Project: Shadow

We spend too much time worrying about how other people perceive us and what they think about us. Real life is boring and dull the vast majority of the time and we expend way to much effort projecting our lives as interesting and fun. It sell a fantasy, and as a (please forgive the slur) content creator, there is an overwhelming pressure to seem better and more interesting than we really are.

None of that is new or novel, and yes, the solution to this is to just be yourself and stop caring about what other people think. That solution doesn’t work for people who make their living growing a community and relying on others to participate in some transaction so they can make a living.

The real solution to this is to realize that the pressure isn’t on the creator to perform like a circus animal. Yes, be yourself, but don’t try to sell yourself as something you are not. If you travel a lot, share your travels, but don’t feel the need to do that if it is counter to who you are.

We all have thoughts and opinions, cares and concerns. Add to that your goals and ambition, then you will find the persona you want to share with the world and others.

The enemy of creativity is conformity. Be boring. Do the things you need to do to chase your dreams, but never give in to the desire to conform to the expectations of others.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Ghost, as a band, have a magical ability to not only entertain with their music, but to capture the imagination of their fans who spend hours discussing the iconography of their covers, videos, and the meaning and world of their lyrics. 

Recently, the revealed the ascension of Cardinal Copia to the position of Papa Emeritus IV live in concert at the final show on the Prequelle tour. We got to see the death of Papa Emeritus Nihil during the saxophone solo in Miasma and the Sisters of Sin elevating Cardinal Copia his new position.

Through their participation in the quasi-structured extended universe beyond the music itself, they have created a playful meta verse for fans to play within. In reality, nothing changed. Tobias Forge was Cardinal Copia and every Papa who came before and will be Papa Emeritus IV, but the context of the new album has changed. Let’s discuss this on the show.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Finally, a singularly great episode of Star Trek: Picard. For the first time in this series, everything worked together to craft a beautiful episode that forwarded the plot, distilled the theme, and made the characters live as themselves in a way that didn’t reveal the hand of the author to the extent of the previous episodes.

Nepenthe was a moment of crystallization that re-contextualized most of the previous series and focused the story toward its eventually climax, but this episode did so much more than just bring life to the story.

Star Trek: Picard is tell us a story that we rarely get to see. It is a story about how we deal with regret and learn to reconnect with the world that we cut ourself off from. As someone who’s done that, I see a lot more of myself in this story.

What makes this series work is that it is showing a path to healing for those who have taken this dark path, and a warning for those who haven’t.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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My concept of the Designing Principle comes from John Truby’s Anatomy of a Story:

“The designing principle is what organizes the story as a whole. It is the internal logic of the story, what makes the parts hang together organically so that the story becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It is what makes the story original.”

John Truby. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (p. 25)

As I know that the book I am working on is the first book in at least a trilogy, if not a larger series, taking the time to find the designing principle that will not only hold this book together, but the entire series so an unknown quantity of books will all hold together even if it goes beyond the initial concept is hard. What I have learned is that this is the heart of the series that I have talked about so much on the podcast in the past.

Let’s explore this idea together.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Hunters on Amazon Prime is not the show it was advertised as. The trailers made it look like a Quentin Tarantino style revenge fantasy focused on Nazis in America. While there is some of that, the show itself is more of a deep meditation on what should happen with people that are willing to devalue human life to the point of genocide, but it also looks at topics of petty revenge from various angles as well.

Through the dialogue, it is clear that this show wants to be a conversation of what makes a hero and how do we obtain justice when the system fails us.  All of those are interesting questions, but the show is far more interested in its own cleverness than it is at answering those questions.

The two major twists that take place in the story don’t add much of anything and detract from the show overall. One is so obvious that it shouldn’t count as a twist, and the other The other comes out of no where and re-contexts earlier reveals into hollow, heavy handed foreshadowing that guts the heart of the story.

The complexity of this series make it worth talking about, but I am not sure it deserves a second season.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Dragon Quest: Your Story is a 3D animated retelling of the story of Dragon Quest V, but it is so much more than that. Without going into spoilers, which I will in the episode itself, this movie is a mediation on the place that content, particularly video games, have in our lives. I am not sure that the method they use to discuss this theme works, it does a good job not only capturing the feel of fandom, but also the current state of internet fandom itself.

This movie is a bold experiment, not only in how to retell a video game story, but in how to have a meta conversation about the topic at hand. In many ways, I think the Lego Movie did a better job addressing some of the same themes and ideas, but it comes at the topic from a very different point of view. 

In all, it was a good movie with an interesting message. I wish more people would take risks at this scale with stories that have this much resonance within the target market. With so many films feeling like remakes and formula fare, this film takes a wild swing that may or may not have worked for you, but I have to admire the bravery to try something this different when they could have phoned it in for a more guaranteed success.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Project: Luminous has finally been revealed as Star Wars: The High Republic, and I want to be excited about this, but there were two parts of the announcement that concerned me.

1. There are NO High Republic movies planned.

2. It is a connected story that will cover different types of media.

I will dig into those things a lot deeper in the show, but I have to say that I am still tentatively excited about this. Jedi Knights of the Round Table? Sign me up.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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On episode 6 of 10 of Star Trek: Picard, we finally have the band together with the heroes and the villains established until the inevitable twist when we learn that we were all wrong the whole time and Soji is the real villain… I hope it doesn’t go there, but I see the signs that they have set up a “The Romulan were right the whole time” twist in the finale.

I am more convinced than ever that this series is going to be about who created V’ger and why they have been in hiding all this time. I am also expecting it to explain where the Borg came from, because that is a story no one asked for.

Having said all that, I loved this episode. The most difficult part of this episode is how many choices it made that I don’t like, but the acting and story was so enthralling, I am still willing to go along with it. I am just afraid that at some point the spell will break and the magic will fade. I don’t have faith in the writers have an interesting end game because they keep choosing the most obvious plot point at each step along the way. I want to be wrong. I want to keep loving this show. Please don’t let me down.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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When we are working on a project we have to be honest in each stage of the project. 

Stage 1: Be fascinated in development. When you are figuring out what the project is, follow your fascinations and test as many possibilities the story could take and trim off everything that doesn’t make you want to know more or find out what happened next.

Stage 2: Fall in love in drafting. It is so important for us to turn off the analytical and judgmental aspects of our personality and have fun.

Stage 3: Be ruthless in revision. Turn that judgmental, analytical beast back on and beat the work into shape.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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Queer people and characters have had to do something that most cis, heterosexual people haven’t, questioned who they are and why they are who they are. This isn’t a knock against cis, heterosexual people, it is just a fact that when you are the same as the default presentation of people in your society, you don’t have to ask yourself any deep questions about your identity.

While not all LGBTQIA+ stories are about this kind of soul searching, this aspect of the character’s background will affect who they are, how they act and interact with others, and the decisions they make.

It is also important for people to learn to see themselves in the lives of people different from them. Let’s discuss on today’s Project: Shadow.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

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