Serpent Streak: Louie Flameseeker

This is the first of what I hope will be several Spotlight blogs featuring people who are participating in the Serpent Streak Challenge. The Challenge is being organized by Burbarry of the Amtgard park Eternal Glades (Tigard, OR). Participants are challenged to do at least 20 minutes of arts and sciences work each day. You can find a more detailed explanation in my last blog, Baelnorn Tackles The Serpent Streak Challenge.

Each spotlight will feature a few interview questions followed by the project that’s being highlighted. I’ve used an open ended format for the participant to respond to. Some future spotlight’s might be presented slightly different, but the format will be similar.

I asked Louie if they would be the first one to have a spotlight written about them. Mostly because I was excited about the project they were working on. I was around when they were coming up with the concept of the project and I was glad to see they had done so much work on it.

Louie Flameseeker Interview

Louie is a member of The Kingdom of Blackspire’s park Satyr’s Hollow ( Corvallis, OR).

A handful of years ago a knight started a similar kind of challenge called March Madness. It was also crafting focused. He fell off early in the month and I kept it going. So seeing this felt nostalgic to me and I figured why not give it a go. I was already doing art stuff several times a week anyway so I figured it would be a good habit builder.

I have a pretty full schedule with my work commute and an intense gym schedule. So when I get home from the gym I start cooking my food and I do my 20 minutes while it cooks and while I eat.

I often exceed it as I keep working on the projects after when I should be prepping for bed and the next day. I won’t lie that my sleep schedule has been impeded on by the challenge.
At first I thought it was only a month long so the lack of sleep was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

There are certainly days that are a challenge where I feel extra tired or feel stuck creatively. I just limit myself to the 20 minutes that day and focus on making even a tiny amount of progress, be that editing or practicing.

Oh yes definitely. It’s really motivating to see everyone involved in the challenge and it gives me a sense of accountability since people might notice if I stop participating.

The Project in Louie’s Words

I asked Louie to talk about his project in his own words. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but what I got back was a wonder essay on their project, how the Challenge has shaped it and the effect it’s had on the community at large.

The Project

The project I dedicated myself to in January was a songwriting project. I felt inspired at the start to write guitar riffs as I wanted to work on playing daily even if for a little bit. In doing so I began working on my greater project. Locke Tails which is the placeholder name for my Amtgard Musical.

Louie and The Challenge

Prior to the challenge I had come up with the concept among friends of writing an Amtgard musical based on the drunken stories told by my Knight at campouts. It evolved to include stories I found amusing from other veteran players of the game or stories told to other squires by their Knights. So writing guitar riffs daily kind of lent itself to me knocking out several songs for the musical. It also allowed me to incrementally record these songs and work on my recording, mixing and mastering skills. I’ve learned a lot in this process and doing it in bite size 20 minute chunks or more as I see fit has been a really good habit to develop.

I was really dragging my feet on this project before the challenge so the pressure to do something everyday really put it in gear. I don’t always like what I make every day, but not every idea has to be a good one!

Something unexpected from the crafting challenge was the effect it could have on other members. I’ve seen a lot more people posting about their music since I started posting “songs” daily. Also one of the songs I wrote for the musical is about a local Sword Knight Sir Critias. Its a scene where he stops being a regular fighter and becomes a warlord by defending against an enemy assault alone. It shapes up to be a story about one person’s efforts strengthening their community and the community in return elevating that person to new levels. It moved him personally and he thanked me privately saying he puts a lot of effort into being a positive figure in the Amtgard and the song made him feel really appreciated for those efforts.

I’m grateful to this project for lighting a fire in me to express my creativity through music even as a beginner musician. Without it my musical may have never been more than just an idea laughed about late at night during campouts. This is a form of storytelling I’m really finding myself enjoying and I see myself continuing to dive into this project.