Daring to Dream with Marc Bernardin

by

Scott D. Parker

A cool thing happened this week: a writer lived out a dream.

Marc Bernardin—writer, TV producer, journalist, co-host of the Fatman Beyond podcast with Kevin Smith—was a guest on the Late Night with Seth Meyers. Marc was there to talk about and promote his graphic novel, Adora and the Distance. As the father of an autistic daughter, he was encouraged to write about his experiences of raising an autistic child but, as Marc says in the interview, he was the least interesting person in the story.

So he created a version of a story in which there was a young woman of color who was on a quest and what she discovered about the world and herself at the end of the quest. Naturally, he edged toward the comic book format and bided his time. Finally, last year, the graphic novel was published on Comixology featuring the whimsical illustrations of Ariela Kristantina. Now, the book is in hard copy to buy at your local comic book store.

I’ve listened to Marc talk about this story for a long time so I was simply happy for him to get the book out into the world. But then he started to dream. What would it be like to go on a late night talk show and and talk about the book. Seth Meyers is a comic book fan so Marc set his sights on landing a spot on Seth’s show.

To make the dream possible, he encouraged a social media campaign, and, lo and behold, it worked. Marc was on the 19 April 2022 episode of Late Night. Here’s the link of the full interview.

An avid communicator through Twitter, Marc thanked his fans in a very Marc way.

 

In his deep dives into story and story structure on his podcast, I am often pausing long enough to transcribe things he said into my very own “Marc on Writing” file. Well, here’s another one to add to the list.

Five seemingly simple phrases that can take you far in life. But looks at the first: Don’t be afraid to dream the impossible dream. If you have a dream, go for it.

This brings me back to a quote of Goethe’s as cited in Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art which I reviewed last week: “I [Steven] have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now.”

Dreams come true. We witnessed one this week, and it was exhilarating. I grinned from ear to ear watching Marc on Seth’s show. I enjoyed seeing him live his dream. 

And I also turned my attention to my own. I’m dreaming my dreams and I’ve already begun to put them on the map of my life. Why is that important? Well, let’s let Marc Bernardin have the last word today.

Birthdays

About a year ago the water heater busted and before we were aware, leaked a fair amount of water into our garage. When we discovered the water, we set to removing all the cardboard boxes from the wet area. Because the boxes were already destroyed, we did quickie “keep or toss” with their contents, hoping to avoid any mold or mildew. One of these boxes had come from my parents’ garage up North, all the way down to Southern California, only to land in my garage without much thought. 

This particular box was filled with binders and notebooks from my high school years. In one of these notebooks, I had written a list of things I intended to accomplish before thirty. I turned thirty-four yesterday and have only (kind of) accomplished one. I was certain I’d have a novel published by thirty. I didn’t make it. The novel I co-wrote with Andrez Bergen (Black Sails, Disco Inferno) didn’t come out until I was thirty-two, and even then, co-writing versus writing seems an important distinction. I also planned to “own property for profit” which implies I thought that first novel was going to be a best seller. And/or that I didn’t know anything about real estate when I made my list of goals. 

I didn’t know much about writing as a career, either. I wrote constantly, compulsivley, sometimes to the detriment of other school work. The box also contained two novels I’d written before I graduated high school, hundreds of lists, poems, lyrics, a play, and half assed journal entries. Writing was my entire life. But I had no idea how to write a short story. I’d never attempted one. I had no idea what length a novel was expected to be (the third one I wrote was as long as the first two together). I didn’t understand anything about the business and managed to go years - frustrating, painful years - without learning it. To complicate it all more (and eventually save my ass) the internet happened in the midst of all of this.

The joke is that now I know what a query letter is, I know how to submit short stories and what to look for in a contract, I know that one novel isn’t going to turn me into a real estate tycoon - but the time and energy to write like a compulsive teenager overflowing with a desire to create is hard won. Real life hasn’t come as easy as school work did, and the kid requires a lot more attention than the dog I had growing up. 

