Open Letter to All Indie Creators

Or; The Attack of the Clones

Dear indie creator,

I feel there’s a yearning right now to move beyond the Tolkien clones Del Rey unleashed upon the world, beyond the off-brand superhero clones churned out by the indies. The desire is to find new kinds of stories—tackling issues past writers couldn’t (different era) and current writers won’t (censorship).

The number one thing that separates an indie creator from a mainstream creator is that you can do anything. So why settle for a crappy rehash of something that’s been done to death?

They say you are what you eat. Well, as a writer, you are what you read. If you only read superhero comics, for example, you’ll never be able to write a superhero epic that goes beyond the expected. And if you don’t want to go beyond the expected, then why on earth are you even doing it?

Do you have a problem with trees? Do you want to shove more junk down the insatiable maw of Amazon?

The world doesn’t need another generic fantasy story of orcs fighting elves. Who wants to read yet another superhero tale of a caped hero battling bank robbers or Nazis?

Personally, I want to write stories that no one has written yet. Yes, I’m inspired by the likes of Howard and Lovecraft, but I don’t carbon-copy them. “I was inspired by Conan,” a writer says, presenting a story where the barbarian fights—not a giant ape, but a giant ManBearPig. Were you really “inspired”?

Wiktionary defines “inspired” as: “Having excellence through inspiration.” Doing the same old, same old does not excellence make.

If you enjoy Frank Miller’s work, apply his techniques to a story he hasn’t touched. Write about things you deeply care about—ask yourself: Is my story worth telling? Does it bring some important insight into the world? Yes, “message fiction” is bad, but all good stories have a point—a reason to exist.

This fall, I have a new short story coming out set against a pro wrestling backdrop. Part of the reason I wrote it is that I’ve never seen wrestling depicted in a way that truly captures the appeal of its beautiful weirdness—not in comics, not in that Aronofsky’s movie, not anywhere.

So I wrote one myself. Write the stories you want to see in the wild.