🤕Lower Your Standards

Less Self-Criticism, Mo' Momentum

Every episode of Into the Storymaze gets you writing tips or a work-in-progress; something creative I’m digging; a highlight from my comics-writing credits; plus a quote that’s got me 🤔 about what’s next.

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Had a blast running a podcast called Street Writers with creative friend Mark Bellusci for close to 2 years. Here’s another lift and edit from our talk on being “working writers” and maintaining the creative spirit.

Dan: Aim low, and you will never be disappointed. 

Mark: Lower that bar!

Dan: Does it suck? I bet you can make it suck some more.  It's really about avoiding and overcoming procrastination. “Cras,” I learned, is Latin for tomorrow. There's your educational moment for today. 

We get hung up on perfection. We get hung up on, “Is that good enough? I can make that better.” If you lower your standards, it keeps you cruising along. This is maybe even a call back to something David Quinn introduced when he was a guest. He was saying, you don't need to know the word or the scene or the character in the moment. If it's hanging you up, just put something in there, bracket it in. “Character is something like this.” “Something like this will happen…” - keep yourself moving.”

This is similar, in the sense of maybe you do know what that scene is. Maybe you do know what that character is, but it's just not quite right yet. You know what? For the moment it's perfectly fine. If it's low standards, you will come back to that later to raise it up. But for now, “aiming low” will keep you moving, keep you writing, keep you producing. 

Mark: You can get so hung up on your perfection principle that nothing ever launches. It's not a perfect world right now.

Dan: I think that's an interesting build on that because where I was coming from, initially it was just to get your words on the page or on the screen —  just keep yourself moving, whatever you're writing out. But it also works very well with the completion of that project.

Perfection is the enemy of done. And even in the best of circumstances, it will never be exactly right. And these are not the best of circumstances. But when you're ready to put it out there, is it good enough?

Mark: So you combine the fact that people aren't expecting you to be perfect from even just the situation we’re dealing with, with the fact that since everybody's quarantined in a home, there could be a bigger audience: lower that bar and get your stuff out there. 

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Who do you know who’d enjoy the Storymaze? Invite them in…

Marjorie's lost her mom, and is too young to have to be the one trying to keep the family laundromat together. Wendell's lost his life, and has too many memories of the land of the living to fully wrap his ghostly sheet around the limited palette that colors the land of the dead.

They come together in Brenna Thummler's tale of grief, healing and friendship in ways that are wistful, heart-warming — and genuinely funny, in the right moments. Wendell's stumbles around the laundromat cause no end of complications for the overwrought Marjorie. She's dealing with the fact of her business being stalked and undermined by the preening Saubertuck — a self-absorbed schemer that reminded me of a Miyazaki character, in a good way.

I found this in the "young adult" section, but as I've discovered in discovering many excellent stories — especially comics — where it's racked is not a limit on its appeal. It's a world that's feel-good and thoughtful, a delight-filled visit among soft pastels and scene-setting detail that feels lived in — and loved.

Who’s hanging out in your Storymaze?

The apex predator of the Shadowline — the shared universe of the Epic Comics line — was "Dr. Zero." Zero was the latest alias of an ageless Shadow, the race that shared Earth alongside human beings. Their smaller numbers forced them to live in humanity's "shadow" — but their enhanced abilities gave them an edge. And, in Zero's case, a condescending confidence that he alone possessed the wisdom, strength and magnificence to rule — but always an enigma, always an unknown. Across time he'd done this from behind the scenes, and atop thrones. He'd exercised his will with cruel tyranny and even what passed for benevolence. 

In our time — or at least the late eighties! — this most powerful of Shadows analyzed the dysfunctional world and concluded humans were on a spiral of destruction that would also take down his own race in the process. (Of course, compared to today's dysfunction and spirals, those bygone years seem like a time of rainbow unicorns. LOL.) His latest manipulation would be the creation of the super-hero "Dr. Zero" — a manufactured persona using PR, trends, and fabricated disaster to sway opinion, extend his control and re-orient the course of history. (In many ways Zero may have been the original "influencer.")

All the first issues of the Shadowline books suffer a case of "co-writer's overreach." (Adopting a bit of Zero-level kingliness, I speak of myself in the third person. Back down to earth, me and Margaret Clark shared author credits on the Shadowline.) We tried to pack too much in, and in too-stylized a way to make it the easiest on-board for readers. But I'll stand by the second issue on as really getting into the characters and delivering some cracking-good storytelling. 

Saving us from a total spiral of dysfunction? Our own resident Shadows on the art side of the page. The fierce combination of Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz was an unbelievable win for this title. Under the enhanced abilities of their pencils, inks and storytelling, Zero arrived fully formed, projecting the epoch-spanning arrogance and power worthy of a conqueror. 

As I said to Denys years later, being teamed up with him made me work harder — I had to, in order to play at his level. Paraphrasing a quote from my years in advertising, by way of David Ogilvy: "Work with people who are smaller, and become dwarfs. Work with people who are bigger, and become giants." Crafting Zero's adventures for Denys made me a better writer, and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity of that team-up. 

“Step onto the path with the faith that your story will lead you where you need to go.” - J.M. DeMatteis

Amazing Times

Thanks for taking a break from the dark web to check out this share-out of projects I’m working on, plus things that have me jazzed. I’m D.G. Chichester. If that looks pretentious, feel free to just call me “Dan.”

I earned my word-cred writing comic book titles like Daredevil, Terror Inc., Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, along with digital widgets in the world wide web of advertising. I keep my storytelling cred by trying new things —  this is one, with more on the way. I like weird tales, so if things here bend that way — now you know why!

Folks seem to like the comic book adventures I’ve written, so if you haven’t checked one out — please do. Many are now available in fab collected editions.

For the eager moments between newsletters…

@dgchichester — 280 characters from the Twitterverse

@dgchichester — images via Instagramland