The Dying Future of Story-Telling

I recently posted a comment online asking whether story-telling and novel writing was dead? I think it is fading away, but let me expound…

Is Writing Traditional Novels Dead? This is a very good question. I think attention spans have diminished because of the Digital Age. Going forward Humanity will now be deeply dependent on non-traditional digital media for sharing stories which includes video, audio, and newer forms like virtual media. We cannot turn back the clock. This is the future. This means the traditional medium for story telling (books) will diminish. It’s not the end of books but it’s an analog medium that will fade away. The key to success to me is how to transfer deep, rich story telling to others who care to follow it?

The goal shouldn’t be selling books any longer but experimentation with story transfer to curious minds online. If the public buys into your fantasy worlds it’s more likely to happen in movies and invested in by others seeking to change your story for profit. Writers should stop trying to use books to reach that goal but try new media to expand into new ways of telling a good story. The reading and buying of books will still exist for the highly literate and imaginative. But some writers are trying different approaches, like subscriptions to chapters online, handing out smaller pieces of writing for free or a for a small micro-transaction or fee, using audio podcasts, writing short stories, etc. to survive in this new story-telling landscape and get eyeballs.

Personally, if you think about writing novels, the idea of fantasy stories was NEVER about the actual book or the author. A book was always the best (and only) medium for sharing one person’s fantasy story with others. That’s all it ever was. If that was the goal then how can we share stories in these new media platforms?

In the years ahead, I’m convinced that mythopoeia and myth-making opens up a revolutionary new means for self-exploration, for the evolution of improved cultural symbols, and creative story-telling that greatly enhances the fantasy book and movie experience. Without doing so with myths and ancient traditions revisited, movies will die, however, and fail to move us like they once did 30 years ago.

As I’ve said in my YouTube lectures men and women just have to stop putting their personal needs and desires in story like they do today. Stop the urban dystopia, dark romances, and perverted drama. That is what has killed the industry, as has cancel culture, political correctness, and this new phony Moral Authority created by our youth in 2020. The key to returning to great story-telling that captivates and enlivens culture is attaching once’s spirit and mind to what lies beyond the ego and see the world as the Creator; the world as a beautiful creation within and apart from one’s selfish desires.

Instead, this strong connection to the novel as secret romance or violent heroic desire means the novel itself as vehicle to imagination is doomed by the shallow modern tropes its stuck on!

It is also possible to see one’s stories as something beyond books; one’s work as a living spirit that transcends all medium. Why can’t story supersede the traditional medium it used to live in?

That’s why I too am considering posting my future stories online. It’s something I’m now debating, as my goal was never to make money selling books but to share revolutionary fresh new ideas with others and expand the art of fantasy story beyond the personal realm it seems mired in in 2020 by so many, many writers who write fiction.

Kicking down these doors seems exciting to me, so more to come on these ideas….

– the Author



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