All of art is based on a quest for originality. As individuals, we become artists in an effort to highlight new ideas and invent new vantage points through which to view the world. As agents and editors and publishers, we’re seeking the one story the public has never heard. And as readers, we’re looking for new experiences, new characters to add to our inner repertoire of literary friends, and new mirrors in which to re-envision our own faces. In fact, when it comes right down to it, just about everyone on the planet is in search originality. That being the case, you’d think we’d have originality sprouting all over the place. And, yet, that isn’t exactly how it works, is it? Quite the opposite, actually.
Originality is a myth. King Solomon had it pegged a long time ago: “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Every story I write, every character I conceive has already been told in some form or another. I can come up with the most brilliant, far-out idea in the universe only to google it and discover that half a dozen authors have already camped all over it. Because we all share the same basic life experiences, it’s little wonder we all tell the same stories. We’re all born. We all survive puberty. We all fall in love. We all grow old. We all die. End of story.
So where does this leave us authors in our quest for novelty (not to mention success)? Actually, when you think about it, the recognition of unoriginality is a very comforting idea. It means we don’t have to bash our brains out against our keyboards, trying to come up with the solitary surviving new idea. Instead, we get to embrace the freedom to tell our own stories our own way without spending too much precious time and energy fussing about whether or not it’s already been told. Tacked on the bulletin board above my desk is one my favorite quotes from Pulitzer-Prize winner Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark:
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they never happened.
These stories go on repeating themselves in fiction, as well as life. We’ve been conditioned to believe the only powerful stories are the original ones, but the very fact that life itself is not original means that the most powerful stories are those that appeal to the deep primal emotions within us all. The universal emotions. The unoriginal emotions.
Just because Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist a couple hundred years before we were born is no reason for us to ignore all subsequent tales of pickpockets and orphans. Patrick O’Brian’s success with Napoleonic naval novels is no reason our own characters can’t sail beneath the Union Jack at the beginning of the nineteenth century. And the sentient hares in Richard Adam’s beloved Watership Down hardly negate the hundreds of talking-animal stories that have been written in the years since. In fact, these stories can actually influence our work in such a way that our own stories become deeper and broader than they might otherwise have been.
Dorothy Sayers said it eloquently in The Mind of the Maker:
The amount of matter in the universe is limited.... But no such limitation of numbers applies to the creation of works of art. The poet is not obliged, as it were, to destroy the material of Hamlet in order to create a Falstaff, as a carpenter must destroy a tree-form to create a table-form. The components of the material world are fixed; those of the world of imagination increase by a continuous and irreversible process, without any destruction or rearrangement of what went before.
None of this is to suggest that we need not strive to avoid stereotypes and overdone forms. If we expect to write decent fiction, and if we expect the reading public to pay attention, we must strive for originality as much as it is possible within the set patterns of our lives and our genres. Read widely, learn what’s been written, what hasn’t, and embrace and build upon the successful forays of others.
Story by K.M. Weiland
Tags: Inspiration , Originality
Excellent post, interesting subject, I struggle with this problem quite a lot. I don't really write much, and haven't done any in recent years, but with almost anything, I get this really guilty feeling if I do something someone else I know has done, particularly with music, I think it's awful to work up a song that another group I know performs.
I think yours is an excellent perspective, it's encouraging to think you don't have to be completely different with your work, and yet to strive for uniqueness, for your own signature style.
There, Miss Weiland, I commented!!! I enjoy your style of writing immensely, that was very well written, but then, all that I have read of yours I think well written, as I couldn't be a writing critic if I wanted to, though that is not said to detract from my praise of your writing talents.
Thanks for the comment. I wondered, after I posted, if I sounded as though I was *discouraging* originality. I'm glad to hear you got what I was saying!
I'm not certain you could discourage originality if the writers reading this post are serious about their craft. I'm sure counterfeiters exist, but those of us who love to introduce new twists to things well arm ourselves to hunt for originality.
I appreciate this post, especially since Ride was deemed cliche by the male judges. After watching several variations of The Christmas Carol last month, I have hope for my little book.
Only the male judges though it was cliche? That's interesting... If I was a psychologist, I'm sure that would mean something important!
Interesting perspective, one my kids reminded me of through almost every chapter of my new book as I read it to them each night.
Oh, this part is just like in Ella Enchanted...
Oh, you got that from High School Musical...
That must have been straight out of Eragon.
Isn't that just like in the Lord of the Rings?
Grr... But I add humor and none of it is exactly like the other stories, but yes they all contribute a little something to the story, and to our experiences (vicariously, at least...)
If you guys are talking about 'One More Ride in the Rain' this male certainly didn't think it was cliche. It was very well written.
Gotta love the blunt opinions of family members! I'm personally a big fan of "hodge-podge stories": a little bit of this kind of story, a little bit of that. When you have *all* of those elements in one story, it certainly isn't going be like any of its predecessors.
Thanks for your comment about "Rain." I appreciate your reading it!
Wonderful post - where do you come up with all of your ideas for your posts every week (you're amazing)?
Yes, I agree there's 'nothing new under the sun'. Whatever you've written it's already been written before. I also think that as writers you can learn and benefit off of stories that are similar to yours...it can help you to find ways to make your story better than the original story (if there is such a thing as the original story).
I've had people tell me they avoided reading in their own genres in order to avoid copying other people. But in my own experience, reading works similar to your own only strengthens your own ideas and *encourages* originality.