Possible Entries - #46
Hello Friends!
Yes, I’m aware it’s been 4 weeks. “What is this, a quad-weekly newsletter?” Hahaha-no.
But.
Today is my birthday. Yes, convention says to let other people find out or somehow for them to be notified via Facebook and pretend like others had our birth dates marked on a calendar. But unless they’re best friends or family, people don’t tend to remember. And that’s okay.
I’m 23 today. And although it doesn’t feel like I accomplished a lot this year, things started to change mid-pandemic — this summer, actually; like how one unearths a feeling that hasn’t been felt in a while.
There is no video — sorry. I am absolutely swamped with my day job, being a temp assistant to two execs at Participant Media, and my current feature. Yes, I’m still not done. But it will be done. I’m ready to move onto the next thing.
I’m currently in Texas. Besides that, not much has changed since the last post. Therefore, I want to talk about this newsletter for next year: 2021. I’ve come to realize that “years” are artificial markers, and they’re not good for setting goals — procrastination, putting off projects, bullshit like that. If you want to do something, just do it. Start, even if it’s one word, one paint stroke, or one application. Just start; that’s all you can do.
Yet for the sake of clarity, I’ll talk about “next year”.
Gif source || Reading Time: 03min
First 2021 Post: January 6th
It will be a short story. Titled: “Uniform Man”. I’ve always felt that the title can be spruced up somehow, however simple titles provide insurance for lowered expectations, so that when something truly pops off the page, they’ll think, “Shit, I thought we were going to talk about a man in a uniform — not this crazy shit!”
I’ve also been thinking of writing more short stories to sizzle out my comedy story abilities. Write a ton of short stories, according to Ray Bradbury. What did he say each night to do?
What you’ve got to do from this night forward is stuff your head with more different things from various fields . . . I’ll give you a program to follow every night, very simple program. For the next thousand nights, before you go to bed every night, read one short story. That’ll take you ten minutes, 15 minutes. Okay, then read one poem a night from the vast history of poetry. Stay away from most modern poems. It’s crap. It’s not poetry! It’s not poetry. Now if you want to kid yourself and write lines that look like poems, go ahead and do it, but you’ll go nowhere. Read the great poets, go back and read Shakespeare, read Alexander Pope, read Robert Frost. But one poem a night, one short story a night, one essay a night, for the next 1,000 nights. From various fields: archaeology, zoology, biology, all the great philosophers of time, comparing them. Read the essays of Aldous Huxley, read Lauren Eisley, great anthropologist. . . I want you to read essays in every field. On politics, analyzing literature, pick your own. But that means that every night then, before you go to bed, you’re stuffing your head with one poem, one short story, one essay—at the end of a thousand nights, Jesus God, you’ll be full of stuff, won’t you?
I’m going to alter the above prescription for myself. In my case, it might be this:
— 1 comedy film. == (List of best written comedy films.)
— 1hr of a standup special. == (I have my list of comedians I enjoy.)
— One short story. == (I personally love this collection.)
— One essay. == (https://aeon.co/)
— One poem. == (Poetry Foundation collections)
While I try the above for a little while, the content will be this:
Short Stories.
I want to write short stories every so often. I’ll throw them here.
— comedic short stories
— about idiots, fools, couples, and unlikely alliances
— but about friendship, love, understanding, and beating-the-odds
I like those stories.
Personal Essays.
Personal feelings on the mundane. I’m going to throw them here.
— My obsession with Helvetica.
— What to do in a bug’s lifespan.
— Why sunshine is my bread and butter.
Self-experiments.
How I’m doing a certain thing, and how that felt.
— Bulking up. (Currently)
— Dieting down. (Currently)
— Tripping around. (Recently)
But why?
I have my own absolute goal in life; somewhat like an all-consuming goal in comedy. It’s very specific, but if I share it, I’ll feel weird. So we’ll keep it at that.
The above things are all aimed at helping me get better at that thing.
What is it to get better? What do you do?
— Look at the 20% that provides 80% of the value.
— Break things down to their simplest components.
— Challenge the common notions.
— Deliberate practice.
It’s the last one above all that matters: Deliberate practice.
It is this video, in essence, but on a grander scale:
This is the point of this newsletter. To get better.
Every time you see it, you should be able to see quality (or, at the least, a quality that’s improving). And know that when you read it or see it, I put time into it.
So with that, thank you everybody.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!