Heya friendos! I’ve scrapped the newsletter I was writing to talk about feelings instead. Today I’ll talk about depleting my social battery and the ways it affects me.
How Am I Doing?
I started writing a newsletter yesterday morning, in which I stated in this segment that I was doing very good. I had a week filled with fun activities, sports, good food, socializing, boardgames, dungeons and dragons, the whole nine yards.
I was about halfway done with the newsletter when I took a break. I didn’t return to finish it. Suddenly, my whole motivation to write the thing was gone. I tried to get back to it a couple of times, but didn’t have the energy. Every time I read it back, it said that I was doing good and that didn’t feel honest anymore. It’s the first time since I’ve started writing this newsletter, that it felt like a chore.
I have mood swings like these, wherein a single hour of time I suddenly feel down. I have no energy to go out of the house, I want to cancel all my plans and just chill. There’s many factors at play that feed into that (the state of the world isn’t helping), but this time around I’m pretty certain it’s because I’ve overextended my social battery.
Social Battery
It’s hard to explain what exactly that means to me. I like socializing. I’ve got good friends and family that I love spending time with and I enjoy meeting new people. It’s not that I do those things unwillingly, but it drains an invisible resource that I’m not always aware of until I’ve completely wrung it dry.
When I’m in that state, I also experience less enjoyment from being creative. My head is full and my thoughts erratic and ephemeral. That in turn, sends me into a depressive spiral. Creativity is my passion and a big part of my identity as an individual. When some factor taints that, my heart’s light gets a little dimmer.
So, how am I doing? I’m not feeling great. That being said, I know it’s a temporary thing, that’s cured by resting. So the following month I will try to take it easy, so my battery can slowly recharge in preparation for the end of the year, when I’ll go visit family and friends for the holidays.
What Am I Doing?
Apart from everything I just described, I also worked on Rumorweaver. I’ve added some support for more cinematic sequences. Before, we only supported dialogue and portraits, but now I can also teleport the player, do screen wipes, zoom the camera and toggle objects. That means I can create dynamic scenes that take place all over the map, with smooth transitions in between.
That’s an animated GIF, but you can’t see it properly because apparently, mail does not support GIFs. You can click here (or in the title of the newsletter btw) to see the newsletter in your browser instead!
Why Am I Doing? (this)
So, this week’s newsletter has taken a bit of a turn, but I already feel a little better just writing about it! The other newsletter I was writing was about how artists inevitably end up making art about artists making art. Like how a lot of filmmakers tend to make films about filmmakers making films. I had a good train of thought going on that, but just couldn’t get myself to finish it. Maybe it’ll be the subject for next week instead.