011 : Spear

Welcome new and old!

Since the 15th, we've...

• Took a break to let the writing sit and settle.

• Researched concepts of liberty, duty, their consequences, and their byproducts (surprisingly important for the epic's narrative) and refined the story structure accordingly.

What have we learned? How will we move forward? Let's see!

Rest

What happens when you just keep going?

Dissatisfaction with the end result. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

Summer is often the time I find a new direction and plug away at it for about three months. I slow down, take stock of what I've made, go "well, it's not bad, I guess..." before labeling it as an "experiment" and punting it into the bottomless pit of finished and neglected projects.

Obviously, this is unsustainable.

If something you're working on has an end that you can't see all that clearly, you're likely working with a fragmented project. Take a moment to stop and consider not the goal, or even the direction, but the individual pieces. These are your ends. How can you make each of them their own thing?

What follows may surprise you.

Research

You've already done it. Just fill in the blanks.

[ Stories have trajectories of development. Every element that makes up a story must also have this. Characters, themes, problems, formats. It all must move and change. Stories of stories. And every story must be good. Not just appealing, but good. Striving to benefit the viewer. To make their day. To make them feel. As much as a still page could ever do, to the limits of your own ability. I'm good enough to do it; I've done it before. Can I do it on purpose? ]

This is what research does.

Well, no, not the internalized whatever this is.

The ability to do things on purpose.

You can make great things without connecting all the dots. But the potential of something is far greater when all of the dots are connected. And the determining factor of whether or not that potential is reached is whether or not you connected the right dots together.

What's right? What's wrong? Trust your taste.

If you don't trust your taste, replace your taste buds.

Or you will be usurped.

⚔️

That's all I have for you today.

Next update on the 3rd, barring emergencies.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Until then,

👋