Cosplay “Con Crunch”: What It Is, and How to Cope

It’s inevitable. You’re making your cosplay for the next convention, and time sneaks up on you. Before you know it, the con’s less than a month away and you still have a list a mile long of things you need to get done. There’s the coat, the shoes, the gloves, the wig, the armor, the weapons…the list is endless!

So how do you deal with Con Crunch?

Well, as you may have noticed from the featured photo, my craft room looks like JoAnn’s exploded in there. This is common for many cosplayers, especially as it comes closer to con time. The con I’m going to? It’s less than a month away. And that explosion is me less than halfway through two cosplays, smack-dab in the middle of the first coat I’ve ever made. Why am I not freaking the flip out? I’ll tell you a secret: I actually am freaking out. The key is to not let it get to you. Sound like a contradiction? Not so much, really.

It’s okay to freak out a little bit. Things are going to go wrong, plans are going to change, and stuff’s going to hit the fan; you just can’t let it consume you. Scream. Cry. Let it out, then buckle in and get to work. Sure, it’s frustrating when you’re running out of time. So let yourself be frustrated, then let yourself get cracking.

Is it possible that you won’t finish in time? Yeah, it’s possible; even the best cosplayers sometimes run into time crunches and mishaps. My plan is usually to finish the big-ticket items first–the things that are 100% necessary to the cosplay (and to prevent me from being naked)–and then sweat the small stuff.

The world isn’t going to end if you don’t get your cosplay completely finished. You’ll be disappointed, and there’s always going to be that jerk that says something negative if you don’t match the character to perfection, but if you prepare for that eventuality then you won’t be as upset when things don’t go your way.

Now I’m not saying that Con Crunch will ruin your con experience; rather, I’m saying don’t let it. Do the best you can with the time you have, but don’t let the deadline stress you out to the point of the cosplay not being any fun anymore. It’s cosplay, so remind yourself to have fun with the time you are able to spend on the cosplay, and if you can’t finish, just tell yourself, “I’ll have it done by the next con, and it will be bigger and better then!”

Don’t let Con Crunch win. Use it as a time to focus and do what you can with what you have.