Sunday 17 March 2019

Looking for Inspiration


For some time I have been finding it difficult to find a new subject to write about on this blog each week. 

I have been checking other popular blogs, and particularly those I follow, looking for inspiration from what subjects they use.   To my surprise I soon realised that many of the most popular ones mix their personal life with their current hobby interests.

It is also clear that most of the long running bloggers have a wide range of model and wargame interests.   And their blogs follow their various interests, latest products and their latest personal interest.

Unfortunately this research does not help me much, because my own wargame interests are much too narrow to follow their lead.

When I started this blog I had planned to cover all aspects of my wargaming interest.   This is, as the title suggests, Napoleonic wargaming.  However by the time I started the blog I had already decided not to change or increase my collection of model soldiers, but to concentrate on the wargaming aspect.  

From the start this revolved around my 1813 campaign, which is designed to produce battles for Jan and me to wargame.   So most of my earlier posts were about the campaign, the maps and scenery we were scratch building.

However as the campaign grew, and in particular when we changed it from solo to PBEM, I realised I would have to create a separate blog for the campaign.    This was to provide an easy to access diary of the whole campaign and also to make it easy for anyone taking part in the campaign to follow their own campaign phase.

I continued to post on this blog about the campaign, but only to explain aspects of the rules or map making.   Most of this blog relied on inspiration each week.    This worked best when I could come up with something which I could write a series of blogs about.   However lately I find myself looking at a blank page and finding no inspiration at all.

At present I write four blogs each week.  

One is about our hill walking here in Spain.  We run two hill walking groups, and I write a blog about each walk we do.   This involves about 20 photos of the walk and a short description.    We walk on Monday and Thursday, so I usually prepare the blog on Tuesday and Friday.

The 1813 diary is a details record of the campaign.   It covers each phase of the campaign and has a battle report of each wargame.  It is a detailed record of all aspects of the campaign.

These three weekly blogs are quite easy to write.  They rely on recording something which has actually happened.    Being illustrated by photographs they do not require much text.   And I do not have to rely on inspiration for what to write about.

In addition they cover in detail most of what we are doing each week, whether in terms of walking or wargaming.   In many of the other blogs I have researched much of this information would have been included in one blog.

So in future I am going to restructure this blog around my wargame interests – which is our 1813 campaign.   I will cover what has happened in the campaign during the previous week.  But it will not be a detailed factual record, which is already covered in the Campaign Diary blog.   Instead I will give a brief description of what we have done, and then expand to explain the development of rules or how the campaign is progressing.   The aim will be to explain the background rather than record the detail.

I hope that you will find it of interest.  






13 comments:

  1. Just wondering if this is a younger version of your good self , I came across the photo on Facebook and it's on my blog at
    http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2019/03/wargaming-when-world-was-in-black-and.html

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  2. I must admit several years ago I had 3 blogs going and found it hard work , so ended lumping them all into my present one .

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  3. Hi TGSS

    The other two blogs just take time each week, there is very little inspiration involved.

    The campaign diary is a detailed record of what is happening on a daily basis, including battle reports. When it was a PBEM campaign with 10 players there was a lot of work, but not so much now that it is Solo.

    The Jan and Paul in Spain blog is mostly a record of our two group walks each week. Because we are fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of southern Spain, deciding which photos to use takes the most time. Apart from that it is just a short description of the walk.

    But this one has always proved a challenge to find something to write about each week.

    I would like to keep them separate, because the other two are a permanent record of the campaign and our life in Spain. And after so long I would hate to stop this one.

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  4. Hi TGSS

    Well spotted! It is indeed an old photo of me. It was taken in about 1972, when Jan and I were in Herford, West Germany with the army. We started a garrison wargames club, and that photo was taken for publicity for the club.

    At first I thought you meant the photo I used on this weeks post. That is also an old one, but not quite as old. It was taken when we moved to Spain in 2006. I must change it for a more recent one.

    Thanks for the link to your blog, which I found very interesting. I have bookmarked it so that I can keep up on what you post

    regards

    Paul

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  5. Hi!
    Re-fighting actual campaigns was a good way to start a blog. But why not widen it to possible Napoleonic campaigns or battles. The Saxon and Bavarian armies always seemed better than a lot of other continental armies. Why not pit them as individual armies against other protagonists?
    Both have a lot to offer on the table top for a what if battle or campaign.

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  6. Hi Peter

    Thanks for your comment

    My 1813 campaign is fictional. It has five French and five Allied armies. This includes Austrian v Bararian in southern Germany.

    regards

    Paul

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  7. Topics on rules design and thought are always of interest. I do enjoy your walking blog and visit it often.

    For my own blogging, I am one who reports on a variety of topics primarily wargames related but includes travel, cycling, reviews, etc. I understand how a blog with a narrow focus (Napoleonic Wargaming for instance) could test your creativity. It is your outlet to the world, publish whenever and whatever you fancy. Those that find the content interesting will follow.

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  8. Hi Jonathan

    Thanks for your comments

    You are, of course, absolutely right. I can post anything that I like, and indeed do so.

    It sounds rather silly, but I feel a certain responsibility to the blog and to those who read it. Hence the post to explain what I am planning to do.

    I have always found that having a theme helps to provide inspiration. And the theme Napoleonic Wargaming, leaving out my ongoing 1813 campaign, makes that difficult. The more so because all of my own wargaming is confined to the campaign.

    regards

    Paul

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  9. Hello again, Paul,
    Your comment about blog responsibility is a notion that can drive my blogging behavior as well and not silly at all. Giving your readers a "heads-up" on blog direction is a welcome consideration.
    Jon

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  10. Although I am minded that a blog needs regularly ‘feeding’, or at least I can feel obligated to do that, I think locking oneself into weekly updates is a thankless task, better to just wait until something happens that you really feel you want to write about. I do long posts in general because I am wordy and undisciplined, but also because I am writing on something that usually excites me, so I tend to only post a couple of times a month at most and only when when the next post feels ready .... or I am tired of it :-).

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  11. Hi Norm

    I like the routine of weekly posting, and having a "deadline" seems to work for me.
    On the one hand I am under self imposed pressure to produce something each week.
    On the other hand I would probably not post at all once I got out of the routine

    But obviously we are all different. And indeed it would be boring if we were not

    regards

    Paul

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  12. Hi Paul! Great blog you are running! Really nice to also read about your personal life and about where you wife and you are staying. Sounds you created a very hobby friendly environment for yourself! I will follow you blog and keep an eye on it! :-) Looking forward to see more posts! Oh and please follow my toy soldier blog too;-)
    That is; http://stansarmee.blogspot.com/

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  13. Hi Stan

    Thanks for your comments

    I am very lucky that Jan shares my interest in wargaming, and walking.
    Wargaming has been a large part of our lives for the past 50 years.
    And even more so since we retired.

    regards

    Paul

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