Designing my book cover

A big difference between my passion projects and my day jobs has been deadlines. At work, you're constantly hounded by often unrealistic deadlines, so you're in a rush to brief, deliver, rinse, and repeat.

But with my passion projects like the game and the TV show, I had the time to get things right, and I often abused that to write new drafts and allow myself time to step away and come back with fresh eyes. This was not always a good thing.

Case in point: my upcoming novel. After almost 2 years of writing, I had a pretty solid 3rd draft (well, version 3.3ab-final-final) completed earlier this year, and then I was daunted by the process of getting it up on Amazon so I regressed back to "let's see how we can improve it" instead of pushing it out.

But I managed to kick myself in the ass (do your daily stretching, folks!) and I started working on a book cover! Because nothing says "almost ready to be shipped" like some cover art, right?

I got a new sketchbook and started drawing various designs (including one inspired by the original Warcraft games, if you can spot it). I went in with a firm idea of what I wanted, and ended up with something that wasn't it (and much better). If you look at my sketches below, I'm sure you'll agree that they look like crap but this was my journey and I felt myself growing on every step of it.

And my passion projects are, first and foremost, personal journeys; they're an extension of myself. Some might argue that I need to treat them as a product so that they'll sell to the masses, and that's true to a certain degree, but I also want to create something true to myself. It's a balance.

Anyway, here's my long-winded way to remind you to do your stretching today.