Writer's Commentary: Not As We

On Post: Not As We

Date: January 22

Find it here

Well, I screwed up.

I mean, more so than usual.

In sequence, I should have covered this one a few days ago. But I somehow missed it and just realized today that I had done so. Please accept my apologies on this front. I can only imagine your headshaking disappointment.

Apology accepted? Good. On to the matter at hand then.

This was a Reader Suggestion from my local pusher comic book purveyor and while I am by no means an Alanis Morrisette expert, I was a bit surprised that I had no idea what this song was. Unsurprisingly, given that it is an Alanis tune it was about a break-up. Ah, but I kid Alanis. Sort of.

(I actually think, as I write this, that this was about the end of her relationship with Ryan Reynolds. I only mention this because, well, I think it is important to remind ourselves every now and then that they dated. What did they have in common besides being Canadian (*shudder*) and famous? I know not. I presume it involved Reynolds’ abs though.)

The temptation with this kind of song is to go serious and emotional and when it comes to breakups, that’s where I’m tempted to go, too. I’m a bit of a softee, if you didn’t know. Given the purpose of the Project, I did not necessarily want to succumb to that temptation. Additionally, at the time, I felt I had written “serious” about breakups a lot over the course of this. In looking back now I realize that was not the case at all. I did one serious story about a long ended relationship (Gasoline) and one sort of serious piece in which a breakup occurs, although it is redacted later in the story (This Time). Perception is not necessarily fact, my friends.

In any case, these factors guided me to not go serious and not go straightforward. I thought it was more of a challenge to do something different. After considering and rejecting some approaches (first or third person prose=too easy, dialogue=felt like I had done it too much lately, second person prose=kind of hacky, poetry=good for no one, etc) the idea of itinerary occurred to me. It let me go through an entire day without a high word or page count, so that was a plus. The matter-of-fact nature of an itinerary also let me convey the utter, let’s call it pathetic-ness, of the recently dumped while still mining humor from it.

My personal favorite part of the itinerary? This:   

“9 A- 9:15 A- Slowly grow to realize that regardless of how monstrous those people are, they are still happier. Break something.

9: 15 A- 9:20 A- Realize broken item was not P.’s. Curse self.”

Just because the Project has ended doesn't mean I still don't value your feedback. Feel free to let me know on Twitter (@UnGajje) or drop me a note at tim[dot]g[dot]stevens[at]gmail[dot]com or on Facebook. If you see anything you like, I am all over the net too, so please check out my other works at Marvel, Complaint of the Week at the Living Room Times, and New Paris Press (which is now up and running) or my various 140 character missives on that Twitter account.