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Nostalgia Bait

Thomas Keaten

January 8, 2022

It shocks me how I wish for…what is lost and cannot come back.
Sue Monk Kidd, Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story

Hoo, boy. The entertainment media sphere is in an interesting spot, isn’t it? I know, if you’re around my age you’ve been saying for a while now that there doesn’t seem to be anything besides sequels and remakes hitting theaters, but the age of repetition has been growing in the gaming world as well with a slew of remasters and remakes both currently in the market and on the way.

This isn’t an innately bad thing. Nostalgia is a powerful thing for a reason, and this is called the “entertainment” industry for a reason. Leaning into things that have already entertained us just makes sense. However, there’s an implicit danger here that I want to explore, one I think we’re seeing across both mediums. I’ll be the first to admit I suffer from a prodigious use of the rose-tinted glasses. I still hold Final Fantasy 6 as one of my favorite games of all time, though I’ve struggled to go through another playthrough. There are a ton of schlocky movies I love despite them being objectively poorly made and exceedingly dumb.

With those qualifications out of the way, I want to talk about what I consider a couple shining examples of use of nostalgia in recent times. On one hand, we have Spider-Man: No Way Home and Metroid: Dread. On the other, The Matrix Resurrections and Warcraft III: Reforged.

I’m not a comic book nerd, but I enjoy a movie where I can turn off my brain and just have some fun every now and again. The MCU was great for this and before that, the older Spider-Man movies the job. Some… better than others. You know who you are. But that said, the most recent film was a phenomenal example of use of nostalgia. The inclusion of “past” versions wasn’t used solely to try and bait the audience into the dip into that honey pot, it was a core tenet of the experience. The characters weren’t treated as irrelevant or washed out, they were given their own arcs in which to grow. You got to relive something, but see it used to pass a torch. You saw it respected. In much the same way, Metroid: Dread arrives almost twenty-five years after another of my all-time favorite games, Super Metroid, and lovingly crafts a game so elegantly designed and faithful to the original style you can almost remember the original playing like it. It takes everything the old game was and improves on it. Samus is an absolute unit – the way she is represented is incredible, showing obvious character growth from the past games in the series and in terms of gameplay, I’d say essentially everything is improved. At its core, this is still a Metroid game, but it has clearly entered the modern age. It’s an absolute masterpiece.

What of Resurrections and Reforged? Well, where No Way Home brought back characters to give you another part of their lives and bring you on a new journey of growth for them, Resurrections brought you the characters to undergo the same thing they already had again. The same treads, the same beats, only with the heart of it all removed. There’s no real growth, no notable adaptations to the next generation. A lot of what made the original what it was is stripped away, leaving an ultimately dull film. Imagine, managing to make the Matrix dull. And Reforged? Yikes. It shouldn’t be hard to literally modernize a game by updating graphics and adding better online features. Somehow, Blizzard managed to ruin everything by releasing a clearly unfinished cash grab that lacked anything of the love that made the original.

So, what’s the difference in these? How does one end use nostalgia to garner enjoyment and respect while the other uses it as bait? I find it’s in the understanding of what makes a thing what it is. The creators of Dread clearly understood what makes a Metroid game. They focused on the smooth play, feeling of power, sleekness of design, and outright trolling that the originals were known for and treated each with the love and care that made it clear. The same could be said for No Way Home. People love Peter Parker, so getting the chance to watch each of them continue their stories in ways which each would grow in their own way, redeem or fulfill themselves in the way that version needed, showed that the writers understood people’s love of the character. Reforged expected the love of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft to get buyers in the door, and that was about it. Resurrections literally interlaced scenes of the original movie on top of the new one in what I can only assume was either absolute shameless bait or an outright attempt at making the thing worse. I’d like to believe Red Letter Media’s guess that this was almost a Gremlins 2 subversion, but who knows.

This article is ugly as hell so I’m going to stop rambling, but let me just say that I went with Resurrections simply for how new it is. The worst offender of nostalgia bait in recent history – maybe of all time – is the sequel Star Wars trilogy. I could go off on that thing for hours, but I won’t. Since I don’t see this trend easing off for a while, I hope that critical successes like No Way Home and Dread will lead to creators understanding the importance of grasping the core of what brought people to the properties to begin with. I’m not optimistic.

