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Ok, so my lunchbreak today involved a little self-reflection, particularly around the hobby and my participation in it (as I tend to browse Dakka while eating my lunch) and it managed to boil down to the fact that for the me the hobby has become some sort of 'inverse-fight club'

You know, you go to fight club, but you never talk about it, whereas I talk about wargaming all the time, but never actually do any

Usually for me, hobby time boils down to:
Mon-Thurs - Think about all the awesome things I'm going to do when I get some 'hobby time'
Thurs night - Talk about the awesome things I'm going to do in my hobby time with other gamers
Fri - Plan out the awesome things I'm going to do in my 'hobby time'
Weekend (aka 'Hobby Time') - Open my case of paints, take one look at the half-assembled Tankbusta Nob that's been sitting on my painting tray since March, lose interest, close case of paints, go back to bed and watch re-runs of Red Dwarf on Netflix...

I don't know, maybe it's just me and the way the world is turning right now, but it seems that I've got all these awesome ideas, but either money, time or motivation seems to be lacking in sufficient quantities...

So:

When I say I'm a wargamer, what I mean is I spend my free time talking about all the awesome-cool things I'm going to model/paint/play, but never actually do anything about it...

What about the rest of my fellow DakkaNauts? what you really mean when you say you are a wargamer?

I'm right there with you man, my issue with finding motivation is that there are so many other things I could do.... Mostly because I sit down at my hobby station, and look at my painting table, which is next to my xbox (tend to "watch" netflix while painting) and then I sit there and think, I'll play some video games instead... Really hurting me during this slow grow league I'm in.

When I say I'm a war gamer, I mean more of the play time, even though when I need to get hobby done (i.e. before a tournament) then I buckle down and get it done.

Okay, sounds like you have the same problem I do when I have an awesome idea for a conversion. What I've discovered though, after much introspection, is that I procrastinate when I have a good idea, because I'm scared that I'm not able to make it as good as I imagine it.

The solution I've found is to just jump into it. Even if I have some resistance towards starting, I just push through an get on with it. If not, I'm not getting anything done, and I end up just thinking/talking about it.

 SgtSixkilla wrote:
Okay, sounds like you have the same problem I do when I have an awesome idea for a conversion. What I've discovered though, after much introspection, is that I procrastinate when I have a good idea, because I'm scared that I'm not able to make it as good as I imagine it.

The solution I've found is to just jump into it. Even if I have some resistance towards starting, I just push through an get on with it. If not, I'm not getting anything done, and I end up just thinking/talking about it.

This is the way to goi.

A lot of writers do this too. fill the empty page with scribbles and words that hit them until they find themselves with purposeful content or inspiration.

Get on with it is the message.

Yup, definitely. I find that the thing that motivates me most to paint and model is, well, to paint and model. When I start seeing concrete gains from my efforts it starts getting much easier to bring myself to continue them.

 SgtSixkilla wrote:
I procrastinate when I have a good idea, because I'm scared that I'm not able to make it as good as I imagine it.

You know what, you have hit the nail on the head with an accuracy only achievable with a laser-sighted hammer!

I come up with such precise, vivid images of how I want something to look, that I know down to the last detail how I want something to turn out, but always lack the ability to actually make it happen 'on paper' (or plastic, in this case), so I end up getting disheartened and giving up. Same problem also killed the love I had for writing stories and such, because I could create such detailed and vivid scenarios in my imagination, that when it came to actually writing them down I found it impossible to describe them, because no matter what the written description would never accurately portray the image in my head (which is insanely frustrating, well it is for me anyway).

 Leigen_Zero wrote:

 SgtSixkilla wrote:
I procrastinate when I have a good idea, because I'm scared that I'm not able to make it as good as I imagine it.

You know what, you have hit the nail on the head with an accuracy only achievable with a laser-sighted hammer!

I come up with such precise, vivid images of how I want something to look, that I know down to the last detail how I want something to turn out, but always lack the ability to actually make it happen 'on paper' (or plastic, in this case), so I end up getting disheartened and giving up. Same problem also killed the love I had for writing stories and such, because I could create such detailed and vivid scenarios in my imagination, that when it came to actually writing them down I found it impossible to describe them, because no matter what the written description would never accurately portray the image in my head (which is insanely frustrating, well it is for me anyway).

I have the same problem with regards to writing, but I find that it's much harder to push through and do something about that, than the hobby-thing. I've written hundreds upon hundreds of pages, but I have to divide that by ten, because it's almost all variations on the same first chapters for different stories... What do you enjoy writing? 40k-ish stuff?

I can start painting no problem, it's when I find hours have gone by and I've only half done a sub-par paintjob on a single miniature that really kills my motivation. Being a perfectionist doesn't help things, either.

Mostly sci-fi, especially dystopian future stuff, I tend to create settings rather than stories, but I never stay focused on anything long enough to get a good snowball effect.

Most well-developed universe I have so far is one in the near-future, where religion is very much real, but the old values have been torn down and God has succumbed to greed, turning christianity into a massive corporation, where your place in heaven in determined by how much you invest. Corruption is rife, but there are still small groups and individuals that want to either tear everything down or restore the old ways.

