On New Year’s day of 2009 I opted to skip the resolutions and instead simply vow to do a dozen “projects” over the coming twelve months. That decision, and some of the projects that resulted from it, are documented here.
I did so again for 2010. But this time I actually listed a number of projects that I intended to tackle. Most of these, I’ll be honest, were ideas I had intended to do in 2009 and never got around to, or ideas from time immemorial that are on the verge of being forgotten rather than executed.
Before I get into The Litany, a quick primer on what I consider to be a “project”. First, it has to be creative. I hope to cycle a century this year, and watch all three of the unabridged Lord of the Rings films, but neither of those endeavors counts. Second, it has to take a substantial chunk of time to complete–at least a week of effort is my admittedly loose criterion. And third, success of a project should not depend on third parties. Writing a short story is a project; having a magazine buy it is out of scope.
In collating these, I realized that they largely fell into three categories: Writing, Game Design, and Internet. Some belong to multiple classifications, and are listed as such.
And so, the Projects 2010 list. “Log Lines” are intentionally vague–I have been told (and believe) that revealing too much about a creative project lessens one’s motivation to actually do it, as you get credit for the “great idea” and call it good. I will revise these entries with more information over the year as projects are actually undertaken (or scrapped).
|
Project |
Category |
Log Line |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Vending Spree |
Writing, Internet |
This gimmicky writing challenge may be the next project I tackle. Just need to figure out how to host it: here on dy, in conjunction with The Morning News, or on its own dedicated website. |
In progress: vendingspree.com |
|
Twitter project |
Writing, Internet |
Idea for a website that leverages Twitter to maximize my blah blah blah please paypal me venture capital ASAP. |
This one involves a fair about of programming. Investigating how much of the code I’ve written for similar projects is the first logical step. |
|
Google Maps project |
Internet |
Doesn’t have the potential of the Twitter project, but would be fun to launch |
|
|
Infinite Summer 2010 |
Internet |
I’m not entirely sure if I.S. is going to return this year, but it’s something I ought to that pondering. |
Thinking about thinking about. |
|
Twelve Articles for The Morning News |
Writing, Internet |
Technically I am a contributing writer for those guys, although lately I have been neither contributing nor writering … |
Waaay behind on this one, as my editors well know (Sorry Andrew.) |
|
Girl of His Dream |
Writing |
Short story I started last year and then unaccountably abandoned. |
Have written the first third, know the ending. Just got to pound out that pesky “middle part”. |
|
Sear |
Writing |
Short crime story I have been carrying around in my head for about a year. |
Not started. |
|
Book proposal |
Writing |
I got the idea, now I just need the time … |
Not started. I may begin in August. |
|
Screenplay |
Writing |
I cut my screenwriting teeth on that script for The Office last year, now I’d like to do a full-length screenplay. |
Have a few candidates, need to decide which idea to take on. |
|
Karaoke |
Game Design |
Set collection card game with what I believe to be some pretty cool and original mechanisms. |
Created some files for the prototype, need to print those out and start solo playtesting. |
|
Birthday Treasure Hunt 2010 |
Game Design |
This is something that I did more-or-less annually, until parenthood caught up with me. You can see summaries of previous hunts here, here, and here. |
Given that my birthday is less than a week away, I’m a little behind schedule to say the least. But holding these things well after my birthday was as much a part of the tradition as anything else. |
|
Lobby or Crash Course |
Game design |
Two different games; I ought to do one or the other (if not both) |
Crash Course has a prototype in need of tweaking; Lobby is nothing more than a concept at this point. |
|
Computer game |
Game design, Internet |
Create a browser-based game using Flash or somesuch |
Have an idea for the game, haven’t started learning the language. |
Ooh, I miss your treasure hunts! Hoping that one makes it to the completed list sometime this year.
Posted by Larisa on March 5th, 2010.
Can “Making a long project plan” count as one of the projects?
Posted by Jason W on March 5th, 2010.
Matt Bucher and I have sort of run with the IS idea of doing 2666, as you may have seen. I’ve been contemplating suggesting/leading Moby Dick next. Whether it’s actually IS or not, the general spirit of it, along with a number of its original participants, carries on.
Posted by Daryl on March 5th, 2010.
If you did cycle a century, would there be some kind of time limit?
Posted by Steve on March 5th, 2010.
Happy Be-earlied Birthday!
Posted by TA on March 7th, 2010.
How about “Invisible Summer”, featuring Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations? Something that everybody imagines they know, but that people invariably pull quotes from supporting all sorts of opinions, and nobody’s actually fully read because it’s roughly as massive as Infinite Jest.
Posted by TL on March 24th, 2010.
U r 1 abitious dude.
Posted by Andrew on March 25th, 2010.
It’s gotta be a great year.
Posted by katkadu on March 25th, 2010.
how did the birthday treasure hunt go?
if only there were some sort of elixir to help pound out the pesky middle parts of stories. sigh.
Posted by cadiz12 on March 28th, 2010.
This is highly motivating stuff. Thanks for posting it.
I’d definitely sign on for another Infinite Summer.
Posted by Matt Evans on April 11th, 2010.
If only one of your projects was to post on here more often. I used to check this site daily; now it’s down to once every 2 or 3 weeks. Soon, it’ll be never.
There’s no particular reason why you should care about that, of course. And I also sincerely hope that it’s lots of other exciting (paying?) things that are keeping you from DY, rather than anything bad.
And now I feel petulent. Do, like, whatever.
Posted by John on April 30th, 2010.
Or even, petulant.
Posted by John on April 30th, 2010.
oh DY – this post is excellent. reminds me of this article:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/plan-to-straighten-out-entire-life-during-weeklong,304/
Posted by katie on April 30th, 2010.
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