Want to be popular? Try a fish out of water

Dogs are Smarter than People podcast We’ve started a series of paid and free posts and podcast episodes about writing bestsellers. Our first post about this is here. To see them all just look up “hit novel” or “bestselling” in the search bar. Whew. Blah. Blah. Blah. Right? Not a bestselling way to start a podcast episode. What’s a better way? Well, according to Jack Hall who wrote Hit Lit, “In most bestsellers, there’s a central character who sets off on a journey that takes her from rustic America into turbulent urban landscapes, where her agrarian values either help her succeed or doom her to failure. Almost as often, the heroes of bestsellers make an exodus in the opposite direction, from the pressures of cities to the bucolic countryside.” Think the Epic of Gilgamesh. Think the Wizard of Oz. Think Star Wars. Think Twilight. Think Outlander. Jason Hellerman for NoFilmSchool writes, “The "fish out of water" idiom refers to a character who is removed from their normal day to day and has to catch up with their new outlook on the world. This writing trope is very popular in TV pilot episodes, action movies, and across almost any genre. “If the character adapts fast to the new environment, it's said they are like ‘a duck takes to water.’" You might be a city girl in the country or a country boy in the city or just a Hallmark Christmas movie character, but there’s something that resonates in that trope, something that makes a bestseller. Hall takes it a bit deeper saying that it’s about mythic identities. We see it in elections. The midwestern dad VP choice. The hillbilly boy done good VP choice. The outsider. The insider. We create myths where every single person in the middle of America is a part of “Heartland” full of “hardworking blue-collar” peeps. “Red state vs blue state. Working-class vs corporate elite. Virtuous vs decadent,” Hall writes. These polarities become mythic, gigantic, and they popularize stereotypes and polarize views. “While we all know these labels are bogus, they are so ingrained in our sense of national identity that we reflexively embrace them even as we discount their accuracy,” Hall writes. Books that argue both sides of these polarities and tensions? They tend to be the bestsellers. DOG TIP OF THE POD Don’t be afraid to explore new experiences to make the best story of your life that you can! RANDOM THOUGHT LINKS https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2024/09/21/mouse-airplane-meal-emergency-landing/75324632007 https://shepherdexpress.com/puzzles/news-of-the-weird/news-of-the-weird-week-of-october-3-2024 SHOUT OUT! The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.  Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free. WE HAVE EXTRA CONTENT ALL ABOUT LIVING HAPPY OVER HERE! It's pretty awesome. We have a podcast, LOVING THE STRANGE, which we stream biweekly live on Carrie’s Facebook and Twitter and YouTube on Fridays. Her Facebook and Twitter handles are all carriejonesbooks or carriejonesbook. But she also has extra cool content focused on writing tips here. Carrie is reading one of her raw poems every once in awhile on CARRIE DOES POEMS. And there you go! Whew! That's a lot! Subscribe