You might have noticed that I have not published a follow-up after my very excited update two weeks ago. I think I’m going to switch up this production blog schedule. Little weekly updates were supposed to keep me accountable, but they’re really just a slog that results in a uselessly scattered archive, and nobody is reading them anyway! (To the literally 12 of you that actually do read these updates on a regular basis, know that I love you.)
This will probably be my last update of 2017, so let’s talk about New Year’s resolutions. Opening three or maybe four attractions next year is not a resolution so much as a personal expectation; publishing my book about themed entertainment is nicely measurable and I think that counts as a resolution, but I think my broader theme is to be more thoughtful in public. That means writing a little less, and writing a little better. I’ll still publish updates on these projects, but I’ll wait for interesting milestones, which will in turn make those installments more useful, especially when looking back through the archive: a longer piece about how I built the skeletons for Graveyard Swing 2017, start to finish, comparing the process to the previous year’s figures, would have been a better read than bits and pieces of me struggling through the construction each week.
This resolution also means more focused and discrete writing about themed entertainment as a discipline and as a medium, rather that mixing those ideas into the noisy production blog. I’m outlining a longer essay right now about the things that I’m calling “selfie playgrounds” (Spoiler: I think they’re in opposition to the sort of thing I want to build but still critical to consider). I’d like to publish that piece in January, and I think it will probably make it into the book. I’d love to have a manuscript for the book by Summer, and then I’d love to hire an editor to help me turn it into something people will want to read. I’m also hoping to get back into blogging for its own sake, not necessarily tied to the Building in the Dark thing.
This week I wrote a response to the latest Theme Park Design Prompt from Ian Kay in which I re-theme Haunted Mansion for Tomorrowland. It was fun to consider and I’m looking forward to the next prompt. If you’re interested in what I write about themed entertainment and you’re not reading what Ian writes on Pure Imagineering or listening to his podcast, Making Space, you owe it to yourself to get over there!
That’s all for now. Happy holidays, happy New Year, look forward to the Bobby’s Birthday model in a couple weeks!