What if you just… didn’t?
A little inspiration, from a creator I know nothing about
“I started (doing this) with a lot of lingering ideas around how these types of things (podcasts) should be made. All of us consume media. And we see things we love, and we think; “That was incredible. I loved this thing. Therefore I think that’s cool, and I want to do what that did, because that’s how you make cool stuff”. So in season one, I felt somewhat burdened by this idea that there were certain things you had to do if you wanted to do it right. Or cool. As of season two, I realized… who cares?! I don’t even like this stuff. I feel like I’m supposed to do that stuff, but what if I just… didn’t.”
Xen, from Third Person
A creator I know nothing about. Don’t even know what they look like. Had to look up how to spell their name. But I know their work. I know their voice. I know their incredible, reality-bending, genre-bending, genre-defying, genre-defining story: Midst. The story that made me look forward to my hour-and-a-half commute because it meant I could listen to it. The story that made me feel immensely intimidated about trying to write sci-fi, and then intensely motivated because fuck it, we all start somewhere, and no one knows where it’s all going in the end. And it’s ok to start with an idea, the bare bones of an idea. A fluttering moth of an idea that can barely fly on its own and is blurry around the edges if you try and look too close. But it’s a start. And as long as you start. You can go someplace incredible. Even if you have no idea where that could possibly be when you start.
So yes. Listen to Midst. It will change the way you think about sci-fi. And, if you’re anything like me, it’ll change the way you think about stories—and the right way or wrong way to go about telling them.
Because there is no right way. “The tool is not the product.” How you create doesn’t dictate what you can create. And the end result doesn’t dictate how you go about getting there.
There is no right way or wrong way. No better way. No perfect way.
There’s just the story.
Tell it.
About The Author
Franky writes things you might consider stories, and is never in the last place you left her. She writes fantasy, fairytales, and things you don’t realise are stories until after you’ve finished reading them. Consider yourself warned.
Check out her most recent story in the genre bending collection; Vanthology, or find her work in the Edinburgh Arts Anthology, Factor Four Magazine, and right here on her website. You can read her essays on Medium, connect over on LinkedIn, or shoot her a message right here.
