#having a weekly lecture on a wild array of Trek topics is really helping with the motivation and inspiration though

[procrastinatorproject]

I think I might have had a bit of a revalation this fine morning.

Last night, @horizonproblems and I attended this truly amazing talk in a public lecture series on Star Trek that my uni is hosting this term. (It was all about the Third Age of Star Trek and some very valid, nuanced perspectives on hope and optimism and writing utopias under neoliberal capitalism and it was just... amazing. But that's not the point right now XD)

Afterwards, we chatted with the presenter about "Trekademia" (I love that concept so much!). I mentioned I'd seen the call for papers/talks for this lecture series that went out over a year ago (I was working for the English dept. at the time), but I never applied, because the only remotely Trekademic writing I'd ever done was my in-universe essay on holo-sentience and holographic food "The Cake is a Lie". And he asked me to send him a link, even though I never managed to finish writing and it's essentially missing the most interesting section.

But I took the opportunity to reread what I have posted and then look through my WIPs and I realized something: One of the reasons I think I was never able to finish writing the findings section of this "paper" is because I had So Many Ideas that I wanted to weave in. So many little moments with the holos, so many character facets and worldbuilding snippets. And it doesn't work with the extremely academic tone I'm going for.

And after sleeping on it, it occurred to me: I can still post all the outtakes that don't make it into the actual paper! I can keep the tone and focus of that essay and cut out any extraneous bits that don't work in that fram -- and then post a separate work that's like... the researchers field notes or something, where I put aaaalll the little details that didn't make the cut of the official writing!

It will be in bullet points and disconnected and self-indulgent as all heck -- but I'm sure there will be at least a handful of people out there apart from me who would still enjoy that particular take on various holo-headcanons. And even if I'd only be writing it for me, that would still be allowed!

So, no promises that anything might happen, but I just wanted to put it out there as a reminder to myself, if nothing else. Being deeply attached to your ideas and self-indulgent bits of writing is allowed! And even if you need to cut them from the concrete story you're trying to tell because they hurt the pacing or structure or tone, that doesn't mean you have to completely abandon them. There are always ways to share your outtakes and additional notes, on AO3 or tumblr or Discord or whatever, and you're always allowed to share them. Even if nobody but yourself will get a kick out of them, you're still allowed!

(And chances are, somebody else will be interested in reading your rambling thoughts and delighted to find them, actually.)