I’m not saying I’m disappointed - all the other shit I did before thirty (and it was a lot) gave me so much more to believe in, and in turn, write about. I actually did a lot of insane shit between writing that list and turning thirty. I joined the Marine Corps during war time, moved across country, got married, got divorced, and got married again. I had a kid, bought a house, travelled, made a life in the desert, and then left it behind again. Since thirty, I’ve learned how to write nonfiction, published short stories, did a script for a comic book, and saw my name on the cover of a novel I was proud of. I learned how to edit nonfiction and mentored writers, and a ton of other stuff. Stuff in the writing world teenage me didn’t even know existed. 

And I’m working on that novel that will have my name on the cover - alone. If I start feeling like I disappointed teenage me too much, I’ll just remind myself that, according to all available evidence, teenage me wrote some really shitty novels, because teenage me didn’t understand a whole hell of a lot about how the world works.

Take Control of Your 2017 Goals

By
Scott D. Parker

You can do anything you put your mind to.

Now that 2017 has begun, most of us have made resolutions. I know I have. Most of the resolutions we make are with ourselves: lose weight; start exercising; stop eating sugar; take up a hobby. Many of us fail at these resolutions by the time February starts. Why? Because we don’t have a plan and we don’t take control.

The same is true with our writing lives. Who here states that writing a book in 2017 is their resolution? Or here’s another one: who here states that getting a book in the Amazon Top 1,000 is a goal? Well, of the two examples here, which one is actually in your control?

And then it’s back to you. Bummer? Not in the slightest!

Next month, I’ll be starting my third year as an independent author. Yeah, I’d certainly like to sell more books in 2017, but that’s entirely out of my control. I can do things to improve my chances of selling more products, but that’s all I can do. Marketing is a tricky aspect of the book industry, one with tons of nuances, trials, errors, and lessons learned. But no matter how much you may tweak ads or decide where to run them, this part of the business still involves other people.

But there is one aspect that is completely and utterly in your control: Content Creation.

There are no barriers to create as much or as little content as you want. And here’s where math is your friend. Your life is literally so busy that you can only manage 15 minutes a day to write that novel you’ve dreamed about writing since you were a teenager? I bet you can write 250 words in fifteen minutes, don’t you? If you write 250 words a days starting today, in 300 days you’ll have your 75,000-word novel complete! (That’s 3 November). If you boost your productivity to 500 words a day, then you’ll be done with the same book on 6 June. Think about that: by the start of the summer, you’ll be done writing your book!

Yes, you can do it.

You just have to decide if that’s what you truly want.

It’s what I want. So I decided that 2017 will be the year I create more content. I have a word count number in mind, but I’m not going to state it here today. Suffice it to say, the number is generous. But as nice as a large word count may be, it is product that I’m more interested in making available. In 2017, I’d like to substantially improve the number of short stories, novellas, and novels under my name. That is a goal that has only one obstacle: me. But I’m completely on board with the idea. I rarely have arguments with myself.

The only obstacle I actually have is time. I have a full-time day job that isn’t fiction writing. It’s technical writing, but that doesn’t count. I have a family I enjoy spending time with, so I have made the decision to sleep less. Ever since the time change back in November, my work days see me rising at 4:30am. Yeah, really. Sometimes, it ain’t easy, like on Wednesday when I snoozed a bit. You know what the end result was? Less time to write. Only 45 minutes before I have to start getting ready for work and my boy ready for school.

That sucked.

So, yesterday and Thursday, I was up at 4:30 and at the computer by 4:35. I got my hour in and the word count showed it. Do I still wish I had more time in the day to write? Absolutely, but I don’t. So I took control, found an area where I could write, and did it.

Control is the key. Thrive in the areas you can control, and let all the other stuff slide away. You’ll find yourself much more productive and, over time, much happier.