What Comes Next?

The future is uncertain, even at the most stable of times. With knowledge of what has gone before and a view forward to what could be, I ruminate on what my path on this site may be.

Welcome back.

What a strange sentence. I am writing again after such a long break.

For 8 years, I maintained a posting schedule which averaged twice a week. I had commited myself to writing, and its job of maintaining a journal of sorts around my hobbies was important to me. It was something I could look back upon and reference, which allowed me to maintain momentum and pride in my accomplishments. Through those years, I produced a steady stream of articles because I knew in my heart that taking an undefined break would mean stepping away forever. Habits are extrordinarly hard for me to form – one might say impossible – and even the most basic tasks require concerted effort to complete, where I see other people simply achieve them. Writing, while enjoyable, is a significant undertaking.

I worried from the begining of the campaign setting project that I would abandon the website. That this endeavor, like so many others, would be one I abandoned along the way; An overgrown memorial like so many others littering the backroads of my life – a discarded and incomplete location I would look back on in regret, frustrated that I had given up.

When my articles simply and abruptly ceased at the start of 2021 after having been reasonablly consistent until that point, I did feel significant regret and a powerful longing to complete that which I had begun – to continue writing even as the composition on the campaign intensified. As time when on, however, the regret failed to coalesse, and eventually dissipated into the ether completely. I looked back on the time I had spent writing not as an accomplishment, but as an escape, something I had once enjoyed, but had run its course I was done, and I was comefortable with that, and the feeling was only amplified as the writing, editing, and completion of Coldforged progressed, the campaign setting – which is now available for purchase on DriveThruRPG as PDF, standard print hardback, and premium print hardback. Its 365 pages of my heart, soul, and imagination poured out onto the printed page and it justified me abandoning the site for the time being. Completing it required sacrifice.

What now?

Having taken such a long break, and being completely out of steam regarding posting, blogging, and anything related to the site why am I back now? What is happening? What may happen in the future that has adjusted my outlook?

On one hand, nothing has changed. I am not chomping at the bit to write blog posts two and three times a week. To come up with topics, edit them, rewrite them, and schedule them. On the other hand, I feel there is so much I could contribute to a few hobbies, and I think it would be enjoyable to have a format whith which to share them. To journal my progress, log my achievements, and retrieve as neccessary. Its a central place I can share my creations without feeling restrained by the community or platform they are attached to. A friend of mine inspired me with the joy she gets from looking back over what she has done and sharing it – and I remember how enjoyable and empowering it was to put my thoughts into the world, regardless of if anyone was watching or not.

And so, here I am, pondering writing and sharing again, putting aside some time that is mine alone to write and think and share. I hope its going to be fun again, and I’m excited to begin.

I am, however, keenly aware of the flaws of my previous writing. Errors accumulated over time as I worked under short deadlines and provided myself no time to read, edit, and revise my posts. They became rambly and incoherent, train of conciousness posts produced by my pressure for time. They were unprofessional – amateur – and that was because that was what they were. I don’t know if I have the capacity to escape that.

In order to ensure that I am able to put out something closer to professional, I am going to attempt a more reasonable, paced release schedule even if it is still twice a week. The goal is creating something I can share with pride. It requires significant preparation work to make the posts publishable, and I am going to want a significant backlog of posts ready to go to alleviate the pressure of publishing an article the day after I wrote it. I want to have time to reread an article, rewrite it if needed, edit it, and make sure it’s completely ready.

What type of content could there be?

Lord, this has always been my Achilles heel. I have so much I want to talk about and not enough time to write it all. I want to talk about whatever I’m excited for at the moment, and I want to continually promoting and engaging with D&D content, a topic I have never grown bored of. I may need to split each one up into their own silo, its own coordinated page with difference presenes from one another, but we will see if I can be disciplined enough to pull it off.

This list of potential content is a work in progress, and I reserve the right to add, remove, or completely change it in its entirity, of course.

• Field notes of Ranger: The Monsters of Tysis: This is, I believe, what will become the main focus of my plans. Having a place to collect, publish and refer to the monsters I am creating will be extremely useful, and I can use it as a staging ground for the a future book.
• Tysis Primers: Unsurprisingly, I want to have articles that I can point people to if they want to get into the setting that aren’t as weighty as the book itself. .
• Maps: I really want to learn how to do traditional cartography – either by hand or digitally, but I am also extremely impressed with Inkarnate’s line of products. Creating maps of all types and recording how I did so seems a worthy endeavor, and also could be used for an atlas.
• Make It Hum: This is a series that I have wanted to do for a long time. I don’t dislike the current methodology of precon tunups that are out there, but I do think that there is a gap I could fill by taking a deck and making it hit its stride, instead of putting a smattering of good cards on a budget in the deck.
• Video Game Recaps: I really enjoyed writing up my experience of many video games – Dark souls, Xcom and fallout, particularly, and I would love to return to that space.
• Beer and Metal reviews: This is simple stuff. Beers I like, Metal I like.
• Miniatures: Painting, converting, general thoughts. I want a place where to showcase my painted models, and that probably means some upgrades to my lightbox and a new camera, and its likely just going to be a gallery of models, no huge articles or anything.
• Adventures: I would love to write and publish adventures on both ends of the spectrum, as both one-shots and long, extended campaigns

With all of that laid out, I still don’t expect the me to put any additional articles of any form on the site until the start of the new year. I want to take my time to build the aforementioned catalog, and I do not know what schedule I’ll be able to maintain, or which days to publish, but I do hope to make it both regular and predictable. I’m going to give this another shot in 2025, and see how I enjoy it. If I want to continue, and if its still enjoyable, I will. If its tedious and tiresome, more of a chore than a thrill, I’ll pack it up. Either way, it will not be discarded refuse along the trail, but a monument to achievement. Unlike other hobbies, I’m not going to make an eternal commitment. I struggle with an overdeveloped sense of commitment.

A rearrangement

Finally, I wish to complete a restructuring of the site. In addition to making the specific articles I’ll be writing and sharing the main focus, the website itself needs an overhaul. I have absolutely no idea how to accompush it, what style looks good, or what organizational system should be emplyed. I do know that I am going to archive and partition the older content that either is no longer relevant relevant (battle reports and model discussion) or is no longer correct (information pertaining the to the Campaign setting and the books). I’ll also try to arrange pages for Metal reviews, Beer tasting, Model Painting and other information that should be allocated its own space.

Seperating out each of the hobbies into its own space is a thought: Instagram for models, beer and metal, Facebook for setting, adventure, and homebrew, and this site for more longform content like MTG Content and D&D Articles. Managing all of that might be tough, but could be worthwhile – if I can correctly plan out and maintain a functional. We shall see!

Thanks for reading; Jonathon