Ha. I had something in mind right when I wrote out tonight’s blog entry title…which then immediately changed to how I’m genuinely thinking about plopping down $400 on a PlayStation 4 so I can play No Man’s Sky.
Sorry, back after about 15 minutes. Just the title of that video game keyed me into a theme I’d been working on in Starstuff, which is this idea that mankind’s best destiny lies in exploring the stars, and that any man or woman that would try to take that destiny away from us is the worst kind of evil. It’s no coincidence that the “empire” in Starstuff is a conglomeration that tightly controls the FTL particle that is the fuel for said star-traveling. The Authority. I mean, that IS the exterior main premise of my story – there’s this particle called “Starstuff” that allows faster-than-light travel, and humanity has spread out across the galaxy because of it…and now it’s running out. The Authority has risen from that impending catastrophe and is attempting to control the production and distribution of starstuff. I don’t know really much about “No Man’s Sky” or if it even applies to this theme of freedom amongst the stars that I touched on…but it reminded me of that, and that perhaps that might be a good place to start the book from. An opening line, even? We’ll see.
I might look up why they called the game “no man’s sky”…see if we might have been thinking along the same lines.
I sincerely believe in exploring space, meaning it’s something I wish we as a country and as a planet did a lot more of. When I say it’s our destiny to be up there, I’m not being poetic. That theme in Starstuff is not simply a story engine, or just something I thought might be interesting…I really *do* believe that have a fundamental duty to explore them, and that they are calling to us. It *kills* me that our space program has floundered since the moon-landing era. We should be on Mars already. We could be, if we’d invested the resources. I truly believe that. We’ve lost our way when it comes to exploring what’s there, and a HUGE part of the inspiration for Starstuff came from that genuine feeling…that we should be OUT THERE. Petrick is ME…looking up at the night sky at all those little pinpricks of light and wishing I was able to see them full-size. In person. No Man’s Sky appeals to me because of that…
Anywho. Today was a work day, in which I got everything done I wanted to. Almost. Fell a little short, but VERY little. Mostly, I rocked it.
I also listened to a lot of podcasting today, and it was all about being an author and trying to crack the code of success. And here’s the thing…every author I’ve listening to so far couldn’t tell you why they’re a success. Really. Sure, they all know it’s partly because of plain old hard work, meaning they put their butt down into a chair day after day until they had work that was ready to share, they shared it, and then they kept on putting their butt into a chair and working some more. But, in terms of WHY that work caught fire? They have no idea. It just did. They were in the right place at the right time, and they had the right combination of factors working in their favor that made something catch an audience.
That definitely sounds disheartening…and unfortunately it’s something I do really believe is true. If there were a formula for “success,” then people would use it. But there isn’t. The human society is to dynamic of a system to predict outcomes when it comes to the consumption of entertainment. What we’re left with is an outline, and a basic one at that, of some proven techniques that HAVE led to success.
The first, most important by far, and I will not fucking listen to anyone who says anything fucking different…is be good. Be excellent. And that takes a lot of time and hard work. I’m currently in the baby stages of that hard work. Give me another 5 or 6 years…then maybe I’ll start feeling like I’m “okay” to “decently good.” Maybe.
The second, is be interactive with the technological tools we now have available to use to interact directly with our audience. This means have a mailing list. Have a YouTube channel. Join groups and forums on SciFi writing. Talk to people on Twitter. Go to conventions. Participate in contests and use writing/sharing apps and services.
It can all be very overwhelming…but it did make me think about a couple things: that I already have a blog, which is nice, and a YouTube channel…both of which I actually already have a long history of…and that joining some groups and forums would actually be pretty goddamned easy. And I just started thinking about what I might be able to do to start creating REAL personal connections with these groups of people so that eventually, when I do have some work I want to share with the world…I’ll actually already have a community that knows and cares about me ready to support my artistic endeavors.
It’s now too late…to much time on the whole No Man’s Sky tangent…to go into some of the ideas I had for HOW to take this whole social media and networking thing to the next level, but that’s okay. They’re BABY ideas at this point, and I really want to be careful about what I’m committing my time to, and what I’d be “changing” about these platforms I have already. The reasoning behind that is simple…I post on my blog and on my YouTube with regularity because it’s NOT about anything other than just my true self, and I honestly have no desire to change that aspect of it. I really believe that only be being yourself in what you’re putting out there will you ever actually find an audience…and that’s because it’s authentic. And authenticity is the currency of entertainment. That’s what we all desperately want.
Anywho…all for now. Night, y’all. Tomorrow, I edit with the Joshy-poos.