Why Do We As Humans Hate Change?

Why do we hate change so much? That question is as old as the world. I have my own theory.

We hate change because it requires us to rethink the way things have been in the past. We hate change because it requires us to rethink our mindset about the way things should be. Let me explain.

For years the publishing industry has condition us to read books written in a certain way. They have also conditioned their authors to write in a certain way. In other words if you read a James Patterson novel you will see that each book has the same story line, the same type of character and the same setting just different cities. This never changes. The reason is simple, by doing this he can crank out three books a year with no effort on his part. The publishing industry is happy and he is happy. It is a win win.

He is just one of many who come to mind. I have been reading books since before I started school way back in the day. The more I read the more the story lines stayed the same. As much as I enjoyed the late Robert B. Parker he also wrote the same thing over and over and over again. Different day same plot, same everything.

See how this is working? We are conditioned to accept the same thing over and over and over again. These authors get caught in a rut because it is demanded by their publisher. It is easy money because subtly the reading public is sucked into the swirling madness of the publishing industry. We never see it coming until …. well most of us never see it coming at all.

Now, this brings me to another point of this blog. The movie industry. The same thing happens here as well. The same old tired plots whether it is action, or romance or whatever, we are conditioned to accept what is thrown out there as gospel. When someone like a Tim Burton and a Johnny Depp dare to take a “classic” and rework it most get their panties in a wad. The reason is simple. They have been conditioned to accept the “norm”.  I have heard well no one can do it like Jonathan Frid.

Hello! Tim Burton knew this. That is probably why he chose to take it in a new direction.  Please people, think for yourself. Stop living in the past, there is nothing there. Stop living in a vacuum. Yes, Dark Shadows is a classic, but remember it was redone several years ago with a new cast and trust me it was not the original by any stretch of the imagination. The few episodes I saw were stilted and not well done. There was no passion.

The point of this blog is this.  While there is nothing new under the sun, there are always new and inventive ways of changing things up. For instance there will always be crime stories true crime, fiction crime, etc. But do we always have to read the same plot line the same tired trip from first page to last? No, we don’t that is why when you read my books be they true crime or crime fiction you don’t have a clue as to what you are getting. I refuse to be in that box. My true crimes are raw, explicit and un -sanitized.  I refuse to sugar coat anything that is done to the victims. They deserve better. Yes, I have been criticized for it. My answer to that is simply don’t read my books if you can’t stand the facts.

My crime fiction is the same way. It is what it is. You will not sit and turn the page bored out of your skull. Because you don’t know what the next page will bring. You can only guess and most times the guess is wrong. This is called change. This is called thinking outside the box. This is called taking care of your readers. People who read my books can say anything they want about them. But the one thing they can’t say is they were bored, that is unless they refuse to understand why I write the way I do or they are just plain stupid. And I have had a few of those comment but we all do.

I would much rather read a book that I had no clue where it was headed than to sit down start one and less than half way through the book know how it will end. I do this all the time with shows on TV I know how it will end because they are all written the same way.

This brings me back to Dark Shadows- we all know Barnabas is a Vamp that is a given what we don’t know is how is he going to handle the 21 century. That is what will make this excellent. We know that Johnny Depp brings a new dimension to the Character and we know that Depp is Depp no matter who he plays.

So instead of trashing what you don’t know embrace what you do and run with it. You won’t be sorry, remember “Twilight-” Who says Vamps can’t handle the sun?