As writers, I think we could learn a lot from Snoopy.
Here’s this dog — created by Charles Schulz for his famous comic Peanuts — who finds a typewriter and just goes to town with his imagination. There are plenty of comic strips where he’s trying out his stories, showing them to the other characters to get feedback, and sending them out to publishers.
Even if, you know, the result isn’t what he wants. Nevertheless, he persists, even when he’s having bad writing days.
You could always count on Snoopy breaking out his typewriter again to write, ever with the famous first line, “It was a dark and stormy night.” He took time to experiment with genres, switching it up once in a while to try science fiction, mystery, an autobiography, and even adventure stories with a beginning like, “He was a dark and stormy knight.”
No matter how many rejections from publishers, Snoopy always continued writing. He’d get tips and praise from the other characters — and the occasional snide comment or joke about his writing — doing his best to learn and grow with the critique but always staying true to his own style. To continue writing despite doubt, to continue writing what we want to write, to continue writing because we love it…
It’s why we became writers, isn’t it?
Nevertheless, I still pick up a digest of the comics every once in a while and, recently, my family and I visited the Amazon Bookstore where I picked up Volume One of the new Archie comics. I had mixed feelings on the reboot only due to nostalgia, but I was able to appreciate the new art style and the fact that the writers wanted to reach out to newer readers.
