The Sketch That Broke My Heart

Sometimes you find an old notebook and you flip through it and find those premises you loved but couldn’t make work.

And then sometimes you find the premise that HAUNTS you.

You find it repeated in the notebook as you kept, every few months, trying to figure out how to make it work. You refused to listen to anyone who said it was impossible. You were so sure that if you tried hard enough, waited long enough, it would eventually come together. Because it was meant to be.

But secretly you knew, deep down in your heart, that no matter what you did, it wasn’t going to happen.

For me, that sketch is Deal-y Stan, the man who sells Steely Dan albums at a steep discount.

That’s the whole thing. No conflict. He’s just a guy who sells Steely Dan albums.

Does he sell other albums? No idea

Does he have a particular emotional connection to Steely Dan? No clue

Was he a metaphor for some feeling of disconnection at the heart of my generation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know what it means, but it has been stuck in my brain like a thorn for years. Everything beyond those words is a complete and utter blank.

The amount of time I have actively devoted to trying to make it a thing is mind-boggling. And I don’t even want to think about all the time I’ve spent idly thinking of it while waiting in line for coffee and brushing my teeth. It’s simply is too upsetting to consider.

Friends, I don’t even like Steely Dan that much.
I also don’t hate them.
They’re fine.
I really like the song “Dirty Work”.

Deal-y Stan, the man who sells Steely Dan albums at a steep discount.

Someone, somewhere, please make it into a thing so I no longer have to devote brain space to it.
Think of what I could have done with that energy.

I could have learned french!

So, whoever is reading this, if I have trapped you in the same mind cave of trying to figure out what to do with Deal-y Stan, the man who sells Steely Dan albums at a steep discount., I apologize.

But I feel like someone, somewhere, has something. Anything.

You’ve already chosen it. You just need to call it out! Please!

Write something, anything!
This could be me if you just do what you dream!