On Stress

It's a little over two months until Con and I'm already losing sleep. The current trend is for the brain to spring wide awake at 3:30/4:00 AM and go "O HAI! LET'S THINK ABOUT MARIUS FOR TWO HOURS!" O hai, let's not actually.

I work particularly well if I'm stressed out. Six years of university taught me that much. But at this juncture I don't know if I should be stressed, so better safe than sorry, I suppose. I look at my time in the following manner: it takes me one evening to plan and cut out Marius' doublet body; there are approximately sixty-five evenings between now and Con. And cutting out is easy. Wait until you get to the sleeves or the leather molding or Giovanni's boots or, or, or. And what if something doesn't work and you've got to frig around with it until it does?

Aaaaaand, cue the stress.

When it comes to this, I have to remind myself to take a break. At one point with costuming, you''ll find that inspiration begins to play fisticuffs with burn-out; you've got the motivation to work but your brain begs for a break. This is something to watch for. When you see it happening, take a couple of days off, go to the gym, do nothing costume-related, eat good food, and get a decent amount of sleep. That being said, it is completely possible to work through these hang-ups but your creativity suffers and you settle for work that is less than par.

Now, I look at the next two days and go: "What could I do?" I don't know. Well, what do I want to do? I want to make Marius' doublet. Hells no, you're not doing that. Forget it.

Regardless, whatever you yourself decide to do, make sure it's not costume-related. And if you're obsessed with your characters (like some people we know...), ignore them too, however hard it is. It'll give both your brain and your inspiration a recharge.

And on that note, time to eat a cookie and put the laundry in the dryer. Later, dudes.