Slowly Step Away from the Computer....

[Piscivorous]

Egads. I have an addictive personality. And horrid dream sequences.

No. I'm not dreaming of murder and mayhem. No dragons and zombies. No dinosaurs, car chases or nuclear explosions.

I worked on my latest map yesterday. Once I did a little Christmas shopping yesterday and had some breakfast, I settled down for a little mapping with Photoshop.

Wife came home from work at 6:00PM. I hadn't eaten since breakfast. Had been mapping for 7 hours. No biggie. She was dead tired. So after going to dinner, she retired to the bedroom. I mapped from 8PM until 7:30 this morning.

OK. I actually only mapped until midnight.

But that addictive personality, linked with those horrid dream sequences? I was mapping in my sleep. And the worst part? I could never get it right. Mostly because my mapping elements were showing too much repetitiveness and I was worried it would reflect in my work.

I think I need to play some online poker today. Maybe after a bit more mapping.....

[Gamerprinter]

When I map, I spend 1.5 to 4 hours at most on any one session of cartography. I even look at the clock before I begin a mapping session to know how much time I have that day, and when I need to go to bed. I never spend more than 3 sessions or 12 hours for any single map, short of any corrections a publisher might request. Any more than that, due to my need for speed, I would go insane if I took much longer - luckily, I'm still sane. I often dream of activities that are occuring in the area that is being mapped, but I never dream of mapping itself...

GP

[eViLe_eAgLe]

Welcome to the club

[tilt]

a good ability is to be able to "finish" the map and walk away - that being said when the map is ones own one might have a thousand little details that should be just so... we've all been there to some degree, in maps, art, projects, essays, novels etc. etc. ... if you want to battle it - set yourself a deadline (preferably publicly) - it can also help to post the map in here as you work so you have several eyes on the quality (and who can tell you its done)

[Piscivorous]

a good ability is to be able to "finish" the map and walk away - that being said when the map is ones own one might have a thousand little details that should be just so... we've all been there to some degree, in maps, art, projects, essays, novels etc. etc. ... if you want to battle it - set yourself a deadline (preferably publicly) - it can also help to post the map in here as you work so you have several eyes on the quality (and who can tell you its done)

Alas I do have it in here. Not much commenting. Perhaps holiday rushing around?

The thing is, I don't want to rush it. I'm using tuts, youtube ideas, my own experimentation. I just need to step back and relax over it rather than trying to get too much done at once. I think, like anything else, I need to cut it off x number of hours before bedtime, so I can process other things.

[Midgardsormr]

I have to set a timer for myself when I'm working. I force myself to take at least a 10 minute break every two hours, or I can easily work for 8 hours at a stretch without ever standing up.

I've dreamt about the work, too. Although no maps so far. I've dreamed in wire-frame when I was doing a lot of 3d modeling. More recently, I've had dreams where everything was outlined by bezier curves (which is essentially what I do at work--make outlines around things in movie footage so that visual effects can be applied to them or behind them).

[waldronate]

luckily, I'm still sane.

I have also made that claim, but have never been able to prove it.

[Gamerprinter]

Well I'm insane in a way that has proven to be useful and fruitful to my goals and purposes...

[Jaxilon]

I can totally time warp when I get into any of my artistic endeavors. I can do that playing a good video game as well. I have to set priorities ahead of time. My wife is also good sometimes in that she might walk by and mention the time if she sees me getting engrossed.

Sign up for the challenges because they bring everything together, time crunch/deadline, extra eyes on your progress which can sometimes be exactly what you need when stuck on something, and you can give yourself permission to call it done even if you know you could spend another 4 weeks on it.

Hey, at least you aren't alone

[jbgibson]

Piscivorous, I'm in the same boat. Or out of it - I'm always going overboard :-). It's a shame I'm not ENOUGH compulsive about mapping to get really good at it... mixing OCD and dilettante-ism is a sorry stew. My presence here is intermittent - when I go missing, y'all can know I'm doing as I ought instead of as I druther. Alas, my employer wants and needs all my brain for extended periods....

I'm assuming you're a happily compulsive mapper? If so, engineer things to permit years of future funsies - take care of your wrists so you don't go all carpal tunnel syndrome on us. Make sure your chair plus tablet plus monitor setup is ergonomic enough to not put you in pain, or in bifocals.

And keep a pad and pencil by your bed - some of those dream charts might be GOOD. It'd be a shame to waste the nether hours, if your subconscious is determined to map something.