Geek Chic

I have all these odd crazy ideas that never fit into the superhero universes that I wanted to write so badly as a teen and twenty-something. I wanted to write the next big crossover where the heroes were never the same again, after endless battles, only to find out they were manipulated buy the villain. At the last possible moment, the heroes would stop fighting each other to realize they needed to pool their resources and fight the real enemy. It was going to be fun, and I would cram every hero and villain I could think of, in that mega series, and it would be huge, and spectacular.

Well, that tapered off, and then something weird happened. I had ideas for other stories that were not fitting into the super hero universes I so loved. I was embarrassed. Mind you, as novice writer I wrote some pretty lame concepts, but the ideas I had that were different, were the ones I loathed. So needless to say, I totally ignored my own creations in favor of cliched concepts that only I appreciated (I swear at one time I thought, if only the submissions editor could see my brilliance...).

I was embarrassed, and often signored my creativity based on what I thought people would think of me, or not liking my creations. I also had my own concept of what is geek cool. Why read Stacy's dumb book when you can read book Z by this other creative team? I dropped the baton, yes I did. I am so not geek chic.

Well, I find myself jotting down notes and ideas, and leaving them alone for a long while. I looked back at them, and realized I liked what I was looking over. The concepts were funky, for sure not all of them are mainstream super hero material. I think Superman would fly on the other side of Metropolis to avoid some of these characters I created. Well, the concepts have heart to them. They have their own world and rules.

Maybe, just maybe, looking at my own ideas is about self-acceptance, which I have denied myself so many times.