I Know the Quickest Way to Ruin Your Hobby?
The quickest way to ruin your hobby? Start a YouTube channel about it.
Over the past decade, I have dabbled in a number of hobby-based side hustles and creative projects. These include writing short non-fiction books on Amazon KDP, releasing some cringeworthy dance music on Spotify, and publishing a couple of courses on Udemy.
All of these were fun little distractions that filled a lot of my time, before fatherhood came along and changed everything. All good changes, by the way.
There is a certain fun and excitement in creating something and putting it out into the world: the nerves before you hit publish, and the wry smile after.
Each of these mini-creations, this blog included, has been a fun dalliance.
Sadly, hubris overtook me and a wild thought entered my head. One day my brain said, "Why not start a Warhammer YouTube channel?" and all the rational parts of my brain said the same thing all at once: "What a great idea!"
And So the Folly Began
It scratched an itch that had been building over time. And for some reason, I thought this was going to be a genius way to spend my limited free time.
Like many people, I got into Warhammer as an 11-year-old and loved it. It is a wonderfully multifaceted hobby that you can make your own, whether that is painting models, reading the novels or playing wargames. And like many millennials, I left the hobby in my 20s and rediscovered it in my mid-thirties (such a cliché).
I paint Dark Angels, by the way.
So I Started Making Videos
My journey started with some basic videos, and then I tackled painting tutorials. These proved a lot harder to film than they look.
Editing took forever as well. And the amount of data on my phone and cloud accounts would make OpenAI blush.
What Happened?
I found out that making YouTube videos about painting Warhammer models is far more stressful and time-consuming, and a lot less fun, than watching painting videos while painting models.
Each video became less and less fun to make. I started dreading new hobby projects, and my hobby turned into a chore. So I stopped painting more models.
I will not bore you with every detail, but it was a horror story from start to finish. A horror story even Nagash would have to look away from.
What Did I Learn?
It is not all doom and gloom. Here is what I took away from the experience:
- Video editing is both harder and easier to do than expected.
- Audiences are happy with rough work, as long as it is authentic.
- I discovered loads of great channels to follow.
- Some things are best left to other people.
- It is okay to give things a go, and if they do not work out, it is okay to stop.
What Is Happening Now?
I decided to stop around July and deleted the videos and the account. Not because they were bad, or because I was ashamed of them; I just needed to remove the temptation to make another one.
As summer comes to an end, I am excited to start painting Warhammer models again. Maybe I will feature a few of them on the blog at some point in the future. The joy of painting without a camera, without judgement, and without the fear that I will miss a shot is refreshing.
You can learn more about Warhammer here, and shop for Warhammer here.