Hot off the press! Or on the electron superhighway, as it were.
Mere hours ago, I joined pop culture commentator and rosary warrior John F. Trent, lately of Bounding Into Comics, on his new show The Trent Report.
John is on a mission to save Western culture from the Death Cult. And it’s encouraging to see him enjoying rapid growth.
By his own testimony, John has been a big booster of this blog and my fiction works. You should head over to YouTube and follow him.
To watch the rousing and insightful discussion we had today, which revolved around this eye-opening post, see below:
That point about the total aesthetic disenfranchisement of Western Millennials and Zoomers can’t be stressed enough.
The standard format didn’t give us time to go into more detail. So I’ll use this post to address how younger creators can overcome their artistic impoverishment.
First, know that it’s not your fault.
Your elders strip-mined your cultural patrimony when you were in grade school or before you were even born.
That includes Gen Y, who still obsessively replay 80s and 90s entertainment product instead of managing the last few good cultural influences to make something new and good.
How to get past that dead end?
We have to go back.
How to do that?
Read.
Widely. In and out of your genre.
But even more important, deeply.
Read stuff written before Gen Y (before 1980).
Read 200 such books.
And read them all twice.
Once as a reader for enjoyment.
And again as a writer to learn better authors’ tricks.
Then learn to manage your influences.
Resist the temptation to take a Ninja Turtles or Sailor Moon character, tape over the serial numbers, and drop her in your book.
Do something original – some new quirk, motive, or challenge.
Because odds are, the reading public isn’t interested in your junior high waifu.
So find out what does interest them, and give it to them in a fresh way.
That’s the trick.
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