On that note, when are they going to give us more Final Fantasy 7 Remake news!?

One Number

Thomas Keaten

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January 1, 2022

Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.
G.K. Chesterton, A Chesterton calendar

Happy 2022, everybody. Hope it’s started off well for you. Last year was, well… it was something. I think it was simultaneously the longest and shortest year I can remember. Like all years, it had its ups and downs and while I could spend an article covering it, I’m not one for spending too much time looking at the past. My own, in particular. What I’d rather do is look forward and determine what I can do to make things better.

Now, to preface, I’m not normally one for resolutions. I think last year was the first time I ever bothered to make one. The fact that I don’t know if I did ought to be evidence enough of how that shook out. That said, I am extremely goal oriented, so it seems a little odd that I’ve avoided this. Maybe it’s the hipster in my not wanting to get on the New Years Resolution bandwagon because everyone does them and everyone just seems to let them fail. Letting others dictate what I do is a poor decision in general, so let’s ignore all that. I’m in. But why? Why New Years? Why wait for that arbitrary turn of one number to begin things?

Sure, it might be one number, just that tick over from 21 to 22, but it does symbolize something important. It’s an end and a beginning, the shunting of a year into the dustbin of history and entering a new one that is yet fully unknown. We can expect it to be much the same, but it only takes a cursory glance at recent history to see that we can’t always expect the norm. Instead, we just do what we can to create our own, and that’s really what this is about. Taking control of the things we can.

My wife has been listening to a podcast lately that brought up the idea of claiming a word for the year, and I found the idea interesting. I tend to treat resolutions as little more than long-term goals and not an overarching idea, but I think the latter is probably closer to what is intended. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going for goals, but I decided to consider this other idea as well. If I had to pick a word for 2022, it would be “husband.”

Full disclosure, I hadn’t actually planned for that to be the word until I wrote that sentence. I had a couple of others lined up, but this sort of jumped out at me. Why? Well, it gets back to the goals thing. I have a lot for the year. I think around 15 or so, which I’ll get into later on in this article, but all of them center around something involving self-improvement, meeting benchmarks, growing in faith, and being a better partner for my wife and father for my children. All of that is encompassed by being a better representative of what a husband should be, so there we are.

As for the goals themselves, what, exactly are my targets for 2022?

I want to be a better follower of Christ. I’ve been so focused on other things that I’ve let this fall and it’s the thing that is ultimately the most important for me. To that end, I’ve got stacking quarterly goals, starting with listening to the Bible in a Year Podcast every day starting today. Next quarter, I’ll get back to doing weekly Adoration. The following, I’ll start saying a daily Rosary. And, for the last quarter, I’ll start going to monthly confession. All of that is additive, mind you, it’s not like I’m going to stop doing something when I go to the next.

I want to get in shape. Actually in shape, not the half-assed, work-out-most-days-but-don’t-really-care-about-food kind of shape. I want to get back into a size 32 waist and hit benchmarks of 60 consecutive pushups and 20 consecutive pullups. Not easy, but simple.

I want to be sure I never miss / require an extension on a deadline for my contract writing. Additionally, I intend to finish the first draft of Catalyst, the book I began during NaNoWriMo, and have Residuum in a state where I’m willing to send it off to agents. That last one will require I really get the ball rolling on finding more people willing to read and critique with me so, again, if you are or know anyone who would, please let me know.

I want to get the house in working order. We’ve been existing in it since we bought it a year ago and all of our money seemed to have spilled out into necessary repairs. With those out of the way, it’s time to start turning this thing into ours, and to that end I want to build things for it. I want to dust off my woodworking tools and build shelves and other things we need. There’s a lot of small things that go into these goals that aren’t worth going into, but suffice it to say there’s a lot to do here.

And then, there’s the two dumb things. What I like to call the “git gud” goals. I want to hit Celestial rank in Guilty Gear Strive, and I want to finally grab the platinum trophy for DBFZ. Yes, totally frivolous, but I’m the kind of person that sets goals for leisure. I have to, or I wouldn’t bother and I’d burn out. Been there, done that.

