Published: May 18, 2016 11:24:00 AM

are-you-the-creator.gifGeek culture is made up. It's a brass-knuckled money-grab executed by men of excessive monetary value aiming their cash-lust at a nostalgic generation's disposable income. It's consumerism channeled through a marketable antithetical taste. It's also only as real, or fake, as "sports culture" or "yard-maintenance culture."

Geek culture needn't define you -- if it does, "the terrorists win," as the former-President, and unprosecuted war-criminal, George W. Bush, used to say.

You can buy into geek culture, the same way you can buy into any other culture, considering money is forever a demonstration of good taste. With money, comes a market, so you may wonder how to write about geek culture?

I'd rather drink poison than participate in what a balance sheet calls "geek culture." Its most visible organs are slithering, baby-mutant appendages, whacking at anyone who would get close. This is a defense-mechanism that the geek no longer needs. Geek culture needs a reboot.

How can we steer this ship?

How To Write About Geek Culture

Always consider your audience. Following the logic, geeks are people who know stuff, everybody has a know-stuff-machine in their pocket these days, so by the transitive property (math, agewwwwhew-hew!!), geeks are everybody, and everybody is a geek. Upon consideration, I'm putting a moratorium on the term "geek." The proper term is: neuro. They just want to know things, from front to back. The unifying feature of a geek-type is their willingness to know stuff. They are willing to explore the deep specifics of arcane knowledge for whatever it is that interests them.

Perhaps they possess uncommon knowledge? That isn't the point: they want to know MORE.

Wait, Why Do We Write About Geek Culture?

They want to know. They want to think. Want to know how to write, say, a blog post for that audience?

They, geeks, neuros, are juiced up by thinking and learning. Before a kid goes into school to discuss her Minecraft creation with others at her elementary school, she studies the software's functionality. Before a pro StarCraft II player like Jaedong goes into battle, he studies his opponent. Before a thirty-something goes to see Captain America: Civil War, he reads background on the characters' legacies and the current movies' status quo.

Before playing in a football game, Tom Brady studies. Yes, Virginia, Tom Brady is a huge freaking thinker.

A neuro is curious about what was, where we are, and then speculates on what's next.

That's why we write about these things. Because there's curiosity.

To tie it back to the financial viability of what some would like to call a "consumerist subculture," there's a market for STUFF here. There is a desire.

How To Write About Geek Culture

Like anything, you gotta bite, man. You gotta be vicious, aware, obscure, and demonstrative. Slather your writing with all the knowledge you can, and it's not just a matter of knowing things, it's accepting things. Expand the audience.

If you want to know how to write toward that audience, have personality!

If the geek culture is to open, all potential audiences must be attracted. Open as many doors as you can.

That's what knowing things is: it's a desire to know more, reaching out, trying to earn first-hand experience from the entire world. There is an inwardness in writing (and "content") for neuros nowadays. It's exclusive. It's insular. It's downright conservative.

To write about geek culture is to be willing to learn, to ask questions. It isn't about knowing more, or lording that knowledge over others. If you do, you're no better than a fifteenth-century Catholic mass conducted in Latin.

Hey, how about that? I just blasted exclusionary geeks and organized religion.

How do you write toward the modern geek culture?

  • No self- deprecation
  • Don't take yourself seriously, but definitely take the work seriously
  • A willingness to change your mind
  • No numbered scoring for products

Enough with the self-loathing and pity. I understand that the moment a geek enters "normal" society, they're no longer an underdog, and then will have a harder time punching up, but it's time.

If we are to elevate the geek culture to common parliance, and let's face it, it already is (thanks, Game of Thrones), you cannot be The Most Serious Person In The World. Treat the written material with the respect it deserves, but ease back on the throttle regarding the IMPORTANCE. The audience decides how important something is.

Change your mind in things. It's okay to hate your old work or opinions. Everyone has an infinite memory on the internet. That's why Ghost Little's archives go all the way back to 2011.

And don't score stuff. You're a tastemaker, not the quality-assurance police.

What's Good Geek Culture Writing Look Like?

Easy:

Now get out of here. You have lives to change.

-- Alex Crumb
Twitter | Facebook

Share this post on:
    

Want new books to read? Ghost Little publishes original fiction and free books to read online via the button below—Amazon Kindle versions also available!

PLACEHOLDER LINK

Tagged topics in this post: how to write

Ghost Little blog

The Ghost Little blog publishes EVERY WEEKDAY. It's sometimes immediately relevant to the books' development process. Other times, it's only thematically-relevant. Thoughts and ideas influence the creative process in ways that you wouldn't initially anticipate. They're all worth detailing and discussing!

Subscribe to blog and show your support!

Free books to read online, or download to your device—click the image below!

Recent articles

Share this post on: