Day: February 23, 2023

I’ve named so many blogs after this standard. I think I do so in my endless quest for the writer’s life. But what is that life? So few of us subsist purely on the work of our words–at least at the level to which we seek to be accustomed. I presently have a student who wrote professionally for a TV franchise, yet he is back in class, back at work, and trying to scrape out an existence by keyboard or pen. It is hard to sustain this life and it takes a person of great dedication and even greater fortune. Other characteristics (for good luck or good fortune, if you will, is a characteristic) may be equally helpful. Connections, lineage, the rawness of talent… All of these things shape success. I am blessed with outrageous fortune, but I admit to a level of laziness that would see me penniless in any other profession. I suspect charisma numbers among my attributes (or at least did) for I used that primary attribute to succeed throughout my academic life. The writing success came later (and largely lately) and after I saw my talent level and creativity dip considerably. So much has been written about seeking a return to that talent and creativity.

When I heard Chapelle lament on the concept of thinking as working for creatives I did think for a long time about whether or not what I’d lost was a result of noise. For years I’ve fled silence and the very concept of being alone with my thoughts. Life is difficult for me on so many levels that I seek escape from it’s constant troubles by hiding in every crevice of distraction that can be found. What cannot be found in most of these dark corners is creativity and imagination. However, I continue to seek it there. I play Madden and imagine the world in which I am pretending to exist. I imagine being the coach and what talk show hosts and announcers would say about me, how I would chat up my players, organize practices, the life I would have outside the game, the relationships I would have with my staff and fellow coaches. This is a retreat–this is hiding–yet I try to find in it some imagination and creativity. I still seek some access to what was lost.

The purer path is to sit in silence and think.. perhaps after to write. But I am afraid of that. I know not why.

I spent the last two days helping students world build for Video Game development and Comic Book development projects. That has my mind on world building overall. I’m constantly world building. Every time I listen to a book I’m listening for how these great authors unfurl their worlds. I gotta say, I am constantly awed by the creation. I am presently developing a fantasy world and have designs on a futuristic world that I may consider beginning next year–so long as I get some prime production on the fantasy world. I’ve developed a great deal of it with the visual help of Azagaar’s fantasy map generator and World Anvil, though the later serves as a repository I’ve yet to develop enough content to use.

The key, however, is understanding what it means to truly build a world. I believe you need to deep dive and consider the terrain, the history of that terrain itself (natural phenomena that shaped it), what it means for the cultures that dwell there and so on. My tip to all writers is to examine human history–like really look and don’t just dive directly for the Roman and British stuff. In truth that stuff is going to lead you terribly astray. I also think a key point is to write down every idea, because putting it on paper makes it real and frees your brain up to test those ideas against others and change and edit them–this happens far less when you are doing it in your head.