Amendments to "Year of Foundations" goals
In 2015: Year of Foundations I delivered a list of objectives I plan to accomplish under the theme of (you guessed it) Foundations. Today I have a couple amendments to that post.
I have a lot of ideas. A few of them I really want to do, but I won’t be able to get to them until I finish what I have in production right now. While I have moved to writing multiple stories at once, there is a limit to how much I can allow myself to take on. If I start writing 20 books at the same time, it’s going to be twenty years before any of them are completed. The same applies for my music.
My theme of Foundations has a strong focus on putting the pieces in place for when I do release my first book as well as creating a stronger platform for my other endeavors. A lot of it is experimentation with the feel, direction and effectiveness of my platform, but I also have to continue creating the meat of my platform during this time period. Because of that, I need to find a way to be creative with my stories in the Foundations framework.
Amendment 1: World Building
Because I’m primarily writing Speculative Fiction, I often have to create new worlds and invent my own rules, governments, cultures, races and characters. This is both the best thing about writing Science Fiction/Fantasy and the worst thing. World Building takes time, care and is often a lot of research. This bleeds the time that I have to create the stories that are built on top of these worlds.
For every bit of my world I reveal in my stories, I have to create a lot more on the back end to make sure everything functions correctly. I need to start building up my story and world bibles this year for the various epics I plan on unleashing. Many of these stories won’t come to fruition for years to come, but by putting the pieces in place now, I’ll have less stress to deal with later.
Part of my creative mission is to push the boundaries of the genres I love and create rich experiences for those who dare dive in. I want to provide extensive wikis, visual feedback and soundscapes that capture my worlds. By doing this, I hope to allow you to dive in deeper and create your own stories long after mine have ended.
Amendment 2: Development Diaries
While observing where the guys at Sterling & Stone have taken their Dream Engine project, I’ve decided that I can do my own version of Development Diaries. I believe it will be healthy and helpful to mind dump some of the thoughts that I have about my stories so that I can later return to them and remind myself exactly how I wanted the story to feel in that moment.
I’m not sure if anyone will find these interesting, but I’m doing them anyway. And who knows? Perhaps writing a journal about my creative process might inspire others who come by to create new things themselves. What’s even greater than creating something new myself is inspiring others to create as well.
I’m also toying with the idea of making special annotated editions of my stories where I compile these diaries and include them as bonus material. Because this kind of content can be repurposed, it’s better to have it ready then have to start from scratch when there are those who do want it.
What about you?
I’m really curious if there are creatives reading this that might have an interesting process for pre-production. Or if you have an interesting way of documenting your creativity in action.
I would love to know your thoughts!
