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.