Be Unexpected

What exactly is a flipside?

Hard to know that, but if it doesn’t relate to record albums then I’m going to guess that it’s one of those nonsensical things that people seem to say. But then again – just hearing the phase and not thinking about it too hard the saying does seem to make sense, which puts the term squarely into the category of non-nonsensical.

Oh well. Even without knowing the exact meaning of flipside, I think that we can agree upon what it is not – that being the exact same side as everybody and everything else. Take it from a guy that’s been there, I’ve seen the sameside and the flipside and I’ve got to agree with Robert Frost about the Road not Taken.

“I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

The flipside isn’t about what you do, but how you do it. It’s about the beat that you find with your own personal drum. The flipside is an internalized rhythm that is infused with your soul, and it happens to have a long and delicate choke collar harnessed to the scrawny neck of your will. What people don’t always realize is that it is willing to throttle you whenever you might think of bending to conformity. You know – go along to get along?

I prefer characters that don’t.

Get along, that is. But I’ve always had a rebellious seed so don’t take it from me. Some of the other characters in my books have far more wisdom than I could possibly conjure up on any given day.

I know what you’re thinking – how is that possible, right? I don’t really know but I’m prepared to appeal to Stephen King (no not the thing about the road to hell being paved with adverbs). In his book On Writing he mentioned that he liked the process of writing because he got to be the first reader of everything that he wrote. Kind of psychotic, right?

Well here’s a (news) flash for you – writers are pretty damn psychotic. The only reason people read is to either reaffirm what they already believe (ho-hum), or to have their paradigm’s somehow blown to bits by new and interesting perspectives.

Well … what kind of people are good at blowing things to bits? That’s right, psychotics – and they live on the flipside. So now that I’ve done irreparable damage to the socialization that your second grade teacher worked so hard to instill into you, I’m going to cut and run.

Yeah that’s right – I do still have a day job. What of it, bub?