There is a saying. I believe it was originally some kind of sportsball quote but has been paraphrased to death. I hear it all the time lately, because it is a lyric in a song that’s on one of my “frequently listened” playlists. I’ve even looked up the quote for the purpose of this blog entry. You’re welcome.
It’s attributed to Hockey legend (and Hall of Famer) Wayne Gretzky. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
And this is 100% false. And shame on a hockey player for being the one to say it!
Now before you make me “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (hehe — I can quote more than just sportsball, you know), yes. I know the intent of the quote. And I in fact agree with the intent. You cannot succeed unless you try. In whatever form that takes. I do, wholeheartedly agree with that.
However, to claim that you “miss” if you don’t shoot? Nope. Gonna take a hard pass on that one. The very definition of miss is to attempt something and THEN not succeed. Such as in Hockey. And the sportsball with the net hoop things. And the one with the soccers.
In fact, in Hockey specifically (and I think in basketsoccer, but don’t quote me), if you do not shoot, you might still be credited with success. Because you pass the Ding Dong® to another player and that player shoots and scores, you get an “assist.” It’s a stats thing. Plus, Mr. Gretzky, when you do not shoot your puck, the stats do not show that as a miss. In fact, the stats do not show (to my knowledge) that you didn’t shoot at all. Only if you shoot and then miss. If you have the puck 20 times and shoot it 10 and make it 2, you have not a 10% score rate, but a 20%. Although you did not score 18 of the 20 times (the intent of the quote), your stats will show that you only missed the 8 you actually took.
So even in your own game, your quote is a blatant lie.
I get it. You want to encourage people to be brave in the face of their terror of failure. Reminding them that you cannot succeed unless you put yourself out there. That if you don’t try you fail by default. In the world of trad pub, it’s rejecting yourself instead of making an agent do it. Or in acting by rejecting yourself instead of making a casting director do it. Or in dating by rejecting yourself instead of making the person you’re crushing on do it. Because it’s easier to reject yourself than risk another person rejecting you. It’s why I got into the habit of telling jokes about myself. It hurt a hell of a lot less than the people around me making jokes about me.
But you know what? Maybe the agent will say yes and represent you. Maybe the director will say yes and cast you. Maybe the person you’re crushing on will say yes and date you. And maybe the people I’m with will say nice things instead of making jokes at my expense.
In self-publishing, the audience can’t find you if your book isn’t there for them to find.
Your song.
Your art.
I disagree that you miss all of the shots that you don’t take. But I do agree that you will make none of them.
So submit that query letter. Go on that open audition. Ask that person out. Put out your book, your music, your art.
The worst that can happen is you still don’t have what you already don’t have now.
And you might end up with more than you dreamed.
WRITING IN PUBLIC
My friend Angie* has read the warts-and-all version of Best Enemies Forever. I did something I have never, ever done before: I gave her the very first draft, before I had even gone through it and cut out my NaNoWriMo asides of “Why am I writing this crap?” and “I’m so tired right now that I’m writing gibberish. Oh, look at the shiny object!” In fact, one of her notes was “cut out the asides.” (Thanks, Angie! I will be doing that.)
Even better, she has given me some valuable input on how to deal with two of the major issues I’ve been having. She confirmed for me that one of my possible solutions is not only viable but recommended, and she has given me another option for the other. Instead of cutting entirely and having to restructure how I disburse information to the characters and readers, I can keep the overall thing but use it slightly differently. (And yes, I’m still being vague on purpose.)
She has also given me something to look at that I didn’t previously think was an issue, but must be, at least a bit, if it was enough for her to mention it. So I have new things on the chopping block.
Have I actually done any of it yet? No.
Am I closer to doing any of it? I’d like to think so, but I also know me, so maybe not.
But the good news is… I now have more input on what needs to happen.
The bad news is… I’m kind of out of excuses now.
GAMING THINGS
No progress in Pathfinder this last couple months. People keep having plans, and they keep making those plans for Game Night, for some reason. Okay, in one case it’s understandable — there was a trip involved. And another… fine, there was an event where he had no control over what day it was. And then that other time, where the person can’t be the one to decide when his parents want to plan a family event he’s required to attend. I swear… people just have no consideration for us nerd types sometimes. And they would all kill me for calling them nerds. Well, except for one. He knows he’s a nerd. And I love him for it.
(Why yes… I love my friends. Don’t you love yours?)
