***SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT STORY***
In my last blog entry, I said something that I never thought
I’d hear myself say in a million years: nothing ever grows in the comfort zone.
For the longest time, I’ve been living in my own personal comfort zone and
justified it by saying that leaving would end up being another bad decision.
Well, you know what happens when you start coasting with your writing? You
adopt the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality. While that philosophy
may seem like a good idea on paper, you get in the habit of using the same
formulas over and over again. As a result, every short story, novel, and poem
will blend together like masked children from a Pink Floyd music video. I know
this because…it happened to me.
If you follow me on Face Book, you would have seen me post
status updates about how some of my American Darkness 3 characters have the
same first name. I’ve had multiple characters named Matt, Tony, Vikki, Daniel,
and Marcus. I have since changed these names and updated the changes to my
Deviant Art account. For example, Matt Ramirez from “Escape From Kentucky” is
now known as Marvin Ramirez. My niece Reina kept joking about how the name Matt
wasn’t reflective of a half-black, half-Mexican character. She’s not wrong.
Marvin Ramirez actually sounds like it could fit the bill. Plus, there’s one
less guy in my stories named Matt.
If you’re still paying attention to the shit that I say on
Face Book, you would have also seen a post about how my American Darkness 3
stories have similar themes and plots among each other. I’ll give you one
example of that. After looking over all sixteen stories I’ve written so far
(and that doesn’t include the synopses I wrote for future stories), three of
those stories are about home invasions: Dark Skills, Crow Cop, and Duct Tape
Princess. One home invasion story would have been just fine. But then I also
have two different stories about domestic violence: Brandi and Belts &
Welts. And then I have three different stories about the media: Disneylodeon,
Defamation, and Age Against the Machine. Marie Krepps likes to joke with me
about how all of the dogs in Poison Tongue Tales have saggy jowls. What’s going
on in American Darkness 3 is a lot more serious.
And you know what else? It’s not just American Darkness 3
that suffers from this sameness. Both installments of Poison Tongue Tales
follow the same basic formula of two people trying to beat the shit out of each
other (not unlike a WWE wrestling match). Confessions of a Schizophrenic
Savage, Necrograph, and what will soon be Lunatic Justice are all dominated by
songs and poems about anger and angst. While there are hard rock and heavy
metal bands that thrive on this formula, I’ll bet you anything their entire
catalogue of songs doesn’t have the kind of frequency that’s found in my own
poetry. Don’t get me started about Occupy Wrestling and all the other novel
ideas I have fleshed out; they’re just Poison Tongue Tales stories with a
higher word count.
Something has to change in my writing. I don’t know exactly
what that could be, because as much as I hate to admit it, I do have limited
experience when it comes to the world. I’ve never had a paying job, never been
in love, never had a serious social circle outside of the internet, didn’t
receive my first kiss until 2014, never had sex, and have only been around the
world a handful of times. When I was a kid, my creative fuel came in the form
of violent entertainment whether it was videogames, wrestling, or martial arts
movies. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of other genres like romance, but without having
a realistic picture of what true love is like, I can’t be an authority on the
subject in my writing.
Having said everything that needs to be said, I’ve come to a
decision regarding American Darkness 3. As of today, January 7th,
2018, American Darkness 3 has been suspended indefinitely, which means I’ll
have to find something else to do not only for the WSS, but also for my
creative life as a whole. Pretty much all of my developed synopses for novel
ideas fall under the category of ass beatings and unexplained magic, not unlike
Poison Tongue Tales and its sequel.
Meanwhile, I have nine different novel synopses that could
be considered modern day drama. While these ideas do have their fair share of
violence, the violent confrontations don’t saturate the entire story to where
every chapter sounds the same. Would you like me to list them off? Sure, why
not?
- Chicken and Fries (working as a concessions clerk in an arena full of abusive customers (could be considered Clerks-Lite by critics))
- The Has-Been Society (going to a school that slashed its art classes budget and continues to promote conformity)
- I Won’t Forgive You (getting revenge on an abusive father who now lives with a new family)
- Is This Weird? (romance with a man who has three different weird fetishes: duct tape, feet, and diapers)
- Memento Mori (pissing off an entire conservative town with offensive standup comedy)
- Never Conform (refusing to obey prison guards and getting tortured for it)
- Silent Warrior (navigating a tough high school as a traumatized introvert)
- Suck It, Double Dork (scaring children for life with perverted drawings of cartoon characters getting raped)
- Tender Loving Intensive Care (putting a sexually harassing ex-girlfriend in the ICU as a form of healing)
If these nine stories are the keys to the next kingdom, I
have to figure out which one will open the lock to new horizons. Or maybe I
could ask you guys, my lovely audience, for feedback as to which of these
stories sounds the most interesting to you. There’s nothing wrong with a little
artistic democracy every now and then. What do you guys think? I’m Garrison
Kelly and I’ll see you soon!
***JOKE OF THE DAY***
Q: What nickname did
Snoopy’s bird friend earn when he waited outside Peppermint Patty’s house for
hours with a pair of binoculars?
A: Would Stalk.
No comments:
Post a Comment