Things I like doing: Writing, recording for, and editing scripted videos
Things I don't have time to do: See above

Thing I could cut out to make room for things I like doing: Recording videos for non-scripted content
Thing I don't want to do: See above

Inverted Song of Time pls

That's right, it's time for another installment of Redmond Thinks Out Loud on Twitter But Probably Doesn't Change Anything™!

I like streaming, but my current schedule no longer permits it unless I cut out non-streamed recordings. I also want to do scripted content but, well...

Scripted content takes a lot of time and effort to do right. Research, recording, writing, recording, editing, maybe a smidge more recording. Some of the recording can theoretically pull double duty for other purposes like streams, but some has to be its own thing!

My current daily schedule sees me with about four hours each day to do things that require me to make noise. Some days I can't use my mic because I don't live on my own and I don't wanna be that jerk who interrupts people's jobs with my hobbies.

I tend to use what time I have doing one of a few things:
1. Recording videos for my channel.
2. Watching videos on the You Tubes.
3. Playing games that I am not recording.

Technically all three are hobbies, and all three can be cut. Would I like to cut them? That's a tough one.

I like recording videos for my channel. It lets me feel at least somewhat social, is part of my routine, and gives me an excuse to play certain games.

I like watching videos, though I probably watch too many per day. But they're good sources of info or comedy, et cetera.

Playing games I'm not recording, well, that's a thing. If I could, I would record basically everything I ever play, but I can't. I cannot be "on" during all of my free time, and I cannot record past a certain point at night. Sometimes I need games that are just "for me."

I definitely see a few ways I could make time for scripted content, though it might require some adaptation and there would be friction in said adaptation.

But then what would I do with it? I didn't anticipate any desire to script content when I made my channel.

There's a reason other people have separate channels for gameplay and scripted content. If I put scripted stuff on my channel it'd get lost.

If I made another channel it'd start from zero, which would make it tougher to get by.

And my channel is RedmondStache, not RedmondPlays.

I'm not against the idea of starting another channel, but do I even have the drive and ideas to keep it going? I don't like doing things that frustrate me when others do them. I wouldn't want to be one of those people who only updates once every month or two.

And if I do have the ideas and drive to keep it going, would it eventually become my main channel? Would I want that? It'd feel like a betrayal, but is that even a bad thing? Who would I be betraying? Myself? My subscribers? The people who actually watch my videos?

What percentage of those people would be upset? How much would that matter to me?

I mean, ultimately I'm gonna do what I want to do. If that wasn't the case I'd have ONLY Monster Hunter videos on my channel. From the very beginning I've been doing what I want.

But that doesn't change that my mindset from the very start has been "I'm gonna do things that make me happy, and if other people also enjoy it then so much the better."

At some point I did start caring at least a little about specifically making others happy.

I always enjoy seeing my regular commenters come back with new comments on new videos. Would I lose them if I made a radical change? Would I get new ones to take their places? Would that be "okay"?

I can't answer these questions. Is that lack of answers enough to stop me?

Historically, the answer has been "yes."

Will it be this time? I don't know.

As I said at the start, I like scripting and editing and all that.

But you know what I think I like more? READING scripts. But why is that?

Well, I have fun doing it, and my voice is the part of me that receives the most compliments.

But I can't just have scripts pop out of thin air, read them, and then send them off to someone else for editing and still call it my product. I like to make things. Always have. I don't even know where that enjoyment stops. What parts would I be willing to delegate?

Art. I'd be willing to delegate art. I spent two years at an art school and learned that if I could get someone else to do my artwork for me I'd have a lot more fun. Honestly I knew that all along; in grades 8-10ish I had a friend I made some animations with.

I had him draw the characters, and I would take all the parts he drew and animate them. He did the writing and we both did voice duties (along with my brother), but I was the one who made the art move. I was proud of that. Thought I'd be an animator when I grew up.

Then I learned that animators don't just move the things the artists give them, and quickly got tired of needing to draw things myself.

So yeah, I can delegate the artwork easy.

I love playing games. Playing them for footage for a video is super fun and something I've done multiple times without ever actually showing anything for it. (Some of those ideas could still be revived, but it's not a bottomless well of content.)

Don't wanna delegate footage.

I feel the writing and delivery of the script is the single biggest "this is mine" part of a scripted video. If delegated, it wouldn't feel like the content is "mine."

I'm super cool with voicing other people's stuff (hit me up, for reals), but the other way is no good for me.

So this leaves editing. I enjoy doing it, but I know many people who are far better than me. I've got a lot of research and learning to do. I don't know what chroma key is, or why to do it, and I'm not about to look it up just for this tweet.

I also am not the most creative or inspired editor. I don't think of a bunch of little touches that I've loved in other videos.

But I do love to see a timeline grow and grow with all sorts of footage and effects and everything else. It's super satisfying.

But that doesn't change the fact that my MHXXNS import guides display what is currently the full extent of my editing prowess. Good enough to get some compliments, but a long way to go.
I might be willing to delegate editing, but then again I don't have the money to pay for that.

If I could make edited videos for a living I'd be able to spend more time per day doing that, and maybe someday I could afford an editor better than myself. That'd be neat!

But it's also SUPER hypothetical.

Why are all the best things in life hypothetical?

Anyway, I now know what parts of video production I feel are more important to the me who is typing this right now. Future Redmond might have different ideas, but he's not here right now so he has no say in this.

So what's the game plan from here? Do I do anything? I have ideas that I've had for a long time now. Do I try them out? I'd love to, but I'd have to cut out things I also enjoy. We're back to that now.

Again, Song of Inverted Time pls.

Really that's probably what brought this whole thing on. There are a lot of things I want to do but just don't have time for without sacrificing other things I want to do. There are so many games I want to record and stream. So many videos I want to make. So many!

But I can't do them all at once. I can't do them all, full stop, unless I can make a living doing them.

And I can't make a living doing them unless there's an audience for them.

And at least right now I know for a fact there isn't an audience for them unless I mainline them.

I know my Monster Hunter content does better than all my other content by leaps and bounds. I know my other content barely grows my channel.

Is it because it's unedited gameplay footage? Because it's games basically only I care about? Because I do one game the whole way through?

Because I don't take the time to make thumbnails? Because I don't alternate content over the course of weeks/months/whatever?

I know the first video of each game does decently, but then viewership tends to fall off a cliff before the week is over.

What are the best practices? Would I enjoy myself doing them?

So many times I've wondered if I could still enjoy my hobby if my hobby became my job. I know parts of it I absolutely would enjoy, but other parts not so much.

I know I don't like doing the same thing over and over and over. I can't sit down and farm crown quests in MH, for example. I crave variety.

For that reason I know for a fact I could never be a single-game content creator. Never.

But then how does a variety creator get a following without following the trends? I'm not big enough to stand out playing the flavor of the month, not to mention I tend not to be super into most of them.

I'm basically thinking in circles here. So much I want to do, so much I don't know. So much I don't want to change. Don't know why, though.

I've known for a long time that the unknown scares me, but some of my favorite life experiences have come from jumping into the unknown.

The real question is what would I let go of to jump in again.

And I don't know if I have an answer for that yet.

Slash end thread.

This has been twitter dot com slash RedmondStache, talking mostly about his channel YouTube dot com slash RedmondStache.

That's it, them's the tweets, send tweet, et cetera.

PS: I kinda wish I could do the whole VTuber thing, but I worry that that'd take a heckton of equipment I don't have and also I don't know how to do the rigging or make it work and I don't know if it would be good or bad for my "brand" to do it.

PS2: Also I don't wanna be an anime girl and I don't think I've ever really seen a non-anime-girl VTuber avatar so they can't be that popular, right?

PS3: Only thing I know for sure is I'd have a King Bob-Omb-style mustache but it'd be red because of course it would.