Pumpkin Spice and Streaming are Nice!

With fall in full swing and winter around the corner, it's been a terrifying season for streaming!

October is the beginning of my favorite time of year. The string of holidays between the start of school and the new year are my absolute favorites! On top of that, I have a birthday, the anniversary of my first Twitch stream, and my Twitch affiliate anniversary. It's been very busy around here, which has been challenging - especially when it comes to content creation. So how do I do it? With great difficulty, actually! That, and a bit of grace.

I've been working on getting my stream functional since August. It's now mid-November and I think I've finally done it. At least enough that I can manage adjustments without having to stop stream completely to do it. There was a while there when I was discouraged. For example, I had set up a stream week to celebrate my birthday. The goal was to do a fundraiser, encouraging giving toward my charity rather than subscriptions to my channel.

Technical difficulties that I just couldn't seem to overcome had me MIA for most of the things I'd had planned. The streams I did do didn't turn out the way I wanted. I had games that I wanted to play that I never got to, and some that didn't work out. The fundraiser didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped. I felt like the whole thing was a total bust. This is where the grace comes in.

I didn't give up. I did the best I could. I even asked for help, which is something that's very hard for me to do. At the end of the day, I'm still learning. Content creation isn't something that ends. Some things will work out perfectly. Other things will blow up in your face. You just have to keep going, keep creating, and keep dreaming!

To get myself back on track, I made a list of everything that I wanted to get done so that my stream would be successful. Then, I worked on the list, crossing off things as I went. I'm neurodivergent, which is both a blessing and a curse sometimes. There are times where I hyperfocus on one aspect of a project, completely forgetting about the rest. There are times where I can't focus on any one thing at all, so I start a bunch of projects and can't get any of them done. Having the list really helped keep me moving in the right direction, even if I did items at random.

I went back through the list to see what I'd missed, and thought about what to add. In fact, I'm still going through my list and crossing off and adding to it as new ideas hit me! It's been a real help, honestly, and it's not a tool I was born using. It takes practice, but it's totally worth it.

Now, I'm not perfect. I still have things on the list from the first time I made it. A channel trailer and highlight reels are a couple of those things. Those projects are ones that will take me some time to do, and time is in short supply. Again though, grace is important. I will get them done eventually. I'm working on bits and pieces as time goes by. Eventually, everything will fall into place and I'll have even more things to put on the list. My stream isn't a race. It doesn't all have to be done at once. Allowing myself to be okay with that has really helped.

As we move further into the fall and get ready for winter, I have more things to get ready for. The holidays are a time for giving, so I'll be doing another charity event. I have plans to build holiday LEGO on stream. My 2nd stream anniversary is coming in January and I'd like to do something to celebrate. In order to get everything done, I'm going to stick to my list and keep finishing what I can as I can get to it, and I'm going to keep letting go of the things that are holding me back.

I hope that my experiences and strategies are helpful for some of you. Do you have strategies that help you get through when things get rough? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!