After just shy of 12,000 words I have come to the conclusion of my first major story arc, “the Lavis Chronicles.” I admit it feels weird to be “done” with a project of this size, particularly because the entries, scheduled as they are, won’t finish releasing until well into next year. There was a source of inspiration for this body of work, one that grabbed me and didn’t let me go – I wrote more than half of the entries in a single week, spending almost all of my free time outside of work on the creation and generation of this content.
I often think about the concept of “death of the author” – the idea that, once a work is released, what the author meant to say, or intended to say, really doesn’t matter any more, because the work is then seen through the lens of its viewers and of the ever-changing society around it. Not that I have any particular message or heavy-handed truths to express in this one series of stories, but I wonder what people will take away from both individual posts and the work as a whole, and whether what intents I did have will translate, or if they’ll even matter at all.
Certainly not the longest piece I’ve ever written on a single subject – as a liberal studies major in college most of my semester finals were 50-75 page essays about the nature of humanity – and less contiguous than other works, but as I go through the many posts in this arc I have to reflect on the amount of time and energy put into their creation.
I look forward to not only creating stand-alone stories, pieces, or works, but also long-running epics like the Lavis Chronicles. I’m ultimately proud of how it turned out, and I look forward to whatever audience response there is. Getting back into writing has been a good experience for me, a healthy pursuit that helps me feel productive during my “down time” outside of work.
With any luck there will be lots more where this inspiration came from, helping me to explore, understand, and share other worlds and other creations, all in the hopes to inspire, encourage, and enliven.
