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Hurried, Harried Hump Day
Well, it’s another one of those weeks. Plenty to catch up on and not much time to do it.
Fractional Reserves
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. ~Henry Ford
Big talk coming from the father of assembly lines.
Thing is, when you’re already behind, failure may be an opportunity to begin again but it’s also a damned nuisance.
I’ve got some fairly complex projects that need to be divvied out among a very few days. Problem is, it’s like cutting a pizza into too many slices.
If you cut a pizza into quarters and hand the pieces out to 4 people, they’ll look at you like you’re crazy.
You normally cut it into six or eight pieces. Even if everyone comes back and has a second piece, they don’t feel as if they’re being gluttonous because the pieces aren’t a quarter of the whole pizza.
That’s normal.
What’s not normal and not particularly productive is trying to divide a single pizza for more than the aforementioned small group. If you’re cutting a pizza into twelve or eighteen pieces, you wind up handing out “pizza fingers”. You look stingy and nobody’s happy.
Same with trying to get one guy to do more than can reasonably be done in any given week. I’m either cutting the pizza into too-narrow slices or I’m simply not handing a piece to everybody who needs one.
Thing is, I also need one.
I don’t mind putting in some extra effort to get caught up, but I basically never do. It’s gotten out of hand.
So, I’m going to do what I can do and I’m not going to do what I cannot.
Long Marketing Lead
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves | Official Trailer (2023 Movie)
Well, this speaks more to my Tales Of Olde Auringia than my Sentinels project, but already I can’t wait for this movie to come out.
I’m not the only one. All of geekdom has begun obsessing over the D&D movie trailer that came out at the San Diego ComicCon.
This is a stroke of marketing genius.
I’d contend that the market for superhero movies is far from saturated, but it’s still refreshing to have some of my other favorite genres addressed.
By announcing this thing now and keeping the details under fairly tight wraps, they’re creating a demand for this movie that will also drive an interest in the game it’s based on.
So, Wizards of the Coast (who own the rights to D&D) will start rolling out game aids corresponding to the movie and the movie will drive further interest in the game.
I like to see that kind of synergy.
I also like to see that it seems as though this movie will be done better than previous attempts.
In fairness, I am a complete fool for anything with special effects and even vaguely passable acting.
It’s a low bar but D&D movies 1-3 still managed to nearly trip over it.
Those who are less charitable than me have spent hours hating on these movies in review videos.
For me, life’s too short to spend dishing on so-so fantasy films. If you spend all your time hating it, you’re going to dry up the supply.
Hollywood doesn’t do much analysis, as far as I can tell.
They see what’s popular and keep cranking it out until interest fades.
Everything has its season and those of us who love a neglected genre still have older works to return to, but it’s kind of like shooting the goose who lays the golden eggs. If you want more of a particular kind of movie, don’t sit around hating on what you get.
Sure, it’s annoying to be fed crap by a film industry that seems to have no discernible standards, but I don’t think all the “crap” is nearly as crappy as the criti-geeks would have us believe.
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As much as I’ve shown you criti-geeks geeking out about every little detail of Ms Marvel and The Boys in the past couple of weeks, that deep lore and hardcore geekery can turn from wide-eyed admiration to fatal nitpicking in a heartbeat.
Write What You Love
Entertainment and art are not isolated. ~Martin Kippenberger
So, that’s something I’m trying to keep in mind as I work on my projects. As much as I love all things superhero, sci-fi and fantasy, I don’t love it nearly as much as some of the absurdly nitpicky ultrageeks out there.
Not only do I have to satisfy me, but I also need to satisfy (to some degree) enough of them to get people buzzing about my stuff.
This can be described as “writing to market” but that sounds so mercenary.
I chose my genres because it’s what I like to consume. That’s all. Nothing else.
I’m writing what I’d like to read or see acted out on screen.
Some writers would say that’s hopelessly naive. Some would say it’s a great way to stay engaged in your work and remain engaged and motivated.
🌞Whatevz🔥
I’m writing what I like and I hope that others will like it, too. There’s a step for that.
They’re called beta readers. I have no earthly idea how to enlist them, but there are oodles of articles and videos on how one does so.
It depends on my stories being significantly farther along than they are.
First things first.
Gotta get my series planned out so that the beta readers have something to theorize and geek out about. Gotta write a lot more once I have that plan in place. Gotta find those beta readers and a decent editor to help me polish it.
Gotta get my projects done at work so I can have some spare brain cells available to actually get some writing done.
That’s it for today. I’m entirely too busy for my own good. All things being equal, I’d rather be in bed… 💤🛌🏽💤