Last month I talked about settling into the UK. Here’s a handy link to that newsletter:
It’s a month later, and things are both better and worse. On the “better” side, I got my UK passport, which unlocks a lot of things for me (since it’s easier to prove my citizenship with a passport than a certificate that most people have never seen before). It’s just ahead of a major strike in the passport office to boot. One of those things having a passport unlocks is that I can sign up for the National Health Service, which means I can see a doctor and get back to work on the various medical problems I have without worrying about spending a gazillion dollars. Plus, I’ve been getting some more work, which I’ll talk about in the news section.
On the “worse” side, I’ve been struggling with some burnout. This isn’t new — I’ve had burnout at several points in my career, and I’ve gotten better and better about getting out it. This time I was a but surprised by it because it wasn’t work that burned me out, but the massive life changes I went through over the past four to six months. All the signs were there, but I missed the concept that I can burn out because of the “life” side of work/life balance.
Some new creatives might be familiar with burnout, but it basically equates to mental and emotional exhaustion. Here are some symptoms I got from Mental Health UK:
Feeling tired or drained most of the time
Feeling helpless, trapped and/or defeated
Feeling detached/alone in the world
Having a cynical/negative outlook
Self-doubt
Procrastinating and taking longer to get things done
Feeling overwhelmed
I had… well, basically all of those. And what’s insidious about burnout is that it’s not something you can work through. Quite the opposite. Worse, creative professionals really need to have a certain amount of energy in order to keep creating at a certain level. It was once described to me as the stress equivalent of a cold: There’s nothing you can do to get rid of it except for treating the symptoms and taking care of yourself until it goes away.
For me, that’s been a bit challenging. I had some hobbies and relaxation tactics I used to address burnout, but I’m in a new place new with new options. For a bit I had the catch-22 of not having the energy to think about finding ways to relax to help me have more energy. I reached out to my family who were a huge help, and I now have some new options (like doing yoga and meditation) as well as finding new ways to bring back old options (like building models and reading comic books). I even went to Baker Street to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum!
Now I just need my model kits to arrive in the mail….
News Roundup
What’s new in the world of Pugsteady today?
I have a Mastodon account now! I’ve had a personal one for a few months now, but I’ve made the plunge to create a professional one. You can find me at @pugsteady@dice.camp.
I’m now a full member of the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain! It turns out my credentials for video game writing were sufficient for full membership, so now I’m just waiting for my card to arrive in the mail. There are some really exciting benefits, like a welfare fund and vetting of contracts, so I’m really hoping this will be a good partnership!
Once again I was on the RPG P&D podcast! This time we talked about taking a vague idea to an outline, whether it’s for a game you’re running or a game you’re designing.
Aside from that, I have several projects that are under NDA. One is for a major brand that I’m really excited about, one is a project with a couple of friends that’s more quirky and fun, and one tied to a local university. I’ve also signed up with a local co-op of writers, but that’s under wraps as well. Finally, I’m working on a new Pugmire-adjacent project that may or may not see the light of day.
My Media
Honestly, I’ve mainly been sticking to “comfort food” for my media consumption recently. I’m still watching my binge of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, although I did find a fantastic deal on a complete DVD set (49 DVDs for £50), so I may switch from Netflix to DVD in the near future. I’m also back to playing through The Great Ace Attorney on my Steam Deck, since I never finished it and I’ve been craving a Sherlock Holmes fix. (Sadly, it turns out the two Switches we shipped from the US were mysteriously lost, even though nothing else was.)
I did splurge on the entire run of Attack on Titan recently, though. I had the first 24-ish volumes digitally, but I never finished them. The whole run was offered again digitally, and I decided that now’s the time to go back and try to make it through. And honestly, I’m glad I did, because I’m enjoying it a lot better this time. The story was (intentionally) a bit disjointed, and I first read it when I was still relatively new to reading manga as a whole. Reading it again, both with past experience of the story and with manga as a medium, has made it a much better experience for me overall, and I’m getting through a volume or two a day.
And with that, it’s time for me to get back to work before I get bitten in half by a giant man. See you next month!