A Sense Of Imaginative Scale – The Climb #770

Friday 2^nd April 2021

Motivation has been very tough for me the last year. I’d like to think that I’ve done a good job of muddling through but the world has felt oppressive and depressive. But as blows – as they inevitably do – come in, it gets harder and harder to withstand them. The temptation is to retreat rather than use them as fuel to galvanise you. The overarching master plan becomes smaller; one of focusing on one project to focusing on one element of a project.

I’ve poured a lot of energy into imagination the last month. I know what I want to build, I know elements of how to get it done…I just need to start pulling it together.

One thing I’ve always told myself is to have the biggest imagination in the room. And whilst that initially comes across as competitive, it’s not something you can measure. Instead, it’s about striving for something bigger. I like huge, huge stories with many facets. It’s why I like the scope of Star Wars. It’s why I love Marvel more than than DC. It’s why Lord of the Rings made me want to write fantasy. It’s why I love GI Joe with it’s huge roster. It’s why I play World of Warcraft.

What I’ve learnt along the way is that I love the small in these stories. I want to be a moisture farmer in the Star Wars galaxy. I want to be a Tauren villager in Mulgore. I want to be an unknown X-man in the Marvel Universe. I want the story to open out in front of me. I want to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale, but never lose the sense of the individual.

It’s why I want to write 20 book epics, want to write books in multiple genres, why I want to write faster.

The question is HOW. How do I do this?

Start small and grow big.

I feel like I have a goal, a goal that sometime feels so far away I lose sight of it. I have the steps to get there, I just need the start.

The start is the hard bit and it’s more a question of being commercial about it than being creative or productive. In something so big I have multiple possible starts. It’s about finding the right one.