Keep Austin Weird — Red Wassenich, 2000, while pledging to an Austin radio station
Depending on circumstances and expectations, being different can be a blessing or a curse. Extra tall or super short? Life can be a bit of a challenge when clothes shopping, finding friends, dating, and applying for jobs, but if you have interests that align with those dimensions, your edge of the bell curve status could serve you well — unless, of course, others assume that you “must be” X Y or Z because of them. Toss in some insecurities if you’re the only one who looks or sounds like you or trouble at home and things can get pretty unpleasant very quickly.
Similarly, have you ever driven past a neighborhood and every home and each yard looks like a carbon copy of the others? Do you tend to see the whole as comfortingly uniform and cohesive or deadly dull and boring? What if you stumble upon a super modern house in a neighborhood of Tudors or one painted a completely different color scheme? What if it has no grass or shrubbery and instead has a veggie garden or native plants — like this little oddball succulent — in the front yard? Would you instinctively approve or be taken aback?
What’s different about you? Do you celebrate it or tone it down? Do you prefer to go with the flow or swim against the tide? Is it a deliberate choice or just the way you are? How about your way of living, the foods you eat, and the clothes you wear?
Now think about your characters and settings? Are they mainstream, unintentionally quirky, or different-to-be-different? Is that a manicured image, a product of their upbringing, or because they simply can’t help but be any other way?