Now, you’ll notice all of these goals are focused around me. Didn’t I just spend a bit detailing how my word of the year was all about being better for the family? Yes, absolutely, but I’ve learned along the way that I shouldn’t make goals that involve other people. And, yes, I also know that the Residuum goal does, but that’s largely unavoidable. Anyway, I do what I can to make sure that any goal begins and ends with me. When it comes to being a better husband, that’s a natural outcome. I’ll be getting the kids involved with this stuff. Getting the missus involved with it. I’ll be doing things with them, for them, and showing them what it means to be the man of the house.

Yes, there’s a lot I plan to do in 2022. But, in the end, I want it to be a year my family remembers for what it’s done for us all. And I hope each of you can take a moment to set your own goals and understand how to improve your own lives. It may just be one number, but if that can be the catalyst for setting your life in a better direction, then it’s enough.

‘Tis the Season

Thomas Keaten

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December 18, 2021

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!
Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Well, hello there.

I made a bit of an unceremonious decision last week to skip an article. I’ll be skipping next week’s as well, since it falls on Christmas and, well, the reason why should be obvious. Aside from that, I need to take a bit to figure out what it is I want to write on and plan things out. But that’s for future me. As for current me, I’m doing what I can to get myself in the Christmas spirit.

That’s been easier said than done this year. I’ve been busy, stressed, and concerned about the state of things at a personal, family, and overall level. I’ve been stretching myself thin and feeling the fatigue that comes with it. Doesn’t help that it’s been right at the 80s down here this past week, and that’s just stupid. Not that I’m begging for another freeze, but come on, there’s some wiggle room there.

Since I’ve been struggling to think about what to write, a friend of mine mentioned some commentary on the degradation of Christmas to little more than just a frenzy of consumerism. I thought I’d probably do just that, but as I sat down to start I decided to go a different route. I do a lot of writing on the negative aspect of things here – people seem to be more drawn to that sort of thing, and it’s often easier to write – so I thought it might behoove me to go about it the opposite way. Try something positive, for a change. You know, to be in the Christmas spirit.

Now that I’m a decrepit old man with children fast approaching their teenage years, I’d like to think I’m starting to grow in wisdom. Maybe that’s hubris, but I spend so much time observing the world as it is, considering what it could be, and both digesting and creating other ones that I’m more empathetic than I used to be. I find there’s a lot of talk about empathy in political discourse, but it never amounts to anything more than a means to try and score points with an electorate or a cudgel to hit the opposition. Maybe now, as Advent comes to a close, we can work to understand just what that empathy can do.

It is, after all, a big part of the nativity narrative. Of the Christian narrative as a whole, even. We’re not often looked upon as the most empathetic types, and that’s to our detriment. We are meant to be, after all – why else can none of us cast the first stone? Christ’s entire message was to fix ourselves and be a voice to those around the world. That’s a simplistic observation, but a true one. We are to lead by example. Not to judge, but guide. To work to understand those around us so that we can better serve them. That goal, that ideal, is why people find such ease in labeling so many of us hypocrites – we all are. We have these ideals and we fall short by our very nature. And that’s fine, it’s always going to be the case. That’s why, as I’ve said before, we can never fulfill out mission here on earth. We can’t be perfect, but we can keep trying to get closer every day.

So, while you’re dealing with unreasonable people doing last minute shopping, angry customers, snippy kids, and whatever else rears its head; take a breath, wish them well, and continue on. There’s a lot of garbage out there in the world today, the least we can do is make sure we’re not contributing. After that, we can start cleaning up.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Give your loved ones a hug, tell them what they mean to you, and make their day that much brighter. Give a stranger a reason to smile. Make someone’s job easier. Think positively. It won’t be easy – again, garbage – but it will be worth it.

NaNoWriMo, Conclusion

Thomas Keaten

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December 5, 2021

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
Leonardo da Vinci

Happy December!

First of all, I want to apologize for this being a day late. When I finished the final day of NaNoWriMo, I told myself to take a week off and not do… really anything writing related. And I’ve committed to that, but I didn’t quite want it to spill over into here since, well, this is where it all began.

And now, the reason we’re here. How did it go? Did I finish or flame out? Was it worth it? Is anything usable moving forward or was it all trash? What’s the plan now?

I did finish. I closed November with 52,145 words of the 50,000 required to be considered a “winner” of NaNoWriMo. Ooh, a winner, you say – well, don’t get excited about that. Since NaNo is entirely voluntary and self-reporting, there’s nothing of any merit that comes from being a winner since, well, people can just lie about it. I did get most of the useless badges though, and if you know me you know how much I love me some achievements, so A+ there. Though I did misread one and missed it due to that, so that’s annoying, but hey, live and learn.

I think, especially for a one-time event, this was worth the effort. I learned a great deal about how I write (which at this point I thought I didn’t need), how to steal pockets of time to write, how to write with distraction and breaks, and how to always push forward. I’m glad I did this, but I’ll be honest and say it won’t be a recurring goal. Beyond that fact that, well, November won’t always line up with a new project, I just didn’t like how it necessarily pulled me away from people I love and want to spend time with. There’s too much I want to do with my family on a standard month, let alone one with a holiday, a birthday, and a wedding anniversary. Check NaNo off the writing goals. Maybe I’ll be back some year.

As far as whether what I wrote is usable or not, it certainly feels as though it is. In previous NaNo posts I’ve expressed my take on writing without editing and how difficult it has historically been for me, but now that I’ve had to bury myself in that way of creation it’s no longer a problem. Since I want to write this book, obviously, it’s not like I’m going to throw away 50k+ words because they’re unpolished. It’s always unpolished until it’s done, something I think I finally understand. I forget the exact quote or who said it, but it goes something like “Creative work is never finished, it is merely stopped.” Absolute truth, right there.

Now what? Well, as I said at the start, I’m taking a week off to relax, clear the head, actually enjoy some time with people, and prepare. Prepare for what, you say? Well, for one, I’m hoping some of the copies of Residuum I sent off will start filtering back my way – and to that end, if you would like one to read over and critique, don’t hesitate to ask – so that I can begin another round of editing there. I’ll be continuing Jennen, Lance, and Yanis’ story in Catalyst, though at a more measured pace. And, there’s at least one more contract waiting in the wings that will require my attention. I’m certainly not hurting for things to do.

But, for now, I’m going to play a little Guilty Gear and try to get my muscle memory improved on this new Hitbox while watching some absolutely braindead content. I think I’ll allow myself to say I earned that.

NaNoWriMo, Week 4

Thomas Keaten

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November 27, 2021

It is impossible to make time but you can always make a commitment.
Johnnie Dent Jr.

This upcoming Tuesday marks the end of my first NaNoWriMo. Obviously. It’s the last day of November, after all. I won’t lie, this puts me at a bit of a weird point for this article. I’ve discussed why I’m doing NaNo, what I’m writing during the month, what struggles I’ve encountered, and my feelings about the process itself and what I’m creating. There isn’t, really, that much to talk about here without going into the actual elements of story I’ve been writing and, to be frank, I don’t want to go that route. Mostly because, as I discussed last week, this thing is so rough that a lot of it will be shaved off and never see the light of day. And also because I covered the premises in my introduction to characters.

I think, instead of trying to force something relevant out of this post, I’ll instead take the time to ensure that my commitment is completed. Every moment from this point on is increasingly vital. I’ve made this commitment, and, like the Hyper Quarter which led up to it, I will see the commitment through. Bumps, blocks, detours, stumbles, and all. I’m not going to let them stop me.

Four days. That’s all the time that’s left. The light at the end of the tunnel is ever so close. I’ve turned a sprint into a marathon and I, for one, am ready to take a breather. But, when I do, it will be past the finish line. I want to be able to look myself in the eye and say I did it. Last month proved it to me. I’m done pulling the rug out from under myself.

See you on the other side.

NaNoWriMo, Week 3

Thomas Keaten

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November 20, 2021

That’s the trouble with humans. We stumble over things that aren’t even there.
Sai Pradeep

Good thing there’s nothing important going on in the world to talk about at the moment, right? Right?

Anyway, week 3 was definitely not the best for writing productivity. Between having my family come into town, my 14th wedding anniversary, and my birthday, I had more than my fair share of things that are actually important to attend to. I’ve been pretty far gone from living life as a normal human these past few months, so I needed to be sure I was still able to take a step back and appreciate the people I have in my life. Glad I did. Not that I needed the reminder, but I really am blessed and I don’t do nearly enough to show appreciation for that.

What does that mean for NaNo? Not much beyond the fact that I have some catching up to do. But, let’s be real, that’s just par for the course at this point. You’ve seen me complain about that enough to last you a lifetime. I don’t want this considered a complaint, though. It’s not, just a fact. I’m not worried about it. I’ll get it done. I may not have proven myself in this specific instance as of yet, but after October I’m feeling pretty invincible for arbitrary production deadlines.

