I wrote the following thread a while ago & have hesitated to post it. But I recently watched the last season of Atypical & really identified with how Sam used his love of Antarctica & desire to travel there to motivate himself to do things that would otherwise have been too hard.
I know Atypical is not a widely loved show, but I really enjoyed it. And a lot of Sam’s behaviors—especially his fixation on penguins & everything related to them—really spoke to me.
I feel like that about furry fiction, & I have since before I knew the name for it.
Anyway…
Sometimes I see people complain about the idea of a writer making friends with someone just because they think it might help them become more famous. I’m sure this can be a real problem, but it always strikes me oddly because…
I use the “it’ll help you become a more famous writer” carrot as a way of motivating myself to function like a basic human being every day.
Me: you should get up
Also me: ughhhh whhhhhy?
Me: if you get up and do things, it’ll help you become a more famous writer
Me: you should do [healthy thing]
Also me: ughhhh whhhhhy?
Me: if you live longer, you’ll have more time to become a more famous writer
Me: you will survive [painful thing]
Also me: aaaaaaugh it hurts
Me: later you can write about it & it’ll help you become a more famous writer
If I’m using “it’ll help me become a more famous writer” to make myself get up in the morning and floss my teeth at night…
OF COURSE, I use “it’ll help me become a more famous writer” as a motivator to get my shy, socially anxious self to go talk to people.
People are scary.
Is this healthy? Eh, maybe not.
Has it helped me get out of bed in the morning every day for decades & build a pretty good life for myself? Hell yeah.
So, yes, I befriend people because I think it’ll help me become a more famous writer. But… that’s why I do everything.
Having friends & staying emotionally healthy enough to function makes it easier to think, brainstorm, plot, compose, & generally just write.
And doing all of that might eventually help me become a more famous writer.
It helps to have a guiding principle to organize your life around. Mine just happens to be “become a more famous writer.”
Pursuing that relatively arbitrary goal gives me a reason to do all the mundane things that are necessary for a human to move through one day after another.
I’ve been thinking about this, because friendship is really hard. And I’m not always sure it’s worth it.
I’ve lost a lot of friends in my life. And they all haunt me.
But when I’m down flat… my writing is there to pick me up. And so are shows like Atypical.
Art is everything.