(This is a companion post to Season 3, Episode 12 of the Theophilus Project.)
This is the script used to prepare for the episode. I went off on a tangent and didn't follow the script much at all.
Feel free to comment on the episode below.
I often think I’m going about doing this is backwards. There are times where I feel like I should have the content and then put all this together, this being the podcast, the ideas, the Transmedia Manifesto and everything I’m working on, but I realized that my mind doesn’t work like that.
I can make sense of the Ten Dimension, the Azure Dimension as a whole and starting to understand and know the Obsidian Universe (one side of it) backwards and forward, but where I struggle is trying to figure out what to do first to make this all work and this happens.
In 2022 I decided to go ahead and figuratively through it all up in the air and make sense on how it all lands. I say figuratively but I do have a plan.
On today’s episode, I’m going to lay out bits of my action plan and how I envision it as a way to put the string on the tree and go explore the forest. At least this way, if I get lost I can always come back to what I’m trying to do and get back on track.
Come on in and hear about the creative process behind this Transmedia art and science project. I’ll meet you on the other side.
(INTRO)
Okay, in hindsight that example may not be the best. I’m going to try again.
My mind is a mess. Between adulting, the day job and doing my best to make sure I learn a new set of standards, rules, and people, I’m trying to make sense of reams of paper. More than a dozen notebooks. Three computers with information on them and two of them broken. There are audio files on the phone, audio files on two recorders, and we haven’t even touched the suitcase with post-it easel paper. All have bits and pieces of the Melanite Omniverse, Azure Dimension, or creative shadow work that can be examined and folded into the Melanite Omniverse, Azure Dimension, or a character arch. Needless to say its a lot and its overwhelming.
Add to that I feel like I’m getting too old for this and have to fight off regret and anger at myself for feeling like I should have done this sooner, but — and here is where there is growth — I have to acknowledge that without certain things happening the way they did this Omniverse, Dimension, Universe and Universes wouldn’t be where it is (at least in my head) today.
So, I come back. Make some sense and keep going then, I’m faced with the task of it all and balancing adulting, the day job, and the passion project. Basically making a circle.
So, I think the best way to describe my method for putting it together. Basically, I’m cleaning out the clutter, and making some space to create. I liken it to the TV show horders. There are people going through a lot on that show. I am not a hoarder, but when I’m in the throws of depression, may place starts to become messy. I know it is a mess, but I don’t have the energy or desire to clean it and I have gone a long while without doing anything about it.
Now on the show, professionals come in and say start small. At least on some episodes. And that is how I look at my mind as it comes to this project. There is a lot in here. Ideas, upon ideas, upon, Ideas. Sometimes rehashing an idea and other times going in a different direction all together. This way of putting it together via a podcast and talking about the structure allows me to slowly clear a path put things in order and allow me to make room to create and start to put the stories and ideas together.
Explaining it to you and leaving myself a trail of bread crumbs or a string path that I can follow when I go off and forget where and what I’m doing, defiantly help. It also keeps me grounded.
I can tell you all what I’m doing and why I’m doing it and I hope that, over time, I gain followers who not only want to see this project come to fruition but who can keep me accountable and tell me, hey you remember you said you were going to do this. How is it going or how did it end up.
Right now, I’m working on a Transmedia Manifesto and it is laying out why I decided to do this project and will be focused on some of the more personal aspects and touch on why I want to do this project. I’m going to put a few selections on the blog and may even bring some of the more polished versions here on the podcast.
That also brings me to another reason I’m doing it this way. I want to show the sloppy, messy way to create an omniverse. Basically watch me play around with the ingredients and show you how someone who is really trying to make sense of his mind and do something creative can get messy and have to back track and has setback and issues but still keeps going.
I struggled when I was trying to find similar podcast or to figure out if anyone has ever done this before. I saw nothing. I also found that there wasn’t a template available or one that I wanted to follow so perhaps this could be a template for someone. A way to show you or a friend of yours how to start your own personal creative quest to make sense of what is going on in your head. Maybe inspire you to do something all together different.
What you get it out of it is what you get out of it. That is the same tenanent I’m putting into the Omniverse. I am not the best writer out there, but my goal is to get better so making the space to create and keep myself on track is how I decide to do it.
I struggled for the longest time thinking that there is one way to create. Writers know that there are several formulas out there that claim to be the best way and, in some cases, the only real way to write a script or a story.
I tried to follow them and failed at them. I would maybe write a few pages or plan to restructure a script based on Syd Field then decide that the Save the Cat model is the right one for me only to drop that one too because the story wasn’t flowing like I wanted to.
In fact, I don’t really have a system or model as I am recording this and that brings me back to the point of this episode. I feel like I have to clear my head out of all this structure and design that I can see happen in the Dimension and Universe and start putting it out there.
That is why I have begun writing out articles on characters, worlds, groups, and organizations found within the Azure Dimension and put them on the website, Theophilus-project. I find that it helps me keep the facts straight and helps me by putting it all together.
For Christmas, I brought a VR headset for myself and the thing that tipped it for me wasn’t supernatural, wasn’t the games, it was this productivity app called Noda and making my ideas floating balls and watching the connections and them come to life has been the best thing. I believe I’m taxing out the system though. I have one for for the Theophilus Project which is more of me mapping my mind especially when the depression comes in and I have one for the story. There is so many balls in the mind one that it takes a while to load now. I may have to start another one but I don’t want to remake duplicate connections. Sidenote: If anyone knows how many balls you can make in one file without the system crashing let me know.
Anyway. I say all that to say find your creative groove and be patient with mine. I’m aware that as of now, the only thing available to you to see how the stories work and fit together are the stories on the website, but allow me the time to plot and play with them and put them together in the way that I’m putting them together and see where it goes from there.
So much is up there. I’ve been brainstorming for four or five years now. I have to start somewhere.
I’ve uploaded a new Dimensional Dispatch and there is another installment of Theophilian Congress coming in two weeks. I also put the first selection of Introducing Terran Tales: A primer to a Transmedia Art and Science Project there as well. Would love to know what you think.
In the meantime, I’m building a pretty good track record on episodes here on the podcast and working on Making Melanite which I envision as a YouTube channel and this is where you come in.
Shoot me a message on twitter or on my Facebook page and let me know if I started the YouTube channel, what would you like to see on it. I have an idea but I want to hear from you all. What would set it apart from what you are getting here which is a bit more personal.
I want to take a moment here and thank everyone who stopped to listen and ask that you spread the word about this Transmedia art project. Tell me what part intrigues you about it and ask any questions you have.
I’m going to end here. I’ve almost out of my allotted time for creating for today and need to go adult for a few hours before bed.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for being patient as I begin to make space in my head to create.
If you are a creative, I would love to hear how you create as well.
Till next time, thank you for listening to the Theophilus Project Podcast. I’ll see you in a few weeks.