cringe mountain
To be cool, you have to first ascend up Mount-Cringe. The Cringe-star. Cringe-topia. Cringe-ville. C-town. The cringe nebula.
What is cringe exactly? It's hard to put your finger on, but you know what its not.
It's not cool.
What's cool? It's not cringe for sure.
But it's also not the opposite of cringe, because to be in a state of cringe, implies you are heading towards cool eventually if you keep going.
No, the opposite of cool is inauthenticity.
Cringe is actually the first step, because its authentic self expression, it's taking a chance knowing that it's not cool.
It's Ira Glass's 'taste-talent gap'. When you know what is good (you have taste), but your skills can't get you there.
So the only way out seems to be through. Making that crap piece of art, fiction, poetry, song, dance - 'the attempt', and realising it is one more crucial step up the mountain of cringe, and eventually into the valley of cool.
Take the first step.
Trying to write shorter/faster/worse, but with more consistency.