042: For the Love of New Things + The Best Media I Consumed in 2021
Hi friends,
Well, today is January 7th, somehow. We’re a week in. I hope your new year started with some peace and cheer and that you aren’t too stressed out already. I had to work on NYE and NYD, which was a bummer, but I’ve been getting a lot of writing done the last few days, so I’ll take that win.
A new year means new beginnings—and for some reason to me, that always means new projects. There’s something about January, you know? All the possibility it holds. I love it.
The only better time to experiment than January is whenever the heck you want. But early January is the second-best time to experiment with something new.
(Does that make sense? It sounded good at 5 am when I wrote it.)
With that in mind, I’ve started a new project called Stories. Nice and simple, right? Every week, I will publish one writing prompt and one short story that I’ve written. This project is based on author Ray Bradbury’s idea that it’s impossible to write 52 bad short stories in a row—we’ll see, Mr. Bradbury. It will live as a new section within Collected Rejections. If you are already subscribed to this newsletter, I decided not to auto-subscribe you to Stories. You should not receive any emails from the Stories section unless you want to subscribe to it. To subscribe, come to valorieclark.substack.com > My account > check the box for Stories.
You can read the introduction here:
If you want to get Stories and have trouble updating your subscription, let me know.
In other news, I’m also going to be doing some light rebranding as well as introducing interviews into Collected Rejections. I have yet to decide if they will live here or in Stories or in a whole new section, but interviews are coming soon! I’ll be asking people about a time they were rejected and how they recovered.
I keep thinking about how I can sum up 2021.
In major events? In number of COVID tests taken? In cups of coffee? It’s like “Seasons of Love” keeps playing in my head in the background.
How do you measure? Measure a year?
In daylights,
In sunsets,
In midnights,
In cups of coffee,
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife…
(Good luck getting that out of your head for the rest of the day.)
Not that I believe I have to sum up 2021, of course. It’s just that, upon review, this feels like the first year that didn’t have an overarching theme to it, at least to me. Unless, of course, you count ‘frustrated with the state of US democracy’ as an overarching theme. Which, I suppose, you could.
But what about media consumed? 2021, like 2020, was a big year of staying at home and reading books, watching movies, and binging tv shows. It was a year for consumption, at least for me. That in and of itself might be why I have so many big plans for projects I want to create this year—after a year of devouring everything I could, I’m ready to turn that nourishment into something new.
I talk about that fallow period in August and September a lot, but really the last year has been a big fallow period for me, at least in terms of creative writing. I wrote here, but that’s really it. After a burst of work in January, I set aside the novel I’ve been trying to write for a few years. I had another burst of creative work in July with Camp NaNo, but I gave up on that quickly. And while Unruly Figures is going incredibly well and is very fun for me, it doesn’t require the same kind of creativity that creative writing does.
But fiction? No, I hardly wrote any fiction last year. I missed it with an ache every morning when I woke up, but any time I sat down I just couldn’t do it.
My hesitation started after a falling out I had with my writing partner/best friend in December 2020. I never talked about it here because it always felt too painful (and probably because I kept hoping things would resolve). The end of that friendship marked a moment when I stopped believing in my own ability to craft a story. I had built so much of my creative identity on the project we were working on together, and to have that foundation turn into shifting sand that disappeared at the slightest breeze was more emotionally devastating than I was ready to let on.
Looking at it now, with the benefit of hindsight, I think I was mourning. I was mourning a twenty-year friendship, I was mourning a project that deserved to be published and out in the world but never would be, I was mourning the safety of a partnership that close. Having a writing partner—perhaps any kind of collaborative creative partner—is a unique form of intimacy. It requires vulnerability that most other relationships don’t require, because it involves a lot of sharing of ideas and dreams and making mistakes in front of another person, really up close and personal. Marriages probably require such a level of vulnerability, maybe a child/parent relationship does. But I can’t think of anything else.
Its end made me feel like a fool. It made me doubt my ability to write. It made me doubt if I even wanted to write. Because brains are funny things, you see. Even though the end of that friendship had nothing to do with writing ability, it made me doubt my ability to craft a character and a story because it made me lose trust in my own ability to understand another person well. Understanding people and their motivations is fundamental to any writing craft. But my brain took the shock of abandonment and made it about self-doubt and a lack of trust of myself. Written out like that it doesn’t totally make sense, but then brains don’t always do things that totally make sense. I mean, they’re meat with electricity running through them, they’re bound to make some weird left turns occasionally.
Lately though, I’ve been coming out of it. The shock, denial, anger, and depression wore off and I feel like I’m on the other side of it. Getting to that point required a lot of one-sided shower arguments and rereading the work we made together that would never go anywhere. But I think that reading and watching several other things and feeling inspired by them is what allowed me to begin rebuilding that self-trust. Feeling inspired reminded me that I am capable of having good ideas, that I do write well, with or without a partner.
I haven’t completely turned the corner yet, but I’m feeling hopeful. That’s part of what Stories is about, really, trusting myself to write fiction well enough that other people might want to read it.
If you want to be inspired, I rounded up some of my favorite media that I consumed in 2021, the stuff that made me feel inspired enough to move forward and write again.
Books
The City of Brass, and the rest of the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. I think about these novels once a day. I wrote more about the books here.
The Mortal Instruments Series, by Cassandra Clare. These six dark fantasy books are easy reading if you need something to escape reality with.
Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo. This book has big dark academia vibes as it follows Alex Stern as she moves from LA to New Haven to use her power to see Grays to supervise the supernatural activities of Yale’s secret societies. I wrote more about it here.
