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| One journey ends. Another begins. |
Saturday proved an unusual day for me. It had been a hard week, and my wife and I
were feeling, well, “narky.” Like the
collar of a favorite shirt, we were afraid if we did much more, our emotions
would start to fray. So, after
breakfast, we abandoned plans to “make Saturday count” and did something we’ve
done with decreasing regularity in recent years: we spent most of the day
relaxing, and a good portion of it reading.
This proved a happy and healing process for us. I finished Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh,
a novel I’ve been chipping away at for some time. My wife finished The Stainless Steel Rat
Returns by Harry Harrison. I also
started Time of the Great Freeze by Robert Silverberg, a 1964 novel
written for young readers. (Believe it
or not, J. K. Rowling didn’t invent the Young Adult market). But more on those books later.
In his story “The Great Slow Kings,” Roger Zelazny introduces
us to two aliens, Drax and Dran, who plan to build a society around two examples
of a lesser species whom their robot Zindrome brings to their planet Glan. While Drax and Dran reenact their version of
the conversation between Socrates and others in Plato’s Republic, these
newcomers live life at a frantic pace, and populate Glan. Lacking direction from the Slow Kings, they build
their own societies. Thus, by their
inaction, Drax and Dran become irrelevant.
In “Roger Zelazny is in My Head,” I discussed the battle I
wage every day in my writing. My Slow Kings
are named Procrastination and Perfectionism.
Like Zindrome, I’m often caught in the crossfire between these two. Sometimes I’ve listened to Procrastination,
and opted not to write because I “wasn’t in the mood.” Or I’ve listened to Perfectionism and
abandoned promising stories because they “weren’t good enough.” I may never dethrone my Slow Kings, but each
time I complete a new post, I’m publishing a message that may prove meaningful
to someone. Writing this blog comes with
a price tag, however. During the week, I
can’t write this blog until I’ve first met my daily target for my novel. On the weekend, other priorities make
themselves known.
After yesterday’s rest, I found myself with no blog post
prepared. So my thoughts returned to
Drax and Dran, but they also returned to Terrance Dicks, who worked as the
Script Editor for the TV series “Doctor Who” from 1970 to ’75. In 1977, producer Graham Williams needed a
script yesterday. So, working at a frantic pace, Terrance Dicks
created a four-part story called “Horror of Fang Rock.” On his DVD commentary, Dicks shared this
insight: his goal wasn’t to write a great (or perfect) story, it was about not
having the TV screens in Britain go dark those four nights.
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| Terrance Dicks' legacy is well-guarded. |
I know most who stumble across The Dragon’s Cache won’t
return. But if I am to make this blog a
dependable source of encouragement and inspiration, I must provide something
new on a regular basis. Otherwise, those
who look to me for some thoughts to power their day will grow disenchanted, and
search out more dependable sources.
In Roger Zelazny’s story, Drax and Dran contribute nothing
to their world. Certainly
Procrastination has never contributed a single thing to mine. Ironically, the blog posts I thought most
perfect often attract little interest, while those that have proven most popular
almost always took me by surprise. This
suggests that Perfectionism isn’t a perfect guide either. (This realization also suggests that when I
finish my dragon novel, I should revisit my older manuscripts. Perhaps Perfectionism judged some of those
stories too harshly).
Yes, I need time to work on my novels. Yes, I need time to relax and recharge. But now I recognize the truth: Procrastination
and Perfectionism’s arguments cannot be trusted. With my apologizes to the great Roger Zelazny, I
must model myself on Terrance Dicks, and do my best to never, ever, let your
screen go dark.
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