I'd like to start writing more, but it's hard to find the time, I'd like to get a tablet so I can write stuff on the way to/from work

I have a setting which I've invested a lot into. Sort of an ambiguously near/distant future. Some twenty years after "the second singularity event". Nations have borrowed too much money from the corporations, and the corporations have come to collect. Major private armies. Privately owned city states and tower cities. Religion has seen a serious upswing, and the only real opposition to the corporations is "the unified church".

Wading through this mess are two different "parties" of heroes, kicking arse and taking names in their own separate quests for "vengeance and justice".

What I struggle with is the details. I know where the stories begin and end, but it's all the small kinks and nooks in between I struggle to come to terms with...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Leigen_Zero wrote:
Mostly sci-fi, especially dystopian future stuff, I tend to create settings rather than stories, but I never stay focused on anything long enough to get a good snowball effect.

Most well-developed universe I have so far is one in the near-future, where religion is very much real, but the old values have been torn down and God has succumbed to greed, turning christianity into a massive corporation, where your place in heaven in determined by how much you invest. Corruption is rife, but there are still small groups and individuals that want to either tear everything down or restore the old ways.

I'd like to start writing more, but it's hard to find the time, I'd like to get a tablet so I can write stuff on the way to/from work

This sounds a lot like what I want to write. One of my big issues is whether or not "religion is real". Having it be real would make my story a lot easier to structure, but I'm kind of an anti-theist (actively in opposition, instead of just an passively unbelieving) so I feel like using religion in an active manner would be a cop-out to my own views.

Your version of the church sounds very interesting, though. Kind of like it was pre-industrial revolution?

 SgtSixkilla wrote:

What I struggle with is the details. I know where the stories begin and end, but it's all the small kinks and nooks in between I struggle to come to terms with...

Opposite for me, currently my ideas tend to revolve around the three main characters and their internal struggles and minor relationships and actions, but I don't have any concrete and well-forme main storyline(s) for them.

For sake of context the main characters are: a nephilim who works for God Incorporated, but wants to see things return to the old values, a synthetic human who was an experiment by an aging robiticist in developing human emotions in AI, and a psychopathic atheist who drifts around, carefully tearing apart society because he no longer sees homo sapiens as having the right to be the dominant species on the planet. There are a bunch of other sub characters and plots in there as well, such as a survivalist group whose indoctrination process involves driving people to the brink of total mental breakdown, then stopping just short of driving them to insanity (madness and psychology feature quite heavily as a theme).

EDIT: I can see this thread de-railing as I type, so this conversation is taken to PM for now...

Back on topic.I spend 99.5% of my hobby-time painting models. I'd like to play more, but I'm so incredibly unlucky with dice, which discourages me so much. So even when I get the chance to play, which isn't that often, I often say "thanks, but no thanks." I almost become TFG sometimes, when the dice are really working against me, and I hate being that guy.

I game when i can. but can't game as often as i'd like.

I paint almost every day for a couple of hours, as does my wife (who's much better at it). I have a portable paint station at work for my lunch-breaks too.

I talk 40k, Warmachine and Pathfinder a lot more than i get to play it (due to work/time constraints.)

 Ascalam wrote:

I paint almost every day for a couple of hours, as does my wife (who's much better at it).

Wow, lucky you for having a wife who shares your hobby. Main reason I'm not seeing anyone, is that I can't be arsed with girls who don't share my interests. I refuse to give up my valuable hobby-time, with unimportant stuff, like the opposite sex.

The hobby for me consists of holding an unopened blister pack, sighing, then returning it to my drawer of shame with all the other unopened blisters and boxes.

 WarMill wrote:
The hobby for me consists of holding an unopened blister pack, sighing, then returning it to my drawer of shame with all the other unopened blisters and boxes.

Having difficulty opening the boxes? They can be quite fiddly.

Trust me, I understand. I've gone years without painting anything.

The solution? Me and a couple of my gaming buddies get together for a few hours every week, a random Wed or Thurs night, and we sit around the table and paint and drink a beer or two. And it works! We've been doing it for a few months, and even though it's just a few hours a week, the results are showing. My buddy's unpainted Necrons are now a painted squad of Warriors, Immortals and one of the fliers. I've gotten about 100 orcs of Kings of War painted. etc. Another has gotten a giant army assembled (better than being on sprue!), another has painted up several units of HYW English and French, etc.

My main problem is that the usual place and time that I used to go to game has been empty of people to get a pick-up game with, and the people that I used to be able to plan a game with don't play 40K any more. Also I have three armies that I really don't need anything for, and don't want to start a fourth army.

 Leigen_Zero wrote:

Weekend (aka 'Hobby Time') - Open my case of paints, take one look at the half-assembled Tankbusta Nob that's been sitting on my painting tray since March, lose interest, close case of paints, go back to bed and watch re-runs of Red Dwarf on Netflix...

First off, I get the feeling. It is times like this that I think I should be playing console games or computer games instead - because everything's already "put together" for you.

However, we push on! Why not watch Red Dwarf reruns AND paint?

