World-Building

James Cameron’s biggest blunder

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I’m a big fan of Avatar by James Cameron.

The film with the blue people. Not the series about the 4 types of benders, although I love that one as well.

I’ve been a big fan of the first film ever since it released in 2009. I still remember how hyped 9-year-old Alex was after first seeing the film. The whole film was set in such a lively world, the universe was constructed perfectly, and an insane amount of money went into production, mostly toward world-building.

It was mind-blowing how amazing of an experience it was to watch that movie for the first time on the big screen. It truly was a moment I could experience for a second time.

So when the second film Avatar: The Way of Water released late 2022, I just I had to see it. And so I did. It was a good and entertaining film, don’t get me wrong. But it wasn’t a masterpiece.

Far from it.

The visuals were there. The world was, once again, amazing. The music, oh don’t get me started on the music. If you know me, then you already know how much I can geek out over film music. I truly love the music. They did a great job with that.

But it’s the story that felt flat for me. The writing could’ve been a lot better.

And there are a lot of improvements to be made. From pacing to consistency, plotholes, and overall dialogue. But that’s not what I’ll be talking about today.

Let me also add how it wasn’t all bad. There was a lot of good writing as well. Wordbuilding, especially creating a believable world, takes good writing, and they nailed that one.

But the thing that troubles me is this.

You should know that James Cameron made the series into a political commentary.

The argument Cameron makes is how bad greed and consumerism have gotten in today’s day and age, as represented by the humans in the film. And how we should reconnect and live in harmony with nature like the Na’vi are doing.

The human faction wants to destroy everything that lives and breathes on Pandora (the planet where the Na’vi lives) so that they can mine a rare and valuable ore that’s suitably called ‘unobtanium’. And they’re doing all of this purely for profit.

Now. here’s the thing. Consumerism is having an enormous effect on the planet. Animal species are going extinct. Lots of beautiful places on Earth are being destroyed. We aren’t in tune with nature anymore. Most people don’t even blink when they hear that another 1,000 new animal species are now endangered.

There’s nothing wrong there. And many people agree with those statements. It seems like the messaging Cameron made in Avatar should resonate with people—except it didn’t.

And that’s because of the bad writing.

The short story is this: Avatar is propaganda. Let me explain.

Here’s the definition of propaganda: “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.”

James Cameron’s Avatar is highly biased because the problem isn’t being explored well enough.

Let’s look at some examples:

• All humans (except for the 4 main characters or something) are pure evil, don’t have any regard for nature or animal lives and gladly engage in killing and genocide

• All Na’vi are perfect, virtuous, and noble creatures. Nobody does anything wrong and they all work together as one harmonious group in tune with nature and morally superior.

• The only reason humans want the unobtanium is for pure profit and nothing else

James Cameron makes shows his message yes, but he doesn’t explore it. He shows the good things about the Na’vi, and the bad side of the humans. He entirely disregards the bad side of the Na’vi and the good side of the humans.

Imagine these situations:

• The humans still kill and do everything for unobtanium, but instead of doing it for pure profit, they need it to save the Earth or keep their space fleets (and all the people on it) alive

• The Na’vi are still in tune with nature and protect both fauna and flora as good as possible, but they sometimes attack other Na’vi tribes and take prisoners to turn them into slaves

That’s what exploring is. You take an idea and you fully explore both sides. The good and the bad.

Because right now? It’s simply too perfect. The audience can’t relate. People think that when something seems too perfect and has 0 flaws whatsoever, it’s probably fake. And rightly so, that’s what you should think.

This is the audience’s objection to Cameron’s idea. An objection to what he’s trying to sell them. An objection to his offer.

And this isn’t unique to political commentaries or films. This is a true objection to every single offer out there. Even to yours.

How do you solve that objection?

Be honest, be transparent. Your offer probably isn’t for everyone. It won’t magically solve all their problems. So just say so.

Tell people what your product does good and who it’s for, but also routinely mention who shouldn’t buy your offer. What your offer doesn’t help people do and where it potentially lacks a bit.

If you want to sell your offer, then it helps to point out the flaws. After all, nobody buys something that’s trying to come across as perfect.

Something else that helps you if you want to sell your offer, especially if you want to sell it through email, is my Email Valhalla.

I’m not going to tell you what’s so great about it and how you can easily get paid every single day by writing simple emails and keeping your readers engaged.

No. Instead let me tell you who this isn’t for.

