Bringing the Community Together

It's time

Sometimes, when I get mad at an idiotic post online¹, I’ll spend a good amount of time crafting the perfect reply. Taking each bit of their paragraph and dissecting it. Each sentence gets it’s own special amount of love and no stone goes unturned. My response is so good that no one can retort. And then, after ten minutes, fifteen minutes of delicate crafting, I highlight it all and hit: delete.

My reason is twofold:

1. By the time I’m finished crafting this perfect, crippling response I’m not even mad anymore. I got it out of my system.

2. And, more important than anything else, there’s already enough negativity in the world. My being a smart-ass isn’t going to do anything except make that person mad. Then they take their anger out on someone else. My response to a random person online is then telephoned. From person to person it's sent via a conduit of hate, for who knows how long. Then, I’m the reason someone hit a baby on the other side of the world. I can assure you, I don’t need that kind of guilt hanging over my head.

Look, I get it, people can be stupid. But that’s okay. It’s inevitable. But flipping out only ruins someone’s day and then makes me feel bad for losing my cool. It’s easy to get mad. It’s much harder to swallow your anger and “be the bigger person”.

God, I hate that phrase.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to be able to take a step back and be nice to people. Or at least be polite. You don’t have to treat every random person like they’re your best friend. I'm not telling you to make friends with the guy on the subway that smells like piss. But common decency is a thing we've all forgotten about. We’re all stuck on this rock together. Why are we not treating people with respect? We should be helping each other. Encouraging each other. Everyone wants to succeed in some form or another, that's a given. We should be pushing our friends and family to be their best with this limited amount of time we have here.

That’s why I love what this is. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted on a consistent schedule, but I’ve always found Substack to be so special. There’s a budding community here and I want to keep it that way. I want to nurture it and see if it’ll blossom. We are all here (I think?) because of our love of stories, whether that be writing or reading.

With all that out of the way, I’ve been thinking a lot about doing some sort of book club. I’m thinking once a month—Nothing crazy, I swear. I can choose a specific book, if you want to read it, great! If not, that’s fine! This might end up looking something like: “here’s one of the books I’m reading this month!” Then we can talk about it after. Or, you know, you could follow me over on GoodReads and see what I’m reading at any given point. Then you can choose something that catches your eye. Although, I'm warning you now, I’ve been terrible at keeping up with it in the past. Doing great this year, though. Pat on the back. Thank you, thank you.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of putting together some sort of writer’s “workshop”. This is for the handful of people who want to go further with their writing. Not some “me-teach-you” garbage, because what the fuck do I know? After all, I am the guy that wrote a story where the punchline was someone shitting diarrhea on a driveway. Clearly, I’m no Cormac McCarthy.

But the thing is, a sure-fire way people can get better faster is by analyzing other’s stories. Understanding what works vs what doesn’t and why. Then being able to apply that knowledge to your own writing. Also, having a deadline for a story or a chapter or paragraph is a huge fire under your ass to get things going. So, the goal here would be progression and accountability. I’m imagining it would be a once a month thing, too. We can pick a time and do it remote via Discord. We can even do it text only so you can remain somewhat anonymous, if you’d like. Then, you don’t have to feel so bad telling someone to their face that their magnum opus is dog shit. I don’t know. I’m talking off the cuff right now, there hasn’t been anything serious planning.

So far, these ideas are a big, fat maybe.

Anyway, I’m sort of drifting on a tangent. This place has been great, that’s all. I'd like to continue to make an effort to make it better. Make it something that people want to be a part of and engage with. You guys have given me the opportunity to live a life of creativity and experimentation. My only goal is to give back whenever I'm able.

All this talk about getting people together and Discord servers has made me realize that I need to do that. If for nothing else, then a place where creativity can run wild and people can share their art and ideas.

I’ve set one up here: Discord Server

I know there are creative people here that are not bound to one single art. Who is? I’d love for everyone to use this Discord as a place to come together. Share your passions, look for advice on a creative medium. Think of this as an extension of this Substack. Or, an extension of me, if you'd rather. You want a place to bullshit? Great. Meet new people? Now you have a like-minded group you can connect with. And above all else, have fun and encourage each other. Because, like I said earlier, life is already hard enough as it is. The least we can do is have a little fun once in a while to take the edge off.

1. Let’s be honest, 99% of the time it’s on Reddit.