I won’t lie, though, I do wish this event came on another month. November starts a heavy push for year-end completion of clients at work. It also has a birthday, anniversary, Thanksgiving, and (generally) a Renaissance Festival trip which tend to make hitting the daily target rough. Though, I did misunderstand how the daily par thing worked at the beginning. If I do this again I’ll bear that in mind and pick a few days early in the month to put in a huge amount of effort to make those days not as taxing.

Will I do this again? That seems like something I should wait to answer until this one is over, but I think I have a fairly good grasp of the situation to know even now. And I can even give it my favorite answer.

Depends.

This sort of event strikes me as very specific. I was in a great place for it this year as I have one project on the outs and needing other eyes on it and another project brewing in the tank, ready for work. I could kick off something new, not worry about other writing, and just set my focus. Obviously, that won’t always happen. Next year I might be in the thick of editing Catalyst or going through some contract work or some other thing and jumping into this won’t make sense.

Also, I don’t know how much I like what I’m outputting. That’s the part that will take me a long time to come to terms with. In the past, I refined as I went and ended up with a roughly polished (mm, oxymoron) story by the time the first draft was over. Which makes it not really a first draft but some kind of hybrid draft. I liked that – still do – but I’ve also always understood the innate problems in it. Doing that takes longer. It also gives me the mistaken idea that the story is better off than a first draft and makes me less willing to cut, rework, and redesign. While I’m vomiting these unfiltered NaNo words onto the page, I’m certain they’ll need extensive rework. I hate that, but I also recognize that it’s probably a good thing. This will truly be a first draft, one that builds walls around a story and beckons to be shaped.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some masonry to perform.

NaNoWriMo, Week 2

Thomas Keaten

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November 13, 2021

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Confucius, Confucius: The Analects

It’s not that I’m running out of ideas that aren’t retreads (I am), but after last week’s NaNoWriMo update I figured why not keep these going for the month? It’s a once-a-year thing, after all, and NaNo is a natural offshoot of me starting this site which was the natural offshoot of trying to overcome some of my personal issues, so this is just another link in the chain.

So, how are things goin? Not bad. Not as well as I wanted, but certainly not as horribly as they could be. Burnout is starting to rear its ugly head after spending every weekday and most weekends of the past month and a half doing nothing but working and writing. To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long. That said, there are only two weeks left so I don’t intend to give in. December is going to be a month of celebration for victories well earned, just as it should be.

I haven’t done today’s session(s) yet, but as it stands I’m at 19,371 words. Yes, I did decide to give up on the whole spelling these out thing. That’s a little short of my target of 21,082 words – roughly a day short – but my goal is to fully recover that gap over the weekend. If all goes according to plan, I’ll end up at 24,563 by the end of Sunday. Maybe I’ll try and push it to 25,000 on the nose so that I’m a full day ahead.

Enough about numbers, how’s the story itself shaping up?

First and foremost, this is the first time I’ve focused on making longer chapters. Aside from the first, which is meant to be something of a prologue and may end up on the chopping block, the other chapters have all been a few hundred words over or under five grand. My previous book averaged somewhere around three grand if I had to guess. I did this out of a perceived necessity as, unlike the last book, I’m now perspective hopping and thought, especially with these characters being in different locations, I needed the extra time to get the reader to know them before they end up colliding. I think that aspect is going well, and the extra time allows me to go into a bit more detail on things than I’ve been able to before. All in all, I’ve liked this change. I don’t know if it’ll hold once these people come together, but I also don’t think it’ll matter as much then.

By the end of the day I should finish the first chapter of each POV character. The reader has had their first view of the world from the eyes of Yanis, Cameron, Jennen, and Lance, and experienced the difference of life across three cities and regions of the continent of Corisi.

From Yanis, we’ve seen what appears to be a privileged young man who catapulted to the heights of power in Vircilis, the most dominant nation of a foreign land and, possibly, the world. He arrives with the intent to bring Tiblin, Corisi’s largest nation and general protector, under the wing of Vircilis through diplomacy. He understands what this will require and is willing to invest those years of his life in the cause. Or, if necessary, resort to other means.

Cameron, a simple farmer and family man spends his days in southern Corisi mired in hard work and teaching his children the way of the world. He is seemingly oblivious to the happenings of the world, but there are moments here and there which tell of a life of secrets left behind and hidden from his loved ones.

Jennen, heir to the Mindchasm, thirty-second of her name, is suffering from a crisis of faith. From birth, she has known that she would inherit the church that dominates Tiblin and, by proxy, most of Corisi, but no matter how hard she tries she cannot believe in the church’s tenets. Her education has allowed her to mimic all that she needs for others to have faith in her, but her own duplicitousness has been a stain on her conscience for years. And, given the church’s premise of the holiness of division, there is no one she can go to for comfort as it would, in and of itself, be a breach of the faith.

Lance, Jennen’s twin brother, is a man living in two worlds. In one, he is a soldier and high-ranking official in Tiblin’s civil government. Part of Jennen’s personal guard, it is his responsibility to ensure her safety. For centuries, that role has been mainly inside Tiblin’s borders, but recent unrest has led to a more pressing need of security. In his other world, Lance is steeped in the faith of the Mindchasm. While the church only allows women in positions of leadership and therefore only requires their laws upon them, Lance follows each to the letter. He reviles that his position forces him to be close to others and keeps him from the holiness of division, but his sense of honor will not allow him to shirk his duties.

And there we have them, the main cast of Catalyst. Soon, Yanis will arrive in Tiblin and meet both Jennen and Lance, doing what he can to entrench himself in the lives of these two cornerstones of their nation. As for Cameron? Well, his role here is a little different. While he is a POV character, he’s only going to have four chapters over the entire novel. The goal here is to set him up for the reader, to make them question what exactly he’s doing as part of this story, and bring that in full circle by the end.

Catalyst is meant to be the first of a series, and the end will of course lead in to that, but I also want to be sure it concludes on a note that people will accept as a single story. The main threads will end, while others will only start to be revealed.

I’m enjoying writing it and hope you all enjoy reading it when the time comes. Have a fantastic week, my friends.

NaNoWriMo, Week 1

Thomas Keaten

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November 6, 2021

You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.
Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Look there! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s another throwaway post!

With family in town, a baseball game for my youngest, the Houston Whiskey Social, and a day’s worth of NaNo to do, I figure it’s in my best interests to keep this thing short and that’s just what I’ll be doing.

Well, the first week of NaNo is coming to an end. By the end of the day, I’m required to have just over ten thousand words completed for Catalyst. And I will. It’s… well, it certainly hasn’t been easy. I’m rusty when it comes to producing new, free-form content and I can already identify the holes in my outlining process, but all that said I’m still getting it done. Is it quality work? Eh. It’s passable. But NaNo isn’t about pumping out auspicious prose, it’s about hurling creative mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Things sure are sticky, I can say that much.

I’ve found that each step I take across all my recent writing endeavors has been a learning process in one way or another. With NaNo, it’s twofold. One is learning how to POV hop again. I’ve been invested in Residuum for several years at this point, and that’s been a single-POV story, so now that I’m back to jumping between four I need to be sure I’m wriggling my way into people’s heads. On top of that, particularly at the start of the book, I’m investing in bigger chapters so that I can give the reader a heavy dose of each character in their normal world. At the onset, these characters are relatively separated geographically and/or professionally, so giving each a large block of time seemed the best option. This is a pretty big deviation from my norm. I tend to keep chapters somewhere around twenty-five hundred to three-thousand words, and this time around I’m doubling that.

The second learning process is one that I’ve started here, and that’s being fine with a lack of editing. Now, unlike here where I don’t go back at all, I am guilty of doing a little chopping here and there for NaNo. I know, it’s counteracting my word count to redo things, but sometimes garbage just has to be tossed out. It hasn’t hurt too bad yet, so that’s just gonna keep happening.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that, in forcing myself to keep this pace (and not allowing myself to go over two-thousand words for my own sanity), I spend the start of the next day thinking about what I made and what could be added to improve, which leads to the first little while of my day’s writing session being that editing with an eye toward adding. This is new thing, but it might also just be borne from finally only having one thing to focus on. Either way, I’m a fan of it.

Alright, well, I’m gonna cut it here. Stealing time from the family. You and me, we’ll catch up next week.

Hyper Quarter, Finale

Thomas Keaten

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October 31, 2021

Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Well, it’s over. I’ve checked the calendar a couple of times today – not that I needed to being Halloween and all, hard to miss all that going on – and the clock many, many more. Just did again, in fact, to see how much longer I have before the day rolls over and I’m fully out of the month. I don’t know if this will be a quick post or not. I’m simultaneously exhausted and wired, burned out and ready for more. I’ve hit the end just in time to start up again. But I covered the future last week. This is about the past three months, the lessons I’ve learned, and where it all ended up.

What a roller coaster. You can follow it from the start – the excitement of getting on the ride, the rush of progress at uncommon speeds, the licking of wounds after several defeats, the cautious optimism moving toward the end – all the way here. So, how did go?

I did it. I said I would, and I did. Honestly, right up until I wrote those words, I thought the victory would be overshadowed by the fact that I have to get right back on the horse starting tomorrow, but no. No, it feels pretty fuckin’ great if I do say so myself. Sorry for the expletive there, but I couldn’t think of a better way to say it. What did I have to do during these past thirty-one days to make it here? And how many words did I end up touching during that time?

Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. There were five weekends in October, so that means five posts. These are generally low word count, so in the end that amounted to four thousand, two hundred and forty two words. Yes, I came back to edit in the number at the end of writing this to know the exact count. Words aside, hunting for a decent quote and cover image alongside writing the post tends to put me somewhere around an hour per post. Pretty sure I’ve said that before, but there you go.

Next comes the outlining for Catalyst, the novel I will be working on during NaNoWriMo. Again, I’m treading old ground here but outlining is new territory for me. I had previously completed the character interviews, so what I wanted to do to finish up prep was complete the character arcs and use those to devise the novel’s arc. Done and done, and I have to say, it was a fun process. Fun and, I hope, fruitful. Sure seems it will be – the character arcs felt bland individually, but working to mix them into a cohesive plot allowed me to see where I could inject the big moments and juice things up. And, unlike all the other times I’ve done this, it’s before I even write it. Who woulda thought? Imagine not having to fix everything after the fact when you blow up a plot line. Anyway, all said and done, I wrote ten thousand, eight hundred and twenty three words across the arcs. Solid numbers.

Now we get to the big boys. Contract writing comes in at number two with forty four thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven words. That’s not editing. That’s pure, post-edit final word count produced from October first until about two hours ago. Those words are spanned across the final acts of the game’s first season, as well as some outside work helping define my vision of the locations the characters were traversing during each stage of the game. If I’m lucky and managed to create something compelling, I hope this continues and I’m able to go on using my art for some extra income. Technically, this makes me a professional writer, and while that doesn’t put a novel on a bookseller’s shelf, it’s pretty damn awesome in its own right. Living the dream, really.

Last, of course, is Residuum. My baby. Now, this is certainly not all writing – a lot of it is just reading and making minor tweaks – but I wanted to know what I touched, not just what I wrote. That distinction was specifically because I didn’t want to take the time and effort to make the distinction between things deleted and new, yadda yadda, when going through editing. Sounded like a mess. Anyway, my time with Residuum clocked in covering fifty six thousand, one hundred and one words. I’ll be the first to admit some of that editing was rushed and I certainly don’t think it’s my best work, but it is to the point where I’m comfortable with letting those interested in giving feedback read it. Somewhere in the back of my mind, past me is screaming about that. Back there’s a great place for him to stay.

So, yeah. All in all, I went through a hundred and sixteen thousand, one hundred and forty three words this month. To break a rule and use both spelled out and symbolic numbers in the same article, that’s flippin’ 116,143 words. Hot damn that’s a lot. That’s too many. This month has been a blur of work. Get up, write, go to work, get home, exercise, write. I’ve neglected my family and feel pretty bad about that, but the month’s over. Sure, NaNoWriMo is about an hour away from kicking off, but I mean come on. That’s fifty grand.

Those are rookie numbers, kid.

Jokes aside, I’m excited for this. Now I know, for a fact, I can do it. I can even have a little bit of a life while I do. It’ll be hard, and it’ll require a lot of dedication, but I’m in that life. I’m there.

And, again, if you’re interested in Beta Reading or working with me as a Critique Partner, please do not hesitate to reach out. I’d love to get eyes on this thing. Eyes and criticism. Lord knows it needs both.

