“Even truth needs to be clad in new garments if it is to appeal to a new age.” – Georg C. Lichtenberg, Born Jul. 1, 1742.
Are you one of those people who kicks yourself over wanting to be creative and original and fresh and new all the time?
That shit is hard, right?
Guess what?
You don't have to do that. If you want to seem wise and smart, borrow the wisdom of prior eras and smarter, wiser people.
Mooch their truth, and just adapt it. Re-tell it. Add unique details with a new angle or slight twist.
It takes very little for it to feel fresh.
And doing this is not only easier than trying to write like a genius all the damn time…
It actually creates that magical and powerful sensation in the reader…
Comfort of the familiar, combined with the delight of surprise.
If you can give people that feeling, you can make a billion trillion dollars like a latter day Michael Bay Transformers sequel cash in, y'all.
All it takes is to metaphorically snatch you some Aristotle and give him an ironic t-shirt to wear.
Why does this work?
Crap needs translation. It needs delivery from someone the audience sees as being like them. Look at Shakespeare. You practically have to translate ENGLISH into DIFFERENT ENGLISH for a modern person to get it at first.
But that was just how people talked back then. Shakespeare wasn't writing fancy – he was writing gussied-up gutter-talk. To us, though, it sounds fancy-pants.
And even Shakespeare was talking old stories like the murder of Caesar or Richard III, and framing them for his audience. Re explaining “truth” in a new way.
Try it when you're stuck for a smart idea.
Maybe, I don't know, pick a quote from some famous old dead person and use that to make your point. Milk it for truth and give it your own spin.
It works.
Or does it?