Puttty is a project three years, eleven months & two days in the making back-burnering.

It has been this long since I registered this very domain name, cleared my schedule, and got to work building my first WordPress theme intended for sale.

At this point, I had years of experience as a full time freelance designer / developer on the web.  During this time, I built damn near every client project with WordPress from absolute scratch.  I learned the ins and outs of the platform and how the average user interacted with it.  I even had released a couple themes for free on the side, just to test the waters.  It should have been a slam-dunk.

Then came the fear.

I started to get overwhelmed with the scope of my undertaking.  I sincerely doubted my abilities as a designer and developer in this space.  In the back of my mind, it was constantly nagging at me that this project of mine could be an absolute train wreck.  At the same time, word on the street was how over-saturated the WordPress theme market had become.  Even if I didn’t royally @#$% this up, there’s no way I’d even get noticed!

And so it goes, as I’m sure you’ve surmised, I retreated like the best of ’em.  I spent day after day stealthily avoiding my work like procrastination was my new calling in life.  I’d get hung up on some minute logo detail or meaningless research, setting me back days in a matter of hours.  There was absolutely nothing that was too minor or insignificant for me to waste my time on!

In hindsight, I was running out the clock.

Soon, my self-imposed deadline would be impossible to hit.  My new theme would never see the light of day and “Puttty” would be back-burnered indefinitely, only left to haunt my subconscious until the end of time.

Upon reflection, this all feels so out of character for me.  As a freelance designer / developer for all these years, I have always been on top of every project — even the gigantor ones.  I have never been late with a deadline and pride myself on it.  I’m sure my reliability is a major factor in what keeps my clients returning.  It is potentially the backbone of my entire business!

So why oh why did this project of mine in particular fail to launch?  Simple, it was my project.  It is a lot more nerve wracking when it’s your skin in the game and it’s easy to psych yourself out.  Pair that with a little of denial and procrastination and you have a yourself a project that never was!

The good news is I’m stubborn as hell.

I refuse to not let Puttty have a chance.  I would rather see my WordPress themes fizzle out on themeforest than to never have happened at all.  And this time, I have a new plan of action to help get me there.

If this story is at all familiar to you, then I’d invite you to follow along.  I intend to be quite public about the entire building process and all the highs and lows along the way.  Say hello to Puttty.