Update 12 - True North: Origin of the Story's Name

“Unrepentant vagabond
Plot the new coordinates and cast the map aside
Now I gotta ramble on
Navigate the pitfalls and cross the great divide
The mapmaker's legend gave direction and a key
He set the declination but what good is it to me?”

-True North, Bad Religion

Part of what’s allowed me to post so frequently on this website lately is disregarding what I should be posting about. I could implement analytics and ads much better, I could write comprehensive posts on writing that drive traffic to my website. But I don’t want to do that. I want to write about what interests me. One of the biggest interests I have is a story I’ve been working on since 2019, which I’ve titled True North. I wanted to take today’s post to talk about my story just a little bit.

True North is a story about life from different perspectives and a search for meaningful action in one’s own life. It’s a fantasy story, I find fiction to be a much more liberating medium. Mostly I just want to tell a tale that’s near neverending- that has adventures and monsters and horrors and romance and painfully human empathy. It’s my one-and-done, I want to tell the story and be content to go off into the woods for the rest of my life.

Part of the reason I’ve not finished the work is just plain nerves. I got weighed down reading about what I should know and thinking about my audience from every conceivable angle. I got nervous thinking that some opinion expressed by a character in the book would get me canceled by some faceless mob. That I would never be able to show my face in public for the questions I dared to ask. I worried and worried, and tinkered instead of writing. I’ve worked to change that, and one day I’ll share the story with anyone who wants to read it.

For now, I wanted to explain the origin of the story’s title.

Much of True North’s influence is taken from punk music. It’s the genre that has always spoken to me the most truly. I think everyone has a tempo, and mine is some variation of punk rock. I chose the title True North based on an album of the same name by the band Bad Religion. The title track, to me, is about trying to find one’s own moral compass. It’s about trying to navigate the vastness of the world in spite of not knowing what you are doing. The entire album comes in at less than 40 minutes, which is ironic given that I expect my story to be about 78 volumes. That’s alright though. Fast songs and long books, that’s my heart right there.

I don’t intend to put out the story of True North as an instruction manual on how to live one’s life. I don’t want to morally grandstand. I want to tell a story that people feel. I want to tell a story that drives someone to do something, no matter the scale or engagement. I want to tell a story that makes some kid go “Holy shit, it’s not that easy, I’m glad I’m not the only one with questions.” I want to tell a story that asks questions that matter. I think punk rock, Bad Religion in particular through their lyricism alone, matters. I think it encourages me to try and find what’s right for me, to seek that elusive “true north”.

I’ll share more actual story details in the future. Today I just wanted to talk a little bit about my story, and a little bit about the music that’s meant so much to me for so long.