This isn’t for you if you don’t like to write. My system relies on writing. I send emails every single day. If you merely tolerate writing and only want to send an email once a week, then this isn’t for you.

It also won’t teach you how to set up email sequences. That’s not what it’s about.

First of all, I don’t use any email sequences myself, not yet at least. I don’t have experience with it, let alone gotten results with sequences. So I won’t act like I know all about it. With that said, you’ll find 0 modules, tips, tricks, or anything else related to email sequences.

This isn’t a one-and-done system. It’s not an “automated cash machine” and “get rich quick” course, a marketing angle other creators like to embrace when it comes to email courses.

No it’s none of that. It’s the most important methods, frameworks, and rules/guidelines of selling through email. It teaches you the fundamentals in a clear and step-by-step manner that I haven’t seen other courses do.

It allows you to make money every single day through writing emails that take you 20 minutes to write, grow your list, keep your readers engaged, and live a free life. No hassle, no “money while you sleep”, no fancy stuff.

If that doesn’t sound like anything for you, then don’t get it.

If it does sound interesting to you, then check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Why are all dwarves Scottish?

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So here’s a question for you.

If you’re anything like me—an avid enjoyer of fantasy—you might have noticed how almost all dwarves in popular media nowadays get portrayed as Scottish.

(Something that’s, as I’ve recently learned, not unique to just dwarves, Vikings often get the same treatment in modern media—just look at How To Train Your Dragon).

But why?

I thought about this just a few days ago when, for both educational and inspirational reasons, I started playing The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt for the first time ever (yes I know, shame on me, should’ve played it already a long time ago).

In the game, you’ll come across many species, including dwarves, which are all portrayed as Scots.

This isn’t the only case, far from it.

At first, you might rightly want to point fingers at Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings—like almost every fantasy trope out there.

Simply watch the films and you’ll confirm that idea.

Except, Dwarves were never mentioned or hinted to be Scottish in Tolkien’s original books. If anything, they appeared to be Jewish more than anything else.

So where do you go looking for historical fantasy influences if not for Tolkien’s works?

That’s right, Gary Gygax’s Dungeons & Dragons.

And you’d be mostly correct.

It so turns out that the Scottish Dwarf can be traced back to early D&D novels. Some sources say Gary Gygax was influenced by yet another work of fiction a few decades before there was any mention of Dungeon & Dragons at all.

But that’s truly the end of our little rabbit hole.

Either way.

If someone mentions Dwarves in today’s day and age, chances are you’ll think of a short, red-headed, somewhat chubby, little fellow, going around, throwing out insults with his Scottish accent while wielding either an axe or a pickaxe in his hand.

Because as everyone knows…

If a dwarf ain’t a blacksmith or a miner, he ain’t no dwarf.

And that’s all because of one man who knew what he wanted to do, was passionate about his work, didn’t let anyone else tell them what he could or couldn’t do, and wouldn’t shut up about it until he was sure everyone knew what he was working on—and even then he’d keep on talking about it day after day, because that’s how much he enjoyed it.

Goes to show you the power of persistently sharing your work and talking about your interests.

As far as that goes nowadays, there’s simply no better way to do so than through daily email.

To learn more about how to go about writing daily emails, click here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


I love the Transformer movies

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And I’m not afraid to say it.

See.

Ever since I was young, I remember loving the Transformer franchise, getting multiple Transformers action figures as Christmas and birthday gifts and whatnot, and when I outgrew those action figures, I ended up spending hours playing Transformer video games.

I eventually outgrew those.

But then I started getting fascinated by film music, at which point I was deeply obsessed with—among others—the original Transformer soundtracks by Steve Jablonsky, and later got fascinated by filmmaking as a whole.

And look, the Transformer movies have many flaws—more than anyone could count.

It also didn’t get better as time went on (Don’t even get me started on the most recent releases).

But you know what? That doesn’t matter at the end of the day.

The franchise doesn’t take itself that seriously. And why should it?

It’s making a world of its own. I have no doubt that when Michael Bay was directing Transformers he said to himself “you know what would look totally sick and make for an entertaining picture?” and then did whatever he had in mind.

Without any fear of being ridiculed, of being parodied, of not making “the perfect picture”, there’s no sliver of doubt about the intention behind the films and their entertaining nature.

And it shows in the earlier films (and some scenes of the later ones as well, although arguably less so).