One of my tricks for lunch is this: bring a boxed lunch. Not too much food - it dulls the senses. However, box also includes 1) painting cup 2) model 3) some paints. I would do some every day - for 5-10 minutes. It adds up, trust me. And there's something cool about getting some time in on the project EVERY day.

WAAGGHHH!
Solorg

You sound like me. I lack some motivation, but primarily I'm such an inexperienced painter/modeller that I just don't always know where to start and thus give up before I try to start. Good times.

Also, I actually have less time than I think I have. I always think "eh, I can probably finish that this weekend." Next thing I know it's Monday again and I didn't even start what I planned on finishing. The cycle rages on.

When I say I'm a wargamer it means that not only do I game bi-weekly (I'm very lucky to have a regular gaming club), but I have at least 5 different hobby related model projects going on at once, none of which seem to get done all that often.

Fortunately just enough of them get done that it encourages me to start more projects.

Unfortunately, it's usually the side projects (making some caulk roads or surfacing a gaming table) that get done while the 47 Junker Legionnaires sit on my desk 75% painted for 3 months...

I get between 30 minutes and 3 hours a week for "hobby time". Hobby time includes anything and everything I do in the garage - so I have to choose wisely.

Cleaning up. Tinkering with the pinball machines. Painting models. Mixing paint for the airbrush.. etc.

What works for me is to get all my armies setup on my 6x4 gaming table, so I can literally SEE what needs attention... then choose to ignore it and work on something else.

Sometimes I get a little extra time when my son will sit still next to me and watch me tinker - but sometimes that creates more work. He's 2 and doesn't quite understand just how delicate some of the stuff is. hehe

So anyway, Force yourself to get something done. Like previously stated - 10 - 15 minutes increments add up over time. And if you're just going to watch TV, you could get a model painted at the same time.

I think money is a big thing, if you have the money you can buy a new army when you want, how you want, you can commission people to do it for you. Its because of that I am trying to be a painting comissioner to do all the stuff other people can't be bothered with and earning some spare cash along the way.

Hm, I think I have a rather different problem in regards to hobby stuff than most of the people in this thread lol. I'm a very obsessive person, but the centre of my obsession tends to rotate on a 2-month cycle. For example, I'll go for 2 months painting VIGOROUSLY and get a lot done, but then the next 2 months I won't ever lift a brush and spend all my spare time playing Battlefield 3, Skyrim, or something else. Then another 2 months will go by where I don't touch ANY of my videogames, and then I'm back to painting and the cycle continues.

As to motivation, I'm pretty lucky in that a good friend of mine is an absolutely exceptional painter and has taught me a lot and continues to inspire me. Mostly though I really do love it, in fact sometimes I think I enjoy it more than actually playing (which I get to do fairly regularly, once a week or so).

As for time constraints, being a university student I totally understand where people are coming from when they use this as a reason why they don't get much hobby work done. Honestly, if you have it in you, scheduling your time is possibly the best thing you can do and is perhaps one of the greatest skills I've picked up in my time at university. Not only does it allow you to get more hobby work done, but there is an absolutely huge reduction of stress when it comes to exam time or writing essays because you simply don't have to cram as hard the night before.

I mean I play with little toy soldiers that I have often assembled and painted myself - whilst making pew-pew noises at my opponent - who is just as likely to have done the same.

Time - I ain't got nothin' but time (Stay-at-home hubby) - sure beats daytime TV.
Motivation: I WILL NOT field an unpainted model. If I want to use it (and if I bought it, I generally WANT to use it), then I must paint it first. Bingo, motivation solved.

I'm not someone who gets sidetracked by video games. I've played a few, but they don't have that same "addictive" quality for me that they do for others (who are often much younger than me) - and never have.

Whenever I get some hobby time and really want to crack down and model/paint, I sometimes find a lack of motivation stunts my action as well. To solve this, I'll usually pop on some incredibly epic scifi or fantasy movie and that's usually enough to get the creative juices flowing.

Also listening to some Two Steps From Hell albums.

Sometimes all you gotta do is actually start something. Break down a large project into manageable smaller tasks, and proceed.

I'm right there with you. Wehn I say I'm a wargamer, I mean I played a lot 8-10 years ago and have dug my stuff out of storage without really doing anything new with it.

I mostly think about projects I'd like to make and how awesome they'd be if I did. The problem is to make them become a reality. It used to be money and time were an issue when I was younger, but now the issue is more motivation. I have all sorts of unfinished box sets to build.

That being said, I have multiple half-finished armies mostly from back in 3rd edition, when I played in high school and college. I've been reading the current rules and codices and I've sorted my armies to see where each stands.

I've taken off time for Thanksgiving and as motivation to actually become active in the hobby again, I'm going to devote serious amounts of time to working on my Necrons. I think getting them to table top quality will motivate me in general in regards to the hobby.

I somewhat agree with OP, but as for myself I have cut back on the amount of projects I have going on at any given time, I only really have my Eldar army going for the moment. I have found that completeting one at a time works well for me, and that I never should impulse buy sets I have no need or use for in an army of mine.

Ditch old system, sell everything and start again with new system, but one box/blister at a time.

That's my new approach