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Creative WritingThe Indie Author Revolution
by:
Seth Mullins
I remember well the night I 1st detected
Nirvana. I was undone in wretched and ugly despondency, not wanting to talk to anyone and hating myself. I couldn't do out or articulate my inner state, even as to myself. There was no separating cause and effect. Then Kurt Cobain wove his uncanny spell. Suddenly I intimate my apathy, my sense of loneliness and alienation - even as my depression itself - all these emotions as EMPOWERING.
Talk just about waving your freak flag.
Nirvana's success made-up the road to recognition for a lot of else great underground bands like the Screaming Trees, the Meat Puppets, the Melvins; bands that provided a welcome alternative to the bland and patronizing music that was being force-fed to the masses by the industry. The "grunge" movement of the early '90's was the nearest my generation ever came to spiritual union. A community took root and grew, gathering misfits from every far-flung corner until it was massive enough to shake up the status-quo. This conflict snatched music from the hands of the corporate earth and delivered it back to the people. It was fueled not only by hard activity on the part of the bands, but likewise by word of mouth - and the priceless keep of independent labels, magazines and record stores.
The media generally didn't cognize what to do of it. Record companies were rethinking their strategies and scrambling to hop on the bandwagon. Oftentimes they fast onto the surface trappings - unkempt long hair, flannel shirts and stage-diving - and uncomprehensible
the spirit of the happening entirely. There was no Institute of the Arts wherever
one could go to discover how to translate the frustrations of the twenty-somethings into unchanged
music.
I miss the excitement of that time, the feeling that the ball was in our hands and we were finally going to see several movement and change.
There is an upheaval occuring now inside
the business enterprise industry that wish do it possible for a similar grass-roots movement to flourish through the medium of books and literature. Discomfited by the major business enterprise houses and their worship of the bottom line - and the moralist
surroundings wherein a handful of folk in New Royal family descend to decide what the rest of us wish see this year - ambitious authors are exploring alternatives like self- or print-on-demand publishing. They seek greater creative control (i.e., no editors or agents exigent forceful
alterations to authors' manuscripts based upon their psychological feature
of "what sells"), higher royalties, and the means to skirt about the powers that have heretofore been acting as the gatekeepers of the business enterprise world.
Effort hip to underground music required not only soul-searching and discrimination but likewise a fair figure of leg-work. The records were hard to find, and because they went mostly unnoticed
by radio and MTV one often didn't cognize which ones were worth birthing down one's hard-earned money for. An independently-thinking fantasy enthusiast faces a similar quandary now once
searching for thing
else than Harry Potter or recycled John ronald reuel tolkien to read.
Here the net
proves a valuable resource. Discussion groups, forums and chat-rooms have created cyber-tribes that congregate about every conceivable subject and interest. Word of mouth travels fast these days - and between millions of folk who've ne'er
even as met. Amazon.com has turned readers into reviewers. Authors have their own websites wherever
they post excerpts and sample chapters from their works. The net
is the ideal launching pad for the indie-book revolution, because it's taken tools antecedently
monopolized by corporate business enterprise and ready-made them accessible to us common folks. Books that, once upon a time, would've been rejected because they didn't fit into any cookie-cutter genres can now find a community to embrace them.
Ultimately, once
we as authors take our creative destiny into our own hands we're giving ourselves permission to BE OURSELVES - and allowing others a glimpse of our true nature.
A cultural climate wherever
new ideas proliferate - and are changed
- is an environment wherein the soul can expand and breathe. Art is meant to open the windows and air out the closets. It should not be bound, like Prometheus, to the rock of publisher shareowner
interests, chain bookstore monopolies and Oprah's selections of the month.
Seth Mullins is the author of "Song of an Ferine Land", a novel of frontier drama, musical prohibition and the spiritual quest. To browse or transfer
excerpts from his work, visit Seth at http://authorsden.com/sethtmullins.
This article is free for publishing
Seth Mullins is the author of "Song of an Ferine Land", a novel of speculative fantasy in lawless frontier territory. His nonfictional prose includes dissertations on the craft of writing, as well as the inner meanings of mythic and fantasy stories.
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