That’s the difference between the artist and the entrepreneur

A true love for the craft—not just the numbers.

And that, to me, is what it’s all about.

See, I don’t care about building the perfect business, the best-optimized funnel, the most automated systems, none of that. It’s not about that.

It’s about the creative freedom. About doing what you love. Thinking something might be fun and enjoyable to do and simply doing it no matter how ridiculous it might seem, how unoptimized it might be, or even how “the public might not like it”.

Authors end up writing the books they wish would’ve been written, simply because they want to experience the joy of reading that story.

That’s the way one should aim to build their creative business.

And if you’re interested to learn one of the ways—if not the best way—to go about building such business, then you might want to check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


How Dune teaches the perfect business-building formula

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I saw Dune: Part Two a few days ago in the theater.

I won’t spoil anything, so no worries

But I can tell you this: it was an amazing experience. Excellent storytelling, wonderful world building, and an incredible score that perfectly blends in with every other aspect of the world of Dune.

Long-time readers know about my love for everything Hans Zimmer so I won’t go into yet another deep dive of the score.

Instead, I want to talk about world building.

More precisely, how everything just fits together—including the shots, the filming style, the dialogue, the music, the VFX, the sound design, and everything else that has to be taken care of when adapting a book into a movie.

Now don’t get me wrong.

Frank Herbert put a lot of time and effort into creating a huge, complex, vibrant and interesting world. But adaptation is a whole different beast of its own (case in point, the many, many previous Dune adaptations that all failed miserably).

But no.

Everything just felt right this time around. As if this could have perfectly well been a new and original work.

There’s enough detail into every scene to make the world feel alive and real.

The exposition is done in a natural way, which does not overwhelm the viewer while perfectly bringing everyone up to pace to understand just enough to follow the story, yet leaving out a lot of information to make the viewer wonder about what’s actually going on behind the scenes.

Who’s who? What do some of these things mean? Even though you don’t understand everything and everyone (unless you’ve read the books), you can still feel when something’s off, when people have ulterior motives, when there’s more going on behind the scenes (which there always is).

It’s the combination of just enough explanation combined with a giant, complex, and living world that creates the feeling of curiosity and intrigue.

And that formula of creating the curiosity to learn more, to stick around, to want to find out what’s happing, and to become obsessed with the world you’re getting sucked into, well, that formula isn’t restricted to film or story alone.

You can apply that same formula to your business and create a world of your own.

A world that captures people’s attention, brings them in with just the right amount of exposition, and keeps them there by leveraging the power of your well-blended collection of characters (offers), worlds (media), music (personality), and entertaining teachings (storytelling).

(Read that paragraph over and over until it sinks in)

And while it’s not something you’ll create overnight. You can start building your world today.

How?

By learning how to write emails and creating the perfect environment to introduce everyone to your world—all the while building your email empire.

Check out Email Valhalla today if you’d like to learn how.

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/valhalla


Music composition, game design, and business

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For the past few days, I’ve been busy learning game development (again) and creating music to go alongside it.

It’s been incredibly fun, exciting, and especially rewarding.

I don’t know exactly what it is, but every type of creative work is always extremely rewarding, no matter how slow your progress might be. Going from a few consecutive notes that sound nice to a well-crafted chorus with multiple instruments or going from a pixel on your screen to a moving character (both of which are only small parts of the final deliverable) gives you so much motivation to keep going.

It’s one of those few types of work where progress can actually be seen (and felt) no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Part of why I’m doing this is because I just genuinely enjoy doing so.

Another part is to develop the skills to build out my own universe of the novel I’m writing, bit by bit, in different media, and creating the entire feel of it myself, from the storyline to the character art, to the music, video game adaptations, cinematics, and much, much more.

All of which will boost my email game (and business) as well.

But this whole process reminded me of something important.

The more progress you see yourself making in the early stages, the faster (and better) your results will be. Now this might just be anecdotal proof for me. But I’ve never seen this not to be the case for me, or anyone else for that matter.

Working on something for months on end, without seeing any actual progress to be proud of is demoralizing for everyone and almost never helps to make a well-put-together final deliverable.

Which brings me to Product Creation Made Easy.

In it I teach my simple PCME framework that shows you how to create a product from start to finish, with a big emphasis on getting actual results early on, so you can see (and feel) the progress you’re making—helping you deliver a better end results and keeping you motivated throughout the whole process.

Check it out here to learn more about it: https://alexvandromme.com/pcme