“Keep Fighting”

“Doesn’t matter, get up, keep fighting.”   J. Michael Straczynski

After reading this quote in the New York Times* about a new memoir called, Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood, I knew I had to read on. J. Michael Straczynski, the memoir’s author, is a writer of screenplays and comic books as well as the creator of a TV series. He’s led a rough-and-tumble life, but like the superheroes whose lives he’s conjured up, he’s survived to fight another day. Highlights of his journey:

Escaping gave him hope:  As a kid growing up in a challenging family environment, discovering Superman helped him cope. Seeing how Superman managed to survive and thrive gave him hope: there was a very different world beyond his doorstep.

Storytelling gave him a path:  Comic books inspired a love of storytelling. As a kid, he read every issue twice. Even at a young age, he read like a writer, reading first for sheer entertainment and the second time around, to see how a story was structured: “It never occurred to me that I might one day want to write comics for a living,” he notes. “I just wanted to peek under the hood and figure out how the engine worked.”

He reached out for help:  At one point, he met Rod Sterling, creator of the classic TV series, “The Twilight Zone,” who offers him this advice: “First, cut every third adjective. Second, never let them stop you from telling the story you want to tell.”

He threw his hat in the ring:  He gets his start by writing a spec script for a cartoon; it attracts a producer’s eye and wins him a staff job. He keeps moving and creating, and ultimately decides to share his personal story and what he’s learned in a memoir.

Bravo, J. Michael! May we find our superhero within as we all write on!

*’Tired of Running’: A Sci-Fi Veteran Tells his Own (Earthling) Story, George Gene Gustines, New York Times, July 20, 2019

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About karinwritesdangerously

I am a writer and this is a motivational blog designed to help both writers and aspiring writers to push to the next level. Key themes are peak performance, passion, overcoming writing roadblocks, juicing up your creativity, and the joys of writing.
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