I’m a Twitch Streamer!
As the name suggests (or outright tells), I started my own Twitch stream this past week! I’m a Twitch streamer!
It’s still weird to say that, much less FEEL that, but there it is. I did the thing I’ve been thinking about for TWO YEARS, and it feels freaking awesome. Now, let’s break down this incredible feat because it took a lot for me to get here.
First of all, what is Twitch? What is a stream?
Twitch is a platform much like YouTube, except for live-streaming videos rather than pre-recorded ones. You do something on your computer in your own space, and your audience watches you LIVE. Videos are available to watch afterwards for a period of time (called “videos-on-demand,” or “vods”), but the main power of the site is for direct audience-to-streamer chat and interaction.
Which is kind of a difficult thing when you’re first starting out and don’t yet have an audience, or you have a following that doesn’t chat with you much. You’re left talking to yourself and narrating your inner thoughts to no one, and that can be challenging. It is definitely a skill I’m working on!
What kinds of things do Twitch streamers stream? All manner of things, from writing to art to dance (all in the “Arts” category), but by far the largest platform on Twitch are the gamers and their “Let’s Play’s,” where they play a video game and you watch them.
It’s less dorky than it sounds, because you’re watching a game not only for the game but for the commentary. Sometimes, you’re watching to see if you want to buy a particular game, and other times you’ve already played the game yourself and want to watch someone commenting on it (and therefore engage in a conversation with them about it). It becomes a discussion on the game more than watching someone else play something you could be playing yourself.
It’s a difficult concept for non-gamers to understand, and I didn’t get it myself before I started watching Markiplier and Jacksepticeye on YouTube and being enthralled by their jokes and commentary on the games more than my desire to play them. Sometimes, you just have to experience something in order to fully understand it.
So, what I’m streaming is a mix of story and gaming. I’m combining the two, really, and created “The Story Stream,” a place where I discuss the plots of story-driven video games. I’m currently playing “Epistory,” a typing game that is a love letter to words and the writer’s process.
Where did I get this idea to combine gaming and storytelling? First, video games have come out with some amazing storylines in the past several years, rivaling the best tv shows and movies. They can be deep and poignant, and they follow the tenets of story structure. Every time I play a game like this, I think of all the commentary I COULD be saying about it, just without a venue to do that. Now, I have that venue.
Second, I attended a writing workshop two years ago at Gen Con, which is “The Best Four Days in Gaming…” and writer’s conferences! They have a writer’s symposium attached to the main gaming convention (tabletop, rpgs, etc.), and I go for that while my husband and his best friend go for the regular gaming convention. The workshop I attended was about using Twitch as a way to connect with audiences as a writer, and I was blown away by the possibilities. I got the idea to start a story stream way back then, but fear has kept me from getting started.
And then I did Michael Bernoff’s “Call2Action” course a few weeks ago, which I mentioned in a post about my play’s rejection and the actions I took to get out of the depressive funk that resulted. Another takeaway was working on my fear of doing live video: both not liking how I look right now and not knowing what to say have kept me from taking that next step.
But I pushed through that fear and stopped letting it control me. I did my first-ever Facebook Live post, and that was a big deal. I followed that up with hiring a video coach, who challenged me to create my Twitch stream in 10 days. That gave me just enough time to get things DONE, not stress or fret about actually doing them.
So…I did it! Not only did I do ONE stream in that time frame; I did TWO. Six-and-a-half total hours of streaming LIVE for your viewing pleasure. Whew.
And you know what? It wasn’t all that bad. In fact, it was pretty fun. Draining, of course, to be “on” for that long, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, talking to nobody. I narrated my gaming thoughts, I told stories about my childhood, I relayed information about my current struggles with
I had some technical issues, but those aren’t that important compared to the emotional ones I faced. Things like using a Mac in a Windows PC-world, and using an old Mac as well (I need to stream on my 10-year-old desktop because my newer laptop just isn’t strong enough to handle the strain of streaming). I also discovered that streaming requires a heavy learning curve with all the setup and software you need.
And I did all of that in a week, along with the polishing of my stream: intro and outro videos, an “offline” image, and setting up my bio and information panels.
I’m insanely proud of and impressed with myself. And immensely grateful for all my streaming friends who’ve helped me along the way (Sigfred42 and VesperDreams). My stream isn’t perfect—and I’m definitely not perfect—but it’s up and running. I have a place to discuss stories. I broke out of my comfort zone and am trying something new.
I’M A TWITCH STREAMER. I need to own that. I need to embrace it as truth. I. Am. A. Twitch. Streamer. I’m doing the thing that scares me, and I’m living to tell the tale.
What things have you done that’ve had you step outside your comfort zone? What things have scared you that you’ve embraced? Share in the comments below!
And please check out and follow my stream. Every little bit helps. <3
