/nearer to the dead-line due to a lack of enthusiasm at start-up).

I must say, though, that if I am not seeing projects through to the end, I get really mad at myself, and I finish most things because I don’t like acknowledging that I am a lazy bastard is all.

My tip: get rid of your television (if you’re an avid viewer), mine’s been gone for two months now; I survived withdrawal effects, and I suddenly started reading more, working more, and going out a lot more; one distraction less and more intellectual engagement means more inspiration etcetera.

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The truth of the matter is that whether the project is roleplaying-related, about building an engine for a new car, or launching a new type of taco for Taco Bell, projects usually start with energy and brainstorming, and then fall quickly into hard work.

Without people that are committed to (or who can be bullied into) doing the hard work, these projects will fail regardless of their origins. This is why most organisations employ project managers to bully people (who are already being paid) into completing the portion of the project they were volunteered for.

In the online Nerd World, nobody is being paid, so such a role becomes even more important. Everybody likes throwing their ideas out there and tackling the creative side. The hard work side … well, that’s hard work. As such, I believe that Nerd Projectitis is more the lack of appointing somebody to hound everybody else into completing their pieces of the project.

And as DNAPhil points out (or at least implies) above, an informal project often neglects to define what “complete” means for the project itself.

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My solution? Self-forbidding myself from starting a new project until the old one is done. While I may hate the part of the project Im on, I also still NEED a project. This may lead to slow periods with the “Sentence a day” mindset for the roughest parts, things always get seen through…eventually.

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Shorter projects are easier to focus on though. Two weeks ago I saw Quarantine, and immediately thought “man , i gotta run that!”. Now the mostly-complete notes for a Quarantine-ish horror oneshot are up

The fact that the setup takes a short enough time that I can finish up in the early creativity surge helps. Also helps that I’ve promised to run the oneshpt in two weeks

It definitely happens to me all the time, typically things that I will slump into “real life” get in the way over and over again (wife, family stuff, pets, friends, etc) that things just get left behind. The worst/best part for me is that I genuinely want to complete most of these tasks, I’m sure my own bizarre good but wonky self-esteem factors into it at some point along the lines also.

Introspection: over. Thanks for the thought-provoking post Phil!

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