So what has Game Night been bringing us? Well, for one thing it keeps showing me that someone needs to be in charge. Whenever I do my best not to, we end up just sitting around in silence for an hour or more before someone finally goes, “Oh, should we be playing something?” If I’m in Bossy Magoo mode, we’re playing almost immediately. I don’t want to be Bossy Magoo. It’s a Bad Gamer type.
(Then what happened?)
Pushy.
Eventually we played some of our usual array of Jackbox, specifically Blather Round. I love. Love. Love. Blather Round. BUT… we also played the newest Jackbox game, Party Pack 10. I liked this one much better than 8 and 9. But it doesn’t have anything to topple Blather Round in my opinion. But apparently it does in a couple of the others’. The only game we have not played is Tee K.O. 2, which is a sequel to a game that is ironic for me. I don’t like the game, but our play got me a really cool shirt that I do like.
I can’t go into the whys, but suffice it to say I would like to revisit the concept after my eye surgery.
The other games in the pack include TimeJinx, a trivia game in which we, as time travelers, are guessing what year we want to travel to. We get points based on how close we are to the actual year. Lowest score wins. (Zero points for getting it exactly right.) I don’t hate the game, but history was never my favorite subject in school.
Hypnotorious is a fun hidden identity game where you are given a person or object to “be” for the game, and you have to answer questions as if you were that. Then you have to decide which of the other players you “belong” with in a common category. For example, in one round I was Potato Chips, so I had to answer questions as if I were Potato Chips, and then I had to figure out who else might be portraying Junk Food. (The premise is that you have been hypnotized into thinking you’re whatever identity you have been assigned.) I like this one better than Time Jinx.
Fixy Text is a wacky text-based game in which you are the assistant of a busy person who wants people to stop texting her. So you are put on a team, all working on the same text message, to compose it in such a way as to make the person stop sending texts. And yes, it is just as chaotic as it sounds. You vote on words and phrases that the other team puts into the message. It can be something fun like a word they made up or a typo that changes the meaning of the sentence. Or just a word you really like… such as “fun.” No one gets to dictate why you vote for what you do. And whoever included that word or phrase gets points. Speaking of typos, there will be some. Why? Because the backspace is disabled during this game.(Did I mention chaotic?)
Dodo Re Mi: If you’ve ever played Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you know how this one works. They have an interesting way of ensuring that the timing works… considering these games can be played over the internet… but at the same time, I don’t think they quite got the timing to work. Even in the song where we earned an okay score (but still got eaten by the giant plant), the playback was not synced right. Fun to play, painful to listen back to.
This is a good pack, overall, but if given a choice, I will pick Blather Round over any of the Party Pack 10 items.
We’ve had a number of Jackbox (and talking) sessions due to absences. I’m really hoping we got to play Pathfinder this weekend. It hasn’t happened for me yet, but it will have by the time this releases.
MUSICAL SHARES
On Valentines Day, Jorge Rivera-Herrans released the fourth saga in his EPIC musical series: The Circe Sage, in which the sorceress Circe ensnares Odysseus’s people and he must rescue them with the aid of an unexpected ally.
This musical, being released as “Concept Album” EPs, lives up to its name with every release. And the final song of this fourth one teases some fun things to come in the fifth installment. I hope we will get to hear it sooner rather than later. Spotify is already getting tired of playing these last two installments for me. (I’m still listening to Volume 3, The Ocean Saga, quite a bit.) I also have a playlist that contains all four sagas. It’s just under an hour long. I will not be surprised if Rivera-Herrans is my #1 artist in Spotify’s Rewind again this year. (No surprise: I played the hell out of Troy and Cyclops in 2023.) Then again, Alec Benjamin is getting an awful lot of play this year as well.
Seriously, if you haven’t had a listen to these four concept albums, you should do yourself a huge favor and listen. They’re on all the major streaming platforms, and I think he has even released them to YouTube.
Epic Volume 4 (and 3) is my current musical obsession, and I don’t see that ending any time soon — unless Volume 5 comes out this month. Then that one might take over…
WRAPPING IT UP
Thank you for tuning in to another exciting episode of Disjointed Theater, where I start off making one point and end up making another.
I hate when that happens. But who am I kidding? Seems to be me these days. In our next exciting edition, I hope to have more updates on stuff, things, and other.
Until then, however, be the you that only you know how to be.
Because that’s who we need you to be.