The Thursday! Newsletter 1-9: The Amazing Compliment
Volume 1, Issue 9
Last week, someone gave me the best compliment I've ever been paid as a writer.
This person, who I'll call X , is one of three people on whom I rely to read the first written drafts* of pretty much anything I write. She has a very good sense for whether a story delivers the emotional payload I intend and, because she's an excellent writer herself, she knows her way around good character writing. I figure if she thinks the story is strong, it's strong no matter what I think.
I asked X to look over a story about which I just wasn't sure and, shortly thereafter, she hit me with the compliment.
"You are like our generation's unsung Ray Bradbury."
Excuse me? I'm a what now?
Look, I probably don't need to tell you just how big that landed with me. I love Ray Bradbury's work. Even his stories that don't quite work for me, and there are quite a few, are beautiful. He excelled at growing a forest of the most beautiful, lush prose, then pulling a solid, strong plot through it without bending the plot nor destroying an inch of the prose. He wrote science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, poetry, screenplays, and stage plays. His work is unique and, so far as I'm concerned, unable to be copied. I know folks have tried to write like him like folks have tried to write like other legendary authors. You can copy Arthur C. Clarke's style or Ursula LeGuin's style. No one can truly copy Bradbury's style. He is kind of a role model of mine, in the way he dove into writing anywhere, anytime, for anything. He wrote for love and for fun and for the challenge and how can you be a writer of speculative fiction and not want to do all those things all the time?
My first reaction when I saw that sentence was to say "Nope. No way. Not me. I know X is trying to be nice, but nopity nope nope." I suck at accepting praise for my creative work already. No chance I was going to take that compliment to heart. I love my friend like she was family, but come on. Bradbury? Me? Ell Oh Flipping Ell!
That was Saturday. On Sunday, I was transferring a couple of notes I had written in another old notebook to the new planner I'm using this year. I have these hopes, you see, that this will be the year I get my act together and use a planner like a real grown up. Oh, those hopes are so cute and so noble. Also, so, so doomed. Still, there I was re-writing this note about how I might want to deal with my Inner Critic** so I can get on with writing for fun instead of curling up in a tight ball of shame because my Inner Critic has convinced me that I, now and always, stink on toast.
See, our Inner Critics want to keep us safe. They don't want us to grow or have fun or excel at anything except being safe. They want us to take no risks at all. The tactic they use is to invoke our own inadequacies against us, but not in a fair way. No. They exaggerate. They make your faults seem bigger or more numerous. They make the critics seem more numerous too and more mean. You buy what the Inner Critic tells you, which is a variation of "YOU SUCK!" and you don't do anything at all, thereby keeping yourself perfectly safe.
Of course, that's no way to live a life you'll enjoy. I cooked up a couple or three questions to ask when the Inner Critic hits me with his Quittin' Stick. The first one is the important one for this particular story, though I might tell you about all of them later on. (Assuming I remember. Someone remind me later, okay?) The question that got me here was: Why not?
That's it. Two words. Why. Not.
As soon as I wrote them in my new planner, this compliment jumped right to mind. So I asked the question. Why can't I be this generation's unsung Bradbury? Seriously. Why can't I? What is to stop me besides, well, me?
I still don't have a good answer to that question.
The more I thought about it Sunday and into Monday, the more I figured if I couldn't come up with even one decent answer to "why not" then maybe there just isn't one. I'm not the smartest guy on the planet, but I should be able to cook up one decent objection in two days, right? Well, I couldn't. I still can't.
Here it is. I can be this generation's unsung Ray Bradbury. No one else has submitted an application, so far as I know, and the position is just sitting there vacant. Waiting for me. So, I think I'll give it a shot. I'll write stories that amaze and delight. And poems. And screenplays. Anything I can think of to tell a good story and get that story in front of people. Comic books. Yes, picture poetry books for kids, too. I think that's how he'd get it done. No, that's not true. I know that's how he got it done. Don't believe me? Check out The Halloween Tree.
Just so you think this wasn't one big brag about how I'm an amazing writer (even though *cough* I totally am!), I want you to keep that question in your pocket, too. You will get a chance to do some great things, to reach out for some amazing goals, to take your place in this world on a level far higher than you ever imagined you could have. Your Inner Critic will step right up to knock you back and keep you where you are. Safe. Comfortable. But...why not? Why not reach? Why not step up? Why not dream and dare?
I bet you won't find any good answers either.
So here we are. I'm going to take a shot at living up to that compliment. When I'm done, I'm also going to be this generation's Richard Matheson, too. What's your shot? What do you want to try? Where do you want to be?
Why not?
*If you are interested, I can tell you a bit about my writing process, from idea to finished story. Let me know in a reply. If enough of you want it, I'll do it, but I don't want to bore you with writing process stuff if you're not interested. Fair?
**This one too. You want it? I'll write it. Just say the word.
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Here Are the Arts and/or Letters I Promised...
I've read Randall Munroe's XKCD comics for a few years now. I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite.
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Here Are Links, either Useful or Fun!
Speaking of Ray Bradbury, I love Sam Weller's "Essential Bradbury" list and would be hard-pressed to do better, even if I had a million years. Weller, by the way, became Bradbury's "official" biographer and his books on the author are wonderful to read.
There is a board game based on The Shining and you can download it for the low, low price of FREE! You'll note by the date on the link that I've known about this for a while and yet I have not made a playable version for to play it. My shame is...great.
I think what I most want to remember from these absolutely stunning Félix Vallotton woodcuts is if you make beautiful things and put them into the world, you stand a pretty good chance of delighting someone with those things long after you have passed on.
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One Last Thing.
If you'd like to talk back to me, encourage me, suggest something you'd like to see or you'd like me to write about, you can always hit the reply button! I can't promise I'll always answer back, because I'm quite forgetful, but I'll read everything you send.
Remember, Thursday! is a constant work in progress. I didn't have a certain plan for what I wanted the newsletter to be when I started, so it'll change as we go along. Let me know what you like so I know I'm getting it right, okay? Okay!