Genre hopping into survival thrillers made perfect sense
A Red Dawn-style invasion at a K-pop concert hijacked my brain and refused to let go. That’s when survival thrillers went from ‘someday’ to ‘write this now.’
I’d always been interested in survival thrillers, or at least dystopian fiction, for years. I’d always dreamed of writing my own, but once upon a time, I followed the formula of sticking with one niche or genre.
That changed in 2023, when a Red Dawn-like story bombarded my mind. Naturally, it’d take place at a K-pop concert since that was my main jam then, as it kind of is now.
I’d been following bands and artists like Blackpink, Twice, Yena, and, toward the tail end of the year, Yuqi, who may be my favorite of the bunch. It’s funny because most fans think of I-DLE, but I’ve always been more for the single artist; one reason Blackpink and Twice have taken a backseat in recent years.
That’s when a story of a dude who went through his own personal hell to get what he wanted in life found himself entwined with a K-pop idol who’d gone through a manufactured brand of hell to transform into a global icon.
And boom, Beyond the Lost Horizon was born. But why even take time to write it when I had the Renegades Epic to deal with?
I know I’ve said this before: I crave variety. But I needed to prove to myself that I could tell a story that punched you in the gut with realism but still carried the torch of liberty. That’s what Beyond the Lost became.
The theme-first approach has always been the golden ticket
Listen, you may catch me genre-hopping into survival thrillers, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But I’ll never be caught dead theme-hopping. You know I’m libertarian as f*ck, and the older I get, the more set I am in my worldview.
Readers ultimately realize that I don’t need to tell my stories in one specific genre. Instead, my work is ideologically driven and disguised as genre fiction.
No, it won’t win ‘best-seller’ status, but who the hell cares about awards when you’re part of the liberty movement? Besides, I’m on a mission that Ron Paul had given me and other liberty-minded content creators. That’s who I’m writing for.
Because formulaic genre fiction is so f*cking boring
Might be an unpopular, minority opinion here, but the second I say, “Hey, I’ve read this before, just with a different setting and different characters,” I usually put it down.
I remember reading the Beyond Trilogy by Kate L. Mary and loved it. Then I read another one of her works, Outliers, I think it was, and realized it was basically a retelling of Beyond. At least from a formulaic perspective.
Not a bad trilogy, and I’d go as far to say I enjoyed it. But it gave me no reason to read any of her work since, even if I’m sure they’re fantastic, and her readers love them. And if that’s what matters, then screw my opinion. Mary can keep rocking and rolling, and so can other authors who follow similar formulas.
As for me, I’d go f*cking crazy, and I’m sure my readers would wanna smack me upside the head if I “sold out” on them. So I’ll bore neither them nor myself with simple genre formulas that’ve been told time and again.
Uniqueness in a world of sameness
I think a lot of people claim we’re more diverse now than ever. In many cases, that’s true. But god forbid if you advocate thought diversity, especially if people look down at those thoughts as “wrongthink.”
Oh, you’re a libertarian? You critique DEI and ESG? You hate mass, public schooling? You don’t like fiat money? And you advocate personal responsibility and sovereignty?
You must be a hateful fascist who doesn’t care about children and poor people, TC. There, I just called you three different names, so I don’t have to argue with you because I’m so insecure in my worldview.
Yeah, that’s what I mean by sameness. Honestly, we’re diverse until someone’s got enough balls to question the unwritten rulebook of perceived, manmade morality.
And regardless of the genre you read these days, they all preach the same godd*mn thing: Safe wording and editing designed to offend nobody, simple genre formulas that could turn into a Netflix adaptation, and watered-down messaging of that manmade morality.
Oh, and if a reader dares to disagree with that perceived morality, then they must obviously have issues. Seriously, SMFH.
So, I’ll keep genre-hopping, even if the themes stay intact. I’ll keep pumping out fantasy fiction, survival thrillers, political fantasy thrillers, and whatever else my brain decides to concoct. If you’d like a sample of what I’m all about, then get a copy of that 37,000-word survival thriller. It’s not long, but it’ll leave a mark.
