*TAPTAP* is this thing on? - January 2024
Kicking off Sam's Plots&Thoughts with a heckuva bang.
Sam’s Plots
Personal Updates:
Hello and welcome to the first ever official Sam Plots&Thoughts newsletter! If this newsletter had a file name, it would be Sam_Official_Officialusethisone.pdf. Thank you to everyone for joining me on this little journey—if we haven’t met IRL, hi, I’m Sam! You’ve probably read the welcome email by now (if you haven’t, you should, unless the email goblins ate it) so you know the facts. I’m a writer, I like food, and I really like storytelling. I’m working on a teeny book I’ve called PRODIGAL TIGER, and hope to have news about it soon. Crossing fingers, toes, candles, etc.
It’s January, ICYMI, which means it’s resolution season and time to set 2024 goals (if you do that sort of thing.) I’ve been told that it’s Aries energy that’s made me develop about 8 big projects I want to be doing, which sounds about right for how 2023 went.(2023 goals: Get an agent! Finish writing another book! Film a short film! Guess which one did not get completed.)
This year, though, I’m excited to get down to brass tacks with more writing, but also to continue building on the creative connections I’ve been lucky enough to make the last few years. That kicks off in this newsletter with the column Pen-ding Advice, which you’ll find at the bottom of the newsletter. I was inspired by my friend Vivi’s work with Blood Citrus, a site featuring conversations with Southeast Asian creatives! (You can find all posts here. It features everything from Hmong-American directors to Lao-American singer-songwriters. I am so deeply in awe of Vivi’s work and also my fellow Southeast Asians!)
I’ve talked enough, so let’s get to the other fun stuff. Catch you on the flip side—be well, and may your January kick off with a bang! I’ll be back in touch once there’s more news about PRODIGAL TIGER… keep an eye on this space. See you on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter!
Fun Writing Updates
I tweeted about a potential playlist and album cover for PRODIGAL TIGER. I’m rather proud of the Photoshop job on the album cover, if I do say so myself.
A quick Instagram recap on some of my favorite non-novel pieces I wrote last year.
Links That Saved Me
Let’s face it—writing can be so isolating, even if you do have scores of fictional characters at your disposal. One thing I’ve done to help combat that (and help with productivity!) is “pomodoro sprints”, where you are productive for a certain time interval (I prefer 25 minutes), and then take a break. My friend Yume shared this website called Cuckoo, which allows you to sprint alongside other users who join the shared URL. The timer also syncs across all browsers, so it’s one stopwatch for all of you.
If you’re the kind of person who needs sensory stuff happening around you to write, I’ve got just the thing. The live jelly cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is just the right speed of action, with the jellyfish drifting across the screen. It’s incredibly soothing, and scratches my brain just enough. (You can see it in action in this TikTok I made last year.)
Sam Thoughts
Fun Facts to Break the Ice
Have you ever seen a sunfish? They can weigh up to 5,000 pounds, and during the 17th century, they may have been used as payment for taxes in Japan!
An International Master of chess once tried playing 30 chess matches at once against a bunch of Soviet schoolboys. He drew 10—and lost 20. Unsurprisingly, this is the “worst record for any simultaneous match play by any chess master.”
Sunfish by Per-Ola Norman/Wikipedia/Public Domain. It looks so silly. I love it.
Dad Joke Corner
How many ways can you say “That’s amore”? Very many, as it turns out.
Pen-ding Advice
For the very first segment of Pen-ding Advice, I sat down with my friend and fellow writer Talia Tucker about writing and comedy. Talia is one of the funniest people I know, and her comedy shines through her debut novel, RULES FOR RULE BREAKING, a Young Adult rom-com debuting March 19 through Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Randomhouse. Kirkus Reviews called it a “thoughtful coming-of-age story filled with rom-com cuteness,” which means you KNOW it’s going to endear us all.
We spoke about blending comedy with storytelling, and how comedy helps us balance out the world. I’ve condensed our conversation for clarity!
If someone were to Google you, what would you want it to say?
TT: Spectacular. Just kidding. I am Talia Tucker, an author of—right now, just Young Adult rom-com—but that will change in the future, hopefully. I'm based out of New Jersey, and I’m half-Korean and half-Jamaican.
How did Rules for Rule Breaking even come into existence? What inspired you?
TT: So I'll start at the beginning. I actually have no recollection of how or when I got interested in writing. I think it has something to do with fanfiction when I was like 10 or whatever, because that's just what we did. And the Internet was wild.
The Wild, Wild West, baby!
TT: It was WILD. So that was a good outlet if you were of any marginalized identity. I think that's how I got into [writing]. But I didn't really try to do it professionally until I was maybe 25.
My best friend was like, “You like writing, don't you? Well, why don't you do that?” So I wrote a book, and it was actually fantasy, or it was low fantasy, young adult. And then I started the query process, and it was horrible. Based on all of the critiques that I got on that manuscript, everybody seemed to like the romance aspect of that book, so I took all the critiques and wrote Rules for Rule Breaking from that. So it basically was born out of failure.
I’m curious about the influences on your writing. Did you always want to be an author?
TT: I feel like other authors grew up thinking that they wanted to be an author their whole life. But I didn't really have that—I just knew I wanted to do something creative. I originally wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but I have horrible stage fright, so I decided to channel my comedy into a medium where I don’t have to talk. And writing, it's just something you can kind of do. Like, you don't need a lot of resources to do it.
What goes into telling a good joke?
TT: I think I approach my comedy, like—I try to get the other person to a certain point, and then I want them to write the punch line themselves, if that makes sense. I want them to be a participant. I'll set the stage for them, I'll give them everything they need for the joke, but then they come up with their own conclusion.
I think of ideas like rooms, so it sounds like what you're saying is more like you're taking someone to a room and you're like, Well, what do you think?
TT: Yeah, I'm pulling their focus to something that's funny in the room, but I'm letting them make their own observation about it.
I think that is, in some ways, a very empathetic way of storytelling—do you think that comedy helps you be more empathetic when it comes to thinking about processing Big Feelings™?
TT: I think it's just how I process things, even in my personal life. I just think that you can laugh about anything. And that’s a good way to process serious emotions with comedy. There's escapism, obviously. There's taking power away from things, which is comedy and horror. I just like mixing things that don't seem like they should go together. And I think comedy is just the lens I like to see everything through.
What I do know is that no matter what genre I'm writing in, I always default back to comedy because I'll write something really dramatic. And then I'd be like, You know what would make it better, though? If it was funny.
I think if you think about anything for too long, the absurdity becomes very clear, and then it's just inherently funny. It doesn't matter what it is. Because everything is just absurd if you really think about it. So I think that's the place that I like to write from. It’s just there. Let’s laugh about it.
✨TOP TALIA TIPS:✨
TT: I don't know if this is too much of a trade secret, but my books are voicey because I literally do dictation, so it's literally in my voice. So if you think the way I speak is interesting, then you'll probably like my writing. I think when people ask me how I write so quickly, that's it. It's not a huge secret. I sit there and talk to myself (laughs).
Reader Corner
Welcome to our first Reader Corner! This month’s question: What are you looking forward to this year? Are there any exciting milestones or events coming up for you?
Thanks for swinging by :) See you soon with more news!
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole, The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown. But also trying to finish a manuscript other than a short story which I did last year.