I’m sitting at the dining room table, my daughter sleeping in my lap, Naruto: Shippuden is on the TV, and I’m fumbling through editing my first YouTube video. My goal is clear: upload my first video before the end of July, but now I’m faced with the reality that I’ll need to come to terms with the fact that this video will be far from perfect.

In the hour of footage I filmed I messed up the shot more times than I can count. My framing was all off, the lighting is questionable, and half the shot needs to get cropped out. Thank god I’ve decided not to use voice-overs on my channel for the time being because that would be a whole different beast to tackle.

I guess I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I don’t think I expected to struggle this much. It isn’t my first time filming or editing video footage, but it is the first time I’ve done it for something like this. I decided to film a craft video and I got pretty much no footage of the completed postcards… rookie move, I know.

Anyways, I’ve resorted to slowing down the footage I did get and using some freeze frames to make up for it. Not a perfect fix, but I’ll know for next time. The priority for right now is simply getting this video to exist. I’ll get better with time, like with all things.

Part of why I’m pushing myself to get this blog and my YouTube up and running is because I know I’m going to have to mess up a lot before I get better at it. If I keep putting off starting, I’ll never get around to making the mistakes I’ll learn from.

Here’s a fun little (incomplete!) list of things that have gone wrong in this process:

• The editing softwares I’m using seem to hate each other (and me!) and want different file types
• I filmed the footage weird so I have to find a way to cover nearly half the frame for the opening segment where I can’t just crop it
• My little MacBook Air is NOT enjoying any part of this process and is about a billion degrees at the moment (which can’t be good–eek)
• Everyone wants money (EVERYONE!)
• My computer crashed twice

So, all in all I’d say starting a blog has been the less stressful of my two ventures for July. Hoping I’ll be wise and set some smaller goals for next month. Looking forward to sharing all the ups and downs with you all!