Trying something new for this newsletter: brevity!
That is, instead of writing a weekly essay (of sorts), just sharing a thought I stumbled across. The weekly essays take time to write, and more importantly time to edit.
(Yes, the ones that arrive with all those spelling mistakes and run-on sentences: that’s AFTER hours and hours of editing! I have become a typist who can mistype literally every single word of every single sentence. If you saw how I typed before revising you’d immediately send me to a neurologist. If you saw how I typed you’d be proud I ever managed to button my own shirt and tie my own shoes.)
So I’ll try something small, and see how that goes.
Let’s Talk Turtles
Stories have beginning middles, and ends.
And one of the unheralded aspects of storytelling is choosing where a story begins.
Let’s say you’re me, and you’re writing a book about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (I’m not, by the way, but it sure it seems like something I’d do.)
The imagien above is from their 1987 cartoon show, the first of many such shows. This spawed a toy line, the first of many such toy lines. The world got to know the turtles from this show.
So: is the the beginning, middle, or end of the turtles?
IT’S THE BEGINNING: You could start this off as Chapter 1, this cartoon right here. And the story would be about a brand going from a one-season show to a merchandizing juggernaut.
NO, IT’S THE MIDDLE: But wait! What if the story is about the two creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Maybe the beginning is them in the early 1980s, making the black and white comic book it was based on. Then the cartoon becomes the middle of the story, and you can end the story now, in the present.
NO, NO, YOU’RE BOTH WRONG, IT’S THE END: Maybe the story is the life journey of the two creators, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Maybe the story begins with their childhoods, their friendships, their reading Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men and Teen Titans comics, and deciding to do a parody of all of those cool comics. And that’s the middle. And the end is the first TV show coming out, and you the reader know the Turtles are going to be big but that’s saved for the very last chapter.
None of these are wrong! All of these are valid ways of telling the creation myth of the Turtles.
I’m not sure which one I’d go with. Because that’s a crucial decision: how you’re telling your story, what your story is about.
Your own life story is like this: are you the last chapter of your grandparents’ story? Are you the first chapter, and your grandkids are the last chapter? Are you just part of the middle of a vast generational tale that won’t be over for another century? You’re all these things…the question si whcih one of these stories do youw ant to tell abotu you and your family?
SPIDER-MAN OF THE WEEK
Hamilton week!
DId you know the 2018 Spider-Man game’s New York City is to detailed you can actually visit Alexander Hamilton’s grave in the game? Do you know!
SUPER MARIO OF THE WEEK
Rap battle of the New Yorkers!
PRINCESS LEIA OF THE WEEK
MICKEY MOUSE OF THE WEEK
UPCOMING APPEARANCES
OCTOBER 12-13: NICKEL CITY COMIC-CON — Buffalo, NY
OCTOBER 19-20: DALLAS FAN FESTIVAL — Irving, TX
NOVEMBER 1-3: RHODE ISLAND COMIC-CON — Providence, RI