Skip to main content
Close

Lester Bangs, Writing, and the Art of Being “Cool”

By Jameson Brown · August 7, 2014

 

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

These are the words Lester Bangs mumbled into the phone to a young Cameron Crowe-esque music journo who was mid-step in his journey of the self, but more so, a journey to pinpoint a genuine depiction of rock n’ roll during what many considered, Lester Bangs especially, to be the hangover of good music. We saw a young teen exercise his writing talents, while barely being able to hold onto what he knew as reality – an overprotective mother, a rebelious sister and a school life that acted as an empty bubble of loneliness. He was uncool. No matter what he did, said or even tried to do, he would forever wear the “kick me” sign of strangeness on his back. His personal portal of writing, though, enabled him to unknowingly establish a top tier level of coolness. Something we all strive to create. If you have taken writing seriously, you have, at least at some point, been uncool. 

So, embrace your uncool coolness. Sit down. Open a Word document. Start typing something. Anything. Words make sentences. Sentences make paragraphs. Paragraphs make stories. Stories make the world around us better. Share this story with someone. Read it to them. Have them read it to you. Act it out. Give its characters voices. Be the guy or girl who stays in to finish that sequence that has been on your mind since last week. 

 

Writing and producing stories could be considered something lazy people “do” when they are in-between jobs or simply just not doing anything. But what happens when you do write. When you put together a schedule? When you abide by that schedule? When you crank out five to ten pages a week? Characters, plotlines and story will start to come into vision. 

 

Dedicate the time. Make the time. Honor the time. Step forward and be cool. 

Media Credits: Columbia and Dreamworks