You Thought It Was Going to Be The Dodge, Didn’t You?

Yeah. So did I.

THE INSPIRATION

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

—Dolly Parton

I have a need to always make everything better. If you come to me with your troubles, even if I know what you need is for someone to just fucking listen, I will try to fix the thing that’s bothering you. 

I know it’s not best. 

I know it’s not what you need.

I do it anyway. 

Why? Because I am not comfortable with things that are not okay. I am not comfortable with being angry, so I don’t get angry at the things that are worth being angry about, until it all collects like leaves in a blocked gutter (which I also have, hey METAPHOR) and then I get really mad about something stupid.

Like muppets.

Maybe when the rain happens, we sit in it. Maybe appreciate it. Maybe we like the sound of it. Maybe it’s good to be able to cool down. Maybe the fact that your hair is going to be a mess is good, because you can accept the mess and then…

Wait. 

Goddamnit.

I’m still trying to make the rain okay.

It’s not okay. It sucks. Let’s just sit in it together and allow it to suck.

And then, when the rainbow comes, maybe we can enjoy that.

THE FAT ORANGE CAT

You know what I love about a Fat Orange Cat? The specificity of it. It’s not just a cat. It’s not just an orange cat. It’s a fat orange cat*.

Specificity to a writer is like salt to a chef; it’s a small thing that makes a huge difference. Sprinkle specificity on your writing, you will be so glad you did.

For instance, you could have your protagonist get almost side-swiped by a car on the highway, but…

…is that anywhere near as good as having their side view mirror taken off by a 1981 Dodge Dynasty driven by a 90-year-old woman smoking unfiltered Camels while flying down the the Jersey Turnpike at 8:15 on a Wednesday morning?

See what I mean?

So, get those unfiltered Camels somewhere into your story. That’s today’s Fat Orange Cat.

*I had a moment where I wondered if calling the cat fat was an expression of my ingrained anti-fat bias, which we all have because we live in a society full of anti-fat bias, but the word “fat” in and of itself is value neutral, and it is not the use of the word fat that shows my anti-fat bias, but my wondering if it’s bad because I knee-jerk that fat is bad and I’m just showing my math here, but have no idea if I’m actually right, although I’m quite sure I’m completely exhausted.

THE TROPE

Today’s trope is gonna be tropes in general, because a lot of times, people don’t know that tropes are not, in and of themselves, bad things. I mean, if you’ve been listening to my podcasts for any length of time, then you know. But I have no idea who’s going to be tripping over this newsletter on their run through the internet in the future, so let me just say, one more time for the back row:

Everything does not have to be so goddamned surprising all the time. Twists are not the end all, be all of storytelling. Tropes are great; they’re devices you can grab off the shelf and customize for your WIP and that's awesome.

What makes a great storyteller is not the ability to tell an entirely new story. A great storyteller can tell the same ol’ story in a way that feels like it's entirely new.

Like pretty much everything else in life, it’s all in how you do it.

THE QUESTION

Okay, LOOK. You guys have a genuine story expert at your disposal. ASK ME A QUESTION. I am here for you. It doesn’t even have to be about writing.

But in the meantime, until one of you hits this button…

… we’re all just going to sit here awkwardly in silence.

Hope that’s okay.

In the meantime, maybe buy something you were going to buy anyway but use my Amazon link to do it? I'm trying to figure out how to quit my day job and do this full time and apparently, having a lot of revenue streams is part of that. So is actually asking for support. So…

FYI, whenever I put in a “Get Your Stuff” link, it’ll land you on a page that is something I like or find funny or that is somehow thematically related to whatever I’m doing that week. You do not have to buy that thing in order to support me. Just keep popping through Amazon and buy the stuff you were going to buy anyway.

THE PRACTICAL

Hey, did you notice last week that I never made my point when I was talking about Clarkson’s Farm? It’s almost like I got distracted by something shiny and wandered off while writing and then never finished the post and when I came back to it, I thought I had finished it and just fucking published it.

It’s almost like that.

Anyway, the whole point of The Practical part of the digest is that we talk about some piece of work out there that is putting a writing concept into practice in a way that I enjoy, and the idea of a reality television show using internal conflict—Jeremy’s desire to have his farm succeed is in direct conflict with his debilitating case of unearned white male confidence—is pretty damn cool.

Of course, I think it’s a put on. Jeremy Clarkson is way smarter than that, and what he REALLY wants is to create great television, and he knows from years of Top Gear (which I’ve started watching now) that him fucking up makes for some fab TV.

So that was the point I was going to make last week but didn’t really finish making so I’m making that point today and HEY, maybe I’m screwing things up deliberately because it makes the digest more fun. Did you ever think of that?

No, you didn’t, because you know me, and you know I genuinely screwed it up, but my screwing up doesn’t matter because done is better than good and now you have two examples of putting a writing principle into practice this week.

How’s that for value?

Everything,

L