PAVING THE WAY

I just finished my first roundtable podcast, which was scheduled to happen  two months ago. Worth the wait.  At the expense and intention of bragging, I absolutely nailed it. Popped a throat lozenge and spoke with an unforced confidence and fluidity.  Hey I’ve gotta sing my own praises and care less if it sounds like I’m bragging … because I am.  If you don’t believe you’re any good, why pursue the torture?

I think we all realize at some point that people tend to bullshit you about just about anything.  Oh that outfit’s snazzy.  I saw your act and it was great.  Yeah sure.  Go to hell.  Someone once said I had paved the way for them to which I responded; why would I do that?

Joan Rivers said a lot of female stand ups would tell her she paved the way for them to which she’d reply in typical Joan Rivers wit;

Fuck off.  Find your own highway and stay off mine.  I paved the way for myself.  

I love that.  Pave the way?  Broke the barriers?  Well the toll booth went up right after the asphalt dried.  Stay off any path that’s not your own.  What a cowardly thing to do … hack your way through your own forest.

I bring this up because it was a focus of the podcast; the advice I would give a new writer.  My answer was, don’t present yourself as anyone other than yourself.  Don’t use words you don’t say and don’t fake your identity.  All that deception comes through in your writing.  If the reader doesn’t believe you, then you’ve lost them for good.  And why would you do that?  Do you not think you’re good enough?

Then do something else.  The sad but true trend is to watch someone else try something and fail to spare your embarrassment.  I hate that.  If you wanna mix argyle with paisley, go for it.  Success is a 50/50 shot.  This observation from another of my heroes says it all: