Frustration with the Genre
I'll finally admit it openly: I am frustrated with the fantasy genre.
The endless Facebook ads of dragons this, sex that, coming-of-age this, and forbidden magic that have all worn me down to a little nub. Why, you ask. Simple. There is so much more out there than all of this. These tropes, even though I've used them and have begun to maybe resent that, are so worn out after most of the indie ads I see are trying to cap the fantasy crazed sparked by Martin's TV success with Game of Thrones.
What started this all was I recently saw an ad on Facebook that stuck out to me. It was an indie author of course who PROMISED a youth-friendly fantasy romp about a mixed-heritage boy, something about magic rocks, etc. As always when I read Amazon pages for indie books I check the 1 star reviews first and read my way up. Again, why, you ask? It's a personal thing where I dislike five star reviews. I'm a hair jaded against them after seeing too many *5 Stars: This (insert product here) is amazing! BLAH BLAH BLAH.* I can't stand shallow things.
Now I know that any star reviews can be that, but I've developed a my own method.
One and two star reviews can hold a lot of truth, a lot of unbiased truth that breaks through the clods. Such that several one star reviews all mentioned the same thing: the author used sex and rape and blood shed as a shock factor and not for much progress. Dragons used as a godlike being, etc.
And it bothers me. A whole heck of a lot.
There is so much more to fantasy, or any genre. Example: take horror for example. A lot of people try to piggyback the Cthullu mythos when Stephen King has been writing about haunted cars for decades.
The other thing that's bothering me is how a lot of them are falling into a structure based so specifically on the hero's journey. Young person finds magic, finds mentor, loses mentor, fights evil, stops evil, goes home. Done.
By now you might think I'm insane, but I won't argue that Rising Seas or Regolith or Dragonsbane are much different. They might be, but I never really analyzed them.
The bit about dragons bothers me in part because there is so much more to the bestiary of fantasy than dragons and zombies. Let's try talking chimera, or manticore. Show me a Mind Flayer or a Skeleton King. I'll take a terrible rip off of Frankenstein's Monster for god's sake! JUST STOP WITH THE DRAGONS! Personally, it's come to the point where I don't even want to use dragons in Dragonsbane (ironically) anymore. I want to avoid them just to be different.
I know there is more to fantasy, and I know its out there. I'm not talking best sellers, I want all the indie writers to get better, to raise the bar, to shake off the chains that bind them to thinking they have to tell the same tales and beat them to death!
And unfortunately, I suppose that might start with me.
The endless Facebook ads of dragons this, sex that, coming-of-age this, and forbidden magic that have all worn me down to a little nub. Why, you ask. Simple. There is so much more out there than all of this. These tropes, even though I've used them and have begun to maybe resent that, are so worn out after most of the indie ads I see are trying to cap the fantasy crazed sparked by Martin's TV success with Game of Thrones.
What started this all was I recently saw an ad on Facebook that stuck out to me. It was an indie author of course who PROMISED a youth-friendly fantasy romp about a mixed-heritage boy, something about magic rocks, etc. As always when I read Amazon pages for indie books I check the 1 star reviews first and read my way up. Again, why, you ask? It's a personal thing where I dislike five star reviews. I'm a hair jaded against them after seeing too many *5 Stars: This (insert product here) is amazing! BLAH BLAH BLAH.* I can't stand shallow things.
Now I know that any star reviews can be that, but I've developed a my own method.
One and two star reviews can hold a lot of truth, a lot of unbiased truth that breaks through the clods. Such that several one star reviews all mentioned the same thing: the author used sex and rape and blood shed as a shock factor and not for much progress. Dragons used as a godlike being, etc.
And it bothers me. A whole heck of a lot.
There is so much more to fantasy, or any genre. Example: take horror for example. A lot of people try to piggyback the Cthullu mythos when Stephen King has been writing about haunted cars for decades.
The other thing that's bothering me is how a lot of them are falling into a structure based so specifically on the hero's journey. Young person finds magic, finds mentor, loses mentor, fights evil, stops evil, goes home. Done.
By now you might think I'm insane, but I won't argue that Rising Seas or Regolith or Dragonsbane are much different. They might be, but I never really analyzed them.
The bit about dragons bothers me in part because there is so much more to the bestiary of fantasy than dragons and zombies. Let's try talking chimera, or manticore. Show me a Mind Flayer or a Skeleton King. I'll take a terrible rip off of Frankenstein's Monster for god's sake! JUST STOP WITH THE DRAGONS! Personally, it's come to the point where I don't even want to use dragons in Dragonsbane (ironically) anymore. I want to avoid them just to be different.
I know there is more to fantasy, and I know its out there. I'm not talking best sellers, I want all the indie writers to get better, to raise the bar, to shake off the chains that bind them to thinking they have to tell the same tales and beat them to death!
And unfortunately, I suppose that might start with me.
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