Complacency is the enemy of Creativity by Mike Coombes
Without making reference to duracel swords, or specific genres, or people, I'm getting pissed off.
COMPLACENCY IS THE ENEMY OF CREATIVITY
Whenever you accept the second rate as being adequate, something dies. Think of it like saying 'There's no such thing as fairies' to Tinkerbell. When you watch Pop Idol, American Idol, or whatever your local version is, and another Kareoke King or Queen is promoted to stardom, a fairy dies. When you watch a second rate film, and accept it because you like the actor/director/franchise, and you don't complain, a fairy dies.
Our youngest members, through no fault of their own, are growing up in a world where the second rate is the norm, where the book-serialisation-based-on-the-franchise fills bookshelves that should be occupied by authors with imagination and a willingness to think outside the box.
This is not a sentimental 'I remember the good old days' rant.
This is an appeal to anyone here who considers themselves a writer. Are you writing a rehash of something that's been done a thousand times before?
Are you wading knee deep in cliche? Are you ploughing the same old furrow?
To quote Mike Martin (still my favorite ever writing quote ever) It's about making things vibrate, writing with a hard-on. Does your writing make things vibrate? Does it give you a hard-on (metaphorical in your case, ladies)? If not, give up, try again.
To go back to the Pop Idol analogy, I saw a performance of 'Piece of my Heart' last night, the old Janis Joplin classic. Now JJ proved you didn't have to be technically very good as a singer to make it work.
The girl who sang last night was in tune, hit all the notes... but didn't GET it, didn't FEEL it... when I hear Joplin sing that, or almost any other song, I feel like she's opened up a window in her soul to let us see her pain, or her pleasure, or whatever the song means to her. She got the music, she felt it, she lived it.
Can you apply that to what you write? If not, try harder. Dig deeper. Or give up.
Rant over.
Any Questions at the back?
Mike C