This morning on Twitter a Hollywood insider (who shall remain anonymous) warned that another round of 1950's style witch hunts and blacklisting is likely. Suspected of being on the wrong side? Get out of town.
Amazon, the biggest marketplace in human history, which sells the vast majority of books worldwide, removes books with content that's politically unpopular. Expect them to start refusing sell books by certain people next, regardless of the content. What publisher is going to invest in a book that Amazon won't sell?
Joe Rogan is being muzzled on Spotify. Dan Bongino is banned from YouTube. The list grows longer every week.
Cancel culture is real. Frankly, it's been a part of Hollywood since its beginning. Just look into the story of Fatty Arbuckle, the silent film star who was cancelled in 1922. Things aren't apt to change anytime soon.
And I'm here to tell you that now is a great time to be a storyteller. Now, today, might be the best time ever to be a creative person with a tale to tell and a song to sing.
Here are just a few reasons why:
1) The education is free and readily available
The best way to learn about anything is to study the best, which in this case means reading lots of books or watching lots of movies. But if we don't understand what we're seeing, we're often left trying to reinvent the wheel.
For a long time the only way to learn story theory, to really get down to the nuts and bolts of how to build an effective narrative, you had to go to film school. Now you can get the same information on YouTube (ironic, huh?). The library has approachable books, and while some of them have been around for decades now the average student can find them.
And it's not just story theory that's free to learn. Anything you could want or need to know is out there.
2) We have the technology
Back in the 50s Hollywood had a monopoly on moviemaking. The lights, the cameras, and the (financial) action were all out of reach. Things started to change in the early 80s when some crazy kids from Detroit made a horror movie in a Tennessee cabin. They managed to use it to break into Hollywood, but if made now it would go straight to the internet (and that's a good thing).
Real movies are shot on smartphones. Professional grade editing software isn't just available to everyone, but it's sometimes free with a library card. Got a story to tell? There's no excuse not to get out there and make it real. You don't need permission from Hollywood or anyone else.
If you want to write and sell books, just remember that Amazon isn't the only game in town.
3) There's a hunger
People are starving for real stories. Mainstream media is busy walking that fine line between not saying anything ever has been or ever will be controversial and pushing the agenda du jour. What's lost is everything that makes stories live and breath.
Movie theater attendance was declining before the government told everyone to stay home. It's still not great. Is it because no one wanted to go to the theater, or because the offerings are unappealing? And who was the last, big, break-out author? Do we have a new King, Clancy, or Steel on the horizon? No. No, we do not. We're bored. We're tired. We're ready for something new.
Conclusion
I can hear you saying, "But what about distribution? If Hollywood, YouTube, Amazon, et. al. are against us how do we stand a chance?" And to that I say, "Don't worry about it."
Write the book. Make the movie. Put more truth and beauty out into the world. If it's truly great, the audience will find it somewhere, somehow. But if it's never created in the first place, there's nothing to find. It's not wasted time if you make your corner of the world a better place.
The bands we all love started playing in the local bars. If they got a worldwide record deal, great. If they only brought joy to themselves and their neighbors, that was okay too.
We don't have to "make it big," so much as we just have to "it."
If you want to know more about Fatty Arbuckle and Hollywood's long history of cancel culture, read Tinseltown by William J. Mann. The link, as always, gives me a little kickback: https://amzn.to/3BL66Mm