Critique from a zine maker in Detroit made me ignore all the crowd favorites

Met this older guy at a punk show in Detroit last fall. He looked at my writing prompts and said the popular tropes were just lazy shortcuts. He gave me an example about a janitor finding a hidden room, but said to focus on the smells and sounds instead of the spooky reveal. I've been writing way different ever since, ignoring the stuff that gets upvoted to the top. Anyone else get advice that goes against what everyone else says?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahhernandez1d ago

That's the thing, people get so obsessed with following the formula they forget what made them want to write in the first place. It's like how everyone in my neighborhood just goes to the same three chain restaurants instead of trying the hole-in-the-wall place that's been there for forty years because the reviews online aren't perfect.

rubyj112d ago

That advice about smells and sounds is gold, honestly. It reminds me of this zine I picked up once that was all about describing a city bus stop through just the gum stuck under the seats. Taking that "janitor finds a hidden room" idea and making it about the damp concrete and the weird sweet smell of old wiring really does change everything. Plus when you ignore the crowd favorites, you stop trying to write for an audience and start writing for the feeling itself, which is way more punk if you ask me.