#watching everyone freak out about a media personality because they're posting about a current popular mlm ship

[arahir]

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[storyworldofem]

So apparently this gorgeous beautiful post inspired me to rant/ramble. So here we go.

Everyone (including me) is wishing to be a pirate in a high fantasy world right now, and lots of us are also writing pirate stories.

And I'm not at all mad or worried that my novel won't stand out among them all.

Like, genuinely not even mad.

I understand why writers would be worried about writing "trendy" topics, and also why lots of writers are likely to write about pirates right now because they are "trendy".

But I think most of us are just genuinely, deeply, sincerely, wholeheartedly wanting to be pirates.

I remember being annoyed and frustrated back when vampires were the THING and how everyone were just writing about vampires and nothing else. And then werewolves came and went and I kinda rolled my eyes. And when dystopia became the only genre for a while I had the same frustrated, sort of angry reaction.

But pirates have been my thing since I was a chubby little toddler and saw Peter Pan for the first time, and they've continued being my thing all my life.

(Hell, I even had a pirate themed graduation party when I got my bachelor's degree. It was the best. There was a skull made of cauliflower and everyone dressed up, and then we watched pirate movies.)

Through Pirates of the Caribbean and Our Flag Means Death and all the other million pirate shows and movies and books and every other media, pirates have become OUR thing.

Becoming fictional pirates for a while helps us feel some semblance of control and freedom in our lives that don't always feel like they're fully ours to live.

I've been escaping to pirate princess fantasies since I was a tiny little kid who wasn't invited to birthday parties and who was weak and small and scared of everything. In those fantasies I fought snake kings (because I was deathly afraid of snakes as a kid) and ruled my own pirate island where everyone were friends and nobody was left alone. And of course Peter Pan and the lost boys (and the secret group of assassin lost girls who were just never talked about because they were Peter's secret weapon) were there and helped me fight evil pirates. Those daydreams are still so vivid in my mind and influence my writing to this day.

So I'm not mad that pirates are so popular.

I'm more like, "FINALLY! YES! This is what my whole life has been building up to!"

At some point my pirate daydreams ended as I grew up, but a few years ago I started daydreaming about my own piratey novel that I'm currently writing. And now, because of the fandom world's collective adoration for pirate tales has grown stronger than ever, I'm getting so much inspiration from everywhere around me and it is like this book is now writing itself.

I'm so freaking excited about all the new pirate stories that will appear everywhere soon.

Because the way I see it, we all deserve to see ourselves in a pirate story.

There can never be too many pirate stories because each one is written for a different kind of person. Now, hopefully, everyone will be able to find the story that makes them become a pirate, too.

Escapism is a beautiful thing. And it's even more beautiful when we can all escape this terrible world together.

The more pirates the merrier.

wish i was a pirate in a high fantasy world