Progress Report

Hey folks. So in some ways work is going slowly on my project, but in other ways it's still moving forward. I've finished a first draft of the text for the first post. Since it's the first post I'm probably going to revise it considerably more than subsequent posts. There's still plenty of planning and writing and other such work to do, but it's being worked on.

Here's hoping the next week sees even further progress. I might be posting before May's out!

Peace.

May Brings Change

Starting this month I'm working on a project that will hopefully have me writing considerably more than I have been, and will hopefully have considerably more people reading it too.

I'm posting a Hearthstead novel in weekly portions. Maybe bi-monthly. Still haven't decided that part.

I'm not starting this week and maybe not next week. It depends on how much buffer I've got going by then. But I wanted to let everyone know that it's happening, and that as of today all my writing energies, when I focus them, are honed in on this one project until I get it going reliably. I've got plans. Like accompanying artwork, branches into games and music, and a whole lot of story I think deserves to be somewhere other than just the heads of two cousins.

Here's some stuff I don't know yet that I need to sort out before this actually starts happening:

Venue:  This novel needs an internet home, and it's not going to be this blog. I have one spot in mind, but I'm trying to decide if I need a new URL and if I shouldn't fork over the money for a nice little niche of the web all its own. A brand new website means a good deal of page design and that's quite a bit of work, but the reason I'm puzzling about this now is I'm not sure about moving home sites if this gets more successful further down the line. If any of my readers know for sure I won't be nipping this bud by starting on a free, bloggy website, maybe you could ease my worries on this?

Timing:  When exactly I'm going to start posting is some rancid calculus of everything else I've mentioned so far confinded by the logarithmic curve of my writing pace, which is probably more up in the air than all that. There's also the question I mentioned above of whether posts will be weekly, every two weeks, one great bull of a post a month, or intermittent depending on creator patterns. My first thought is weekly, but... :

Other Content: Like I said, I'd like this to be more than just words I splatter all over the internet. Hearthstead was birthed as a stick figure comic in a notebook with a healthy dose of legos and roleplaying, so I want the full-on commencement of Hearthstead storytelling to be similarly multidisciplinary. I am unfortunately not a polymath so I'll likely be looking to bring in others to help fill in whatever content it is we'll be doing. At the very least there'll be pictures, and at the very least my cousin Nate, whose brainchild Hearthstead is as much as it is mine, will be participating, be it with visual art, mix tracks, or as a sounding board to make sure I'm bringing 100% Hearthstead with every post. I know that visual artwork is often as time-consuming and labor-intensive as writing (I'm sure many artists would consider writing lazy by comparison), so I'd be remiss if I declared a definite density of artwork-to-written-post without a certainty of how all that's working.

All that stuff hanging in the firmament aside, I'm posting this blog for one primary reason: because I really want to do this, and I want everyone to know that I'm dead-set on giving it its fair shot. This isn't a half-baked novella I push for a week and leave behind. I have plans for at least four "seasons" of this thing, and that's gonna take tremendous time and effort and hopefully be a boatload of fun. Hope you're along for the ride.

I'll leave you with this little teaser. The working title I have for this project, or at least its first phase? Forging the Shade.

Peace.

Swords and Symbolism

You wanna talk about swords? I wanna talk about swords.

So I have this tendency when I'm trying to focus on a task to picture a figure drawing a sword. Picture isn't the best word, since it's often accompanied by an imagined rasp of steel. Now admittedly there's probably a more sound/disturbing psychological explanation for this association that I've made since my childhood, but pondering the oddity myself I find the most interesting reason is because to me swords are symbols of agency.

Now let's define what I mean by agency, since it's kind of a meaning-loaded word. An agent, in semantic terms, is the person who performs the primary action in a statement. In "He pushed the woman out the window," "He" is the agent. So in story and philosophy terms someone with agency has acting power in a situation. What this comes down to in discussions of agency is "who makes and executes meaningful or impact choices?"

Agency is one of the prime values of contemporary Western culture. Its dearth is what makes so many of us disgruntled about our dead end jobs (or lack thereof) and the pursuit of it is much of the good that motivates most movements of civil rights and social justice. I won't get into the wormcan I just shook there, but I wanted to note: agency, independence, self-fulfillment, all these are valued pretty highly by our society.

So why would a sword symbolize agency, the power to act? I'd say it's because a sword is a tool, and by our very nature humans use tools as an extension of themselves. There are many more tools that people use that can stand as symbols of our agency, but the sword is iconic.

As a weapon, a tool for harming and killing other living creatures, the sword is simple and effective. It has a long cutting edge that can sever the bonds between sinews and sometimes bone. This martial association changes the tone of the symbol the sword represents. It's not just a tool for mundane agency. This is a war-tool, and that means the will behind the weapon is serious.

But this whole culture grew up around the sword, and I would wager what most people think of when dwelling on swords is swordfights. Now the stereotypical swordfight, the ones from legends and myths, aren't one-stroke encounters so much as full-on dances where the climax of the performance is the fatal injury of one of the combatants. It all stems around a game of skill, defending yourself while creating and exploiting openings in your opponent's assault.

I'd assume that this style of confrontation evolved from the more brutal initial displays, but I think there's a strong parallel extant here. The duel is a commonly recognized analog of the content of two wills, two minds, two forces, two agents with opposing lines of action. Of course the same is true of wrestling, any many other contests, but the sword's popularity today stems from the idea of it at the heart of that contest of will. And I think, then, that a sword has come by association to stand for a person's manifested agency.

That would explain why the appeal of the magic sword is so strong for many. It's a visual manifestation of powerful agency, and the thought of gaining enough agency to overcome the obstacles in your life is very, very appealing. Or at least it is for me.

I suppose you might be wondering why any of this speculation matters. For me it's a relief to have an explanation for myself why I might be so fixated on an outdated piece of weaponry. But if swords have this sort of symbolic weight in more pysches than my own, then it might also explain part of why swords figure so largely in escapist fantasy, and what the source of the cool factor is for putting swords in the hands of futuristic warriors.

I've been picking at this post on and off for weeks now. I think I'll just post it.

By the way, I've been chewing on advice offered by a friend, and it's possible I might start a new blog that dwells primarily on fantasy (as opposed to largely personal musings) and even submit a novel chapter-by-chapter.
I'll keep you posted, by which I mean I won't blog here again for like three months.