Themeattics

The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

With the start of the year (in anyone’s plan) at least a little ways behind us, I suppose now’s as good a time as any to get my goals out in the public.

It’s no secret that last year was something of a bust. I had a lot of grandiose ideas and most of them either got pushed aside for other, more important ones, or just never got off the ground at all. C’est la vie. But, hey, we’re not dead yet, right? The forward march of time stops for no one, and I’m not a guy who’s willing to look at that in a negative light, so we’re back in the saddle. The only reason to look back is to learn from what’s happened, and I’ve already taken that time the past few weeks, so no reason to dwell on any of it here.

And now, a plan in bullets. I love bullets.

• Wellness – Everything I’ll get to below (all the creative stuff) is contingent on fostering a better, healthier life for myself and my family. That healthier life consists of:
  • Getting back to a 32″ waist – I fell off the health bandwagon pretty hard over the last few months and am striking into the new year approaching ~220. Higher than I’ve been in a little while and MUCH higher than I should be / want to be. Food is a problem, and if I want to work on aspects of my discipline, this is a perfect place to begin. It’s one of my biggest vices and needs to be fought tooth and nail.
  • Setting aside an hour a day for prayer – Time management is in a battle with food for my major downfall. The free time I have outside of work is often swallowed up by some asinine waste. Just sitting around being a vegetable. It’s bad. There were a few times during the last year where it seemed like I’d break out of that hump, but here we are. One of the biggest failings of this comes in my lack of prayer of late. Returning to this, devoting the time and attention necessary to make true prayer time, will help to reorient my mind to the important things in life and, more importantly, give God the attention He is due. Sloth and Gluttony. Quite the combo to battle.
  • Maintaining the house – I don’t know about you guys, but having a the house be a mess makes it incredibly difficult for me to get into my creative tasks. There’s just something about it that I can’t quite get my finger on, but I’m long past trying to work around that problem. It’s just a part of me, no fixing it. Giving in, however, is another big time sink that needs some fixing. Which, breaking one of my main rules about not setting goals that involve other people here, is where the kids come in. It’s chore time in a big way. I’m looking into the best apps and such to help us keep track of all this and make it work. They might not be, but I know I’m REAL excited for this one.
  • Proper family time – If it wasn’t clear in the last post, this sort of thing is not only vital to me, but I’ve already been taking steps to get this on track. It’s going great, and I’m blessed for it. I’m actually only getting the time to write this post now because I’ve been playing some games with Luke today (Spirit Island is an incredible game). Last night we had a family movie night. More of this every week please. Can’t wait.
• Creativity – Naturally, the bulk of my year plans lie here. Those personal wellness goals will be things that run on in perpetuity. These, on the other hand, are finite. They have a start. An end. A finished product. Well… most of them, at least.
  • ThemeAttic Updates – If one doesn’t have an end or a finished product, I suppose it’s this site. It’s been a fantastic exercise, however, and it has certainly fulfilled its purpose of breaking me out of the concern for other people seeing my writing. Mission accomplished, as they say. But, with that done, it’s time to move on. Or, rather, time to expand. To grow. It’s no longer enough to be what it is. It has to become the next thing I need. A tool to gain a following. I’d never really wanted to go this route. Those of you who know me know that I’d be content just hacking at a story and getting it out on a shelf. It seems that’s not the way of the industry anymore, though. Breaking into print is a monster task and the Indie market is overflowing with hot garbage that taints prospective readers’ view of the whole market. We’re entering the age of the following, where people buy to support a person as much as they buy for the enjoyment of the product. Do I want to make the best stories possible? Of course I do. Do I want people to read them? Also yes. That intersection is where I need to be. How? Well, that’s what I’m mulling over. One thing’s for certain, though. Blogging ain’t the answer. I know what it might be, but I am loathe to go that route. Me and the ol’ YT don’t seem like they’d go well together…
  • Residuum Agent Push– While this story has certainly not been the longest thing I’ve worked on, not by a long shot, it needs to be done. This year. My goal is to finish the 2nd revision in the next couple of months, get that revision in the hands of some beta readers, and make another round or two of cleanup before beginning the agent submission hunt. I’ve found major edits to be possibly more challenging than writing new stories, but it’s been a growing experience if nothing else. And I’m progressing. Slowly, but I am. This year, Dwellers. Mark it. Bother me about it.
  • Catalyst Half Draft– Speaking of the longest thing I’ve worked on… my good buddy Catalyst. This is the next novel I’ll be writing. I’d waffled on whether that should be the case or not (I’ve got a good twenty or more stories on the backburner) but in the end it really can’t be anything but. This guy’s been the monkey on my shoulder since before I was a teenager. It’s gone through I don’t know how many different concepts and drafts, been thrown out completely and built from the ground up more times than I care to count. What it is now, or what it’s trying to convince me it is, is so vastly different from what it began as they can scarcely be considered the same genre. A few constants remain, however, and they’ve never allowed me to turn away from their story. Not fully. By the end of this year I plan to have the initial manuscript half done.
  • Three Shorts – Last year I embarked on a little writing adventure. I’m miserable at keeping things concise (shock, I know) and one of the writer’s Discord servers I’m a part of posted about a shorts publication that was seeking entries. It was pretty short notice, something like a month, and I figured, what the hell? The process of building a short was honestly a lot more fun than I expected and, while the whole thing ended up falling apart due to the publication group running into issues, it has me wanting to go hunt for a few more places to do this with. I’ve got plenty of smaller ideas that would be fun to get onto a page and maybe, just maybe, in print. So, as the bold says, I’m aiming to write and submit three shorts this year as well.
  • Project CT – Not to be contained in just Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Fiction novels and short stories, I’m also pursuing yet another game project where I’ll be writing the story and being heavily involved in some major designing. This sort of thing is a big time challenge and I’m very excited to be a part of it. It’s barely a concept as I write this, and I know game design is a gruelingly long process, so I’m not entirely certain what sort of a goal fits in Year 0, but I want it on here just to put the idea in the world. If anything I’d say I expect it storyboarded and to have an internal demo of the primary gameplay loop to work with.
  • Woodworking – If there’s one thing I can pinpoint as the longest thing I’ve had on hold, it has to be this. I love working with my hands and I love creative projects, so naturally this sort of thing has been on my list for a long time. I’ve steadily picked up equipment as well, and now I’ve got bunch of wood taking up space in my garage. Everything’s coming up Millhouse. I just need to act. So, act I will. I have four projects planned to complete this year: replacing the outer fence/gate from our driveway, making a pair of headboards for the boys’ beds, making new end tables for the living room, and making a custom leverless fight stick. I gotta tell you, just writing those out has me grinning like a nut. Super excited to get out there and get to work on these.

And there you have it. 2024 from a bird’s eye, highly optimistic perspective. There are some smaller things I didn’t think needed to fit up there, like going to an offline fighting game tournament and starting up a conversation about joining the Deaconate, but that covers the gist of things.

In May of last year I started a new process of goal tracking and ended up with an abysmal completion rate of 67.97% for 2023. That’s a big, fat F. Those are rookie numbers. Time to up those numbers.

So join me, my lovely Dwellers, on a mission of growth in 2024. Together, let’s push forward and bring those around us along. Willingly, if possible, but in our wake if not.