Originality is Overrated

I was asked earlier this week whether I thought my story was original or not. The person who asked me has not read any of my written work and was legitimately asking the question.

“Absolutely not.”, was my immediate response.

I don't think there is such a thing as true originality. I don't think that there really can be. Nothing is truly unlike anything you've seen before. That's just how things work. We build off of other things. We may improve it, we may put a twist on it or make it our own in some way, but it is not original.

And I believe that's fine. Too many people get hung up on whether the core concept has been 'done before' or not. But lets be honest, people rarely read for the core concept. They read for the characters, the setting, the escape from every day life and the immersion in another time and place. And most of all, how well you present all those things to them!  If you've truly got something original, that's great, but unless you execute it well, no one will care.

So don't shut yourself down before you've gotten started, originality isn't the only yardstick by which to measure writing.   

Ideas: Time and Growth

Ideas take time to develop and mature, as do writers. My current writing project started taking shape in my mind back in 2009 when I was on vacation in Disney World. And while there are still some elements of that original core concept, the story has greatly changed and evolved over time.

I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling things, but I think the most significant shift came in that my original concept was based largely on what I would now call a gimmick, a power of one of the character. The character in question still does have a diminished version of his original power, but the story is not built solely on that as it's foundation. The characters, their personalities and interactions are now firmly on center stage, and I believe it is making for a much more compelling story.

The side note here is that you shouldn't be afraid to change your original vision. Some of the things I changed more recently were a struggle for me. I had lived with these ideas floating around in my head literally for years, and it felt very odd to change them. I felt like I wasn't being true to my original vision. But to be blunt and honest with myself, despite my attachment to it, my original vision sucked. It was a fun quick idea, but it was not a compelling piece of fiction.