When, by Daniel Pink. This is a great non-fiction read if you feel like your daily schedule doesn’t work for you and you need to make some changes. I wrote more about it here.
The Wounded Healer, by Henri J.M. Nouwen. You might not think that a book about ministry in the modern age would be up my alley, but I really loved what Nouwen had to say about accepting your pain to heal yourself and others.
You Can’t Be Serious, by Kal Penn. I loved this memoir from Obama staffer/star of Harold and Kumar. His voice is so vivid on the page that I felt like I was sitting across from him in a bar being told this story.
Women and Other Monsters, by Jess Zimmerman. I have a feeling I’ll be gifting all the women in my life this collection of moving essays that explore where myth and being a woman in the 21st century intersect.
Movies/TV Shows
Never Have I Ever - I love this wholesome high school drama from Mindy Kaling. Season two was even better than season one and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
The Witcher - I’m told people who liked Game of Thrones will like The Witcher, but having never watched GoT, I can’t really speak to that. What I can say is that, among many other wonderful things about this show, I’m a big fan of any show that depicts a group of men having emotional bonds and caring for one another, as well as caring for a surrogate daughter. We get lots of shows showing single moms taking care of families (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Gilmore Girls, etc) but not as many about dads, surrogate or otherwise. Throw in some fighting of strange demons, a mystery that needs solving, and political intrigue? Sold.
The Good Place - Just… always.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina - Even though I pretty openly hated the ending to this show, I think the story they tried to tell was really fascinating and done in a really wonderful way… until the final season. Maybe just don’t watch part four!
Nailed It! - Any time I need cheering up, I go back to this competition show where all the bakers are terrible and the judges are hilarious.
Cowboy Bepop - Supposedly I’m one of the few people in the world who liked this live-action reboot of the anime, but I don’t believe it. I thought it had just the right amount of camp and darkness, and John Cho is flawless in it. And yet, Netflix canceled it just three weeks after release, which wasn’t nearly enough time for this show to find its audience. I’m disappointed but hopeful that someone else will pick it up and continue it.
Don’t Look Up - I’ve already talked about how Don’t Look Up made me question whether I was meant to laugh or cry, but now with some distance, I feel like that question matters less. The acting in it is superb, and the question it asks (“Can we pull together to save the world?”) is a surprisingly hard one to answer.
No Time To Die - Did I cry at the end of Daniel Craig’s farewell to the Bond series? Obviously. Did the story, written before COVID, feel oddly like it was about COVID? Definitely. It is imperfect from a storytelling angle? Sure, all the Bond movies are. Is Rami Malek’s character’s name—Lyutsifer Safin—too obviously a play on Lucifer and Satan? Duh. And yet, there are performances in it that I really loved. Ana de Armas steals the whole damn movie, despite only being in it for about ten minutes. Ben Whishaw’s Q is the adorable nerd we know and love. And Daniel Craig nails it once again, cementing his place (in my mind) as the best James Bond ever.
The Lost Leonardo - I think about this documentary all the time. It covers the discovery (maybe) of a long-thought lost portrait of Jesus painted by Leonardo da Vinci, from the moment it was first noticed to its recent “disappearance” into a private collection. Through the winding tale are serious missteps, conflated and disputed attribution, and an art market that has lost its mind.
Podcasts
And That’s Why We Drink - Em and Christine’s friendship is what makes this podcast great. I normally can’t handle true crime, but this podcast is worth it. Em’s ghost stories make up for the gruesome crimes, and Christine presents those gruesome crimes with a sensitivity that is missing in a lot of the true-crime spaces.
Why Won’t You Date Me? - Everything Nicole Byer does is amazing, but this podcast about her dating misfortunes (and fortunes) in LA is one of the funniest damn podcasts out there. She brings on a new guest every week to talk about dating dos and don’ts, plus asks the all-important question: Would you date me?
You’re Dead To Me - This BBC Radio 4 podcast really inspires me to cover historical topics with some levity and fun. Even when they’re talking about tragic tales, the set-up of one straight man host, one comedian, and one historian is a comedy gold mine.
The Hidden Djinn - I binged the entirety of this podcast from Rabia Chaudry in about a week. I discovered it after it had already ended when I was looking for more and more content along the lines of The Daevabad Trilogy. Chaudry covers the many understandings of djinn around the world and has conversations with people who have interacted with djinn. The conversation she has with author Amina Akthar in the episode “Fashionably Haunted” is one of my favorites of the series.
Bad Astrologers - This irregularly published podcast is great for anyone wanting to dive deep into astrology. While I haven’t listened much since co-host Jessa Crispin had to leave, the current solo-host Amelia Quint is great. I especially loved their takes on Lilith, which run counter to the way she’s usually diminished in general in modern culture.
That’s our show, folks. As always, thanks for reading. If you want to respond, you can respond via email or leave a comment. If you’re so inclined, tell me about the best media you consumed in 2021.
Don’t forget to check out my new project, Stories. The first short story will be going out this weekend, and the first writing prompt will come out next Monday. To subscribe, come to valorieclark.substack.com > My account > check the box for Stories.
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xx,
Valorie
You made it all the way to the end! I posed a question on my twitter a few days ago, and I’d be interested to hear your thoughts:
Thanks for sharing. All the items on your 2021 list are new (or unknown as yet) to me. I liked most of Collected Rejections and your topics, drive and style, so I hope I'll take to your tastes, too.
Looking forward to Stories, I checked the box. I absolutely believe that book are "media" as are podcasts. Whether fiction or non-fiction, books tell a story, books can lead to new ideas and change. For me, books are fun and a way to experience many things that I will probably never experience in real life. I can't image my life without books.