Entering NaNoWriMo

Thomas Keaten

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October 23, 2021

The scariest moment is always just before you start.
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

There comes a time in everyone’s life – several times, if you’re fortunate – where you’re presented a chance to do something special. Something that is firmly outside your comfort zone, yet directly on the path you’ve wanted to take for years. For some of us, that chance is a once-in-a-lifetime event, one that defines the rest of our lives one way or another, and one that we will continue to look back upon with joy or shame, depending on the path we chose. For others, the chance is something that’s existed for years, comes about on a regular basis, and has taunted us with its brutal, unforgiving simplicity.

Everyone has their obvious examples of the first type. Deciding to turn a relationship into a marriage, choosing your profession, taking certain career paths. The latter is a more nebulous case. I’ve done something in this category before, when I took part in an Exodus 90 exercise. It was… certainly challenging, but the ways in which it pulled me back from the world at large and into myself, my faith, and my family was undoubtedly for the better. Come to think of it, I should do an article on this experience and, perhaps, go through with another round. I think I might be past due for that, given how far I’ve backslid. Something to consider that I hadn’t until this exact moment.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo is another of this latter type of event. Unlike E90, I’ve known about NaNoWriMo for… well, I don’t know. A long time. Every year it begins its laborious orbit into my horizon and I do my best to shield my eyes and look any other direction. Why have I avoided it for so long?

For those of you that haven’t been following along from the beginning, it’s largely because of my longstanding fear of failure. The lovely part of this fear is that it comes in two forms.

One, that I’ll enter this event and not be able to complete it. That’s a real possibility, of course. Fifty thousand words in thirty days is intense. It’s ludicrous, really. At that rate, a person would finish the first draft of most novels in two months. Beyond that, if you average five hundred words an hour – which is a respectable amount – it would take over three hours a day to meet the running average of one thousand, six hundred and sixty seven words per day required to meet the end goal.

On top of that, I’m a completionist. Practically every game I play I keep at until I get the platinum trophy (Unless there’s a set of trophies for multiplayer in a game I got only for single – why is this a thing?), and I generally don’t stop watching a show/movie or reading a novel until I’ve seen it all the way through, whether I like it or not. Why is this a problem, you might ask? Well, what kind of a personal writing competition would this be if it didn’t have it’s own slew of “Writing Badges?” Things such as Update Progress More Than Once In A Day, Update Progress Every Day, Wrote 50,000 Words In November, and certainly worse, Achieve Daily Par Every Day (Which means I can’t load a bunch into one day and allow a coast day). These shouldn’t bother me, but oh Lord do they. I want them. They’re dumb and worthless and I want all of them.

The second form of this fear of failure is that I’ll actually succeed, but after all that time spent I’ll have created a heaping pile of garbage. This has always been the more crippling aspect of this fear for me, and one that is accentuated by NaNoWriMo. There are simply too many words to pump out every day to worry about editing. One quote I saw when looking for this article’s header was: “Whenever you delete a sentence from your NaNoWriMo novel, a NaNoWriMo angel loses its wings and plummets, screaming, to the ground.” Fretting over previous plot points, wondering if you’ve already addressed a certain aspect of a particular side character or not, realizing you probably should have added in a bit of foreshadowing before – these are luxuries I simply won’t have. As a result, it’s next to certain the result will be sub-par, if not outright terrible.

Why, then, with all of these issues, have I finally manned up?

In part, because of this site. Because of the reason I made it in the first place. To attack that fear, to realize it’s okay to create work with flaws, that no work is ever without them. To allow others to publicly see those flaws. I’ve said before that it seemed to have worked, and I think this is all the evidence I need to put any debate to rest. I’m past that fear, now. All that’s left is the desire to move forward. To give it my all and, hopefully, pull through in the end.

This post is coming a week earlier than I wanted, but I’m leaving my “End of Hyper Quarter” recap until the actual end. You’ll see there, too, that I’ve developed a new confidence on being able to complete. Suffice it to say, October has been busy.

I don’t know if/how people can follow my progress on the NaNoWriMo site, but if you’re so inclined you can look up TKeaten and find the fantasy novel project Catalyst – the first novel of a yet-untitled series. I’m excited to get started, and even more so to get the finished work into the public’s hands.