Creative Case Study: Jessica Marcrum
Today we have a new creative case study for you, featuring game designer and former opera singer Jessica Marcrum! I've had the pleasure of working with Jessica on several projects and can attest to her multifaceted skillset.
No two creative processes are alike, so I hope that showing you how different creatives find success will be helpful in your creative journey.
About the Creative
Jessica Marcrum, also known as angrynerdgirl, is a social worker and adventure creator who dreams of crushing the patriarchy and recycling the wealthy. A brain witch by day, she spends her evenings creating games, supplements, and other tabletop roleplaying goodies including the Book of Seasons, Uncaged Anthology, Dumpster Fire, and the College of Caterwauling. Find her and see amazing cat pictures @Miss_Jess03 on Twitter, watch her stream at angrynerdgirl on Twitch, or learn more about her work at www.jessicamarcrumwrites.com.
How long have you been doing creative work?
A year and a half.
What is your background?
Opera performance and social work: mental health (weird, right???).
What are your favorite tools for creativity and productivity?
Google docs, Wikimedia Commons, Google Sheets, and collaborators!
What does your creative process look like?
Starting a new creative project: I put the dates on my calendar as well as on a sticky on my laptop.
Middle: This depends on the type of project. It generally involves research, so this is when I start collecting information from as many different sources as possible. I'll also start jotting notes in the template that basically results in me giving the sections titles and writing a brief sentence of what I want to go in each section.
Final: Write the dang thing. This can be as brief as one sitting or as long as a few hours per day for several weeks. It's much easier to work on my own things than work for hire, but work for hire pays the bills, ergo I budget more time for it. If needed, I contact my editors and layout folk. I I'm doing layout on my own, I source my art and begin putting it all together in either Word or Docs. My stuff is definitely prettier when someone else does my layout, but I can't always afford that.
What is a specific project you've completed that uses the process you've outlined above?
Literally everything! Most recently, She Who Rules the Sea.
What advice do you have for fellow creatives developing a creative process?
Budget more time than you need! Saving things to the last minute is how you fall behind. Also, there's nothing more refreshing than making up a silly game for a jam after creating something mechanically intensive. I can't recommend it enough as a palate cleanser between projects.
Thank you so much for sharing, Jessica! Be sure to check out Jessica's work at www.jessicamarcrumwrites.com.
Next week, we'll delve into setting and sticking to a reasonable project scope!