An Uncomfortable Truth, You Are the Author of Your Story
For years, I’ve fallen into a series of idioms and cliches. They’ve helped to organize the chaos, making sense of seemingly disconnected cause and effect. The problem is, many times they lack inherent meaning. Following the dopamine hit of not feeling like a total outlier, the truth creeps back in.
“It’s darkest before the dawn.”
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
You know what all of these sayings have in common? They don’t account for the immense number of situations where they are not true. They demonize people and phenomena for standing in your way, or having something you want. You jump aboard the catchphrase train. You buy into the idea that there’s some master plan — that the reason everything is going so terribly is because it’s preparing you for better things, or some other positive you associate with your suffering.
But what if that’s not the case? What if it’s terrible because it’s just terrible, and unless you dig yourself out, you’ll actually just stay there. And then you die… and you won’t have to deal with it anymore, but it’ll probably be among your last thoughts. Main character syndrome is weird; you need it to do well… and at the same time, it makes it very easy to rationalize why you don’t succeed. Similar to alcohol, it’s a multiplier, it makes everything about you more prominent. If you’re kick-ass… it helps you kick more ass. If you suck… well, then you’ll keep sucking.
But alas… you are the main character in your story — whether you like it or not. Your main character may have a terrible self image and think everyone else is more important… but the thing is it’s not a rule that the main character has to be good… at anything. Stories are the way they are for a reason… because someone wrote about what they WANTED to happen. By putting pen to paper, they crafted the path of their character, and their character had no choice but to follow. You have that same power. You are the author. And the author is who determines how the main character lives. Whether they win… or lose… or cry… or give up… or persevere.
So here comes the uncomfortable truth, you have two options:
1. Do something about it — write the story the way you want.
2. Leave it… write down what someone else has determined for you.
Regardless of what you do, people will have their opinions. You’ll have to choose whether you give a shit. And most importantly… you’ll have to decide whether or not it was a good fucking story.
