The plague of originality

[T.Allen.Smith]

I am, however, wondering what an emphasis on worldbuilding has to do with anything? You can create over wrought fiction by striving for originality in plot or character just as much as in setting.

I think the OP just believes world building to be an example of a story element that budding writers strive for some unattainable level of originality. I don't feel they were claiming that unproductive searches for originality can't occur within other elements.

"About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve is to steal with good judgment." - Josh Billings

 

[Mythopoet]

"About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve is to steal with good judgment." - Josh Billings

"A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard- by stealing what he has a taste for, and can carry off."

~ Archibald MacLeish (A Continuing Journey)

I love good writing quotes.

 

[Chessie]

"About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve is to steal with good judgment." - Josh Billings

Perfect. Its all been done my friends, everything under the sun. It doesn't mean we should stop writing or throw our ideas into the trash. Everyone has a unique voice and way of telling a story. Hell, one of my favorite trends in fantasy literature are stories based from fairytales. Put a modern spin on that with an author that can tell a part of the story that I never thought existed and we're good to go. Those works are getting published with really, non-original ideas at the core. But it becomes original once the writer twists things his/her way. People just want good stories. That's all that matters.

PS: I'd like to thank the OP for this thread. I think its something all writers go through (originality bug) but us newer ones tend to let that take us off course.

 

[Jamber]

A genetic paradigm springs to mind. Things evolve and they sometimes just mutate to become something else, then we give the offspring a new name.
I like the search for mutation, personally.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

So then how do we avoid the trap of trying to be too original and abandoning projects before they begin or even in the middle of them and write a good story?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

In my view writing has to be a balance. It's the whole package, the plot, characters, world etc that make the story what it is, and what it is or isn't derivative of. I doubt that there's any work ever produced that is completely non derivative. And if there was I doubt many people would want to read it. People like to read books that provide a level of comfort to them as a reader. They want to imerse themselves in worlds they understand, to know what's happening and why and to recognise / relate to the characters. If a work were completely original they would likely find themselves lost in the story.

At the same time we all have to strive to be original / creative where we can be. With Last of the Mohicans / Dances with wolves and Avatar the plots and the characters are largely similar. The world varies quite widely and beautifully. And that's sufficient to satisfy the readers / viewers. With cop shows it's usually the players that vary. The plots get rehashed and one police station looks fairly much like another. But again the differences are enough for most people to happily accept the 'new' story. And with vampires, well one blood sucking ghoul is fairly much like another (Unless we're talking about the ones that seem to really really want to find that innocent teenager and fall inlove with them!) But the worlds and stories are hopefully varied enough to please viewers / readers.

So to me as a writer it seems we need to strive to be original where we can, but not to be so original in everything that the stories are inaccessible to our readers. It's the balance between originality in plot, world and characters that will determine whether overall a story is original or not, and it's the writer's judgement as to where he should try for something new and where he should go for the standard tropes.

The only wrong answers would be where either a story was so derivative that it was almost plagerism, or so original that it was completely inaccessible to readers.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We develop the thick skins that will serve us well through wallpapering our offices and bathrooms with rejection letters. We write with our hearts and souls. We write as best we can.

We write for our lives.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

Originality is overrated. Have you looked recently at the bestseller lists? Readers WANT the same story repeated endlessly. Here's part of the blurb from one of the top-selling epic fantasies on Amazon's Kindle list:

In A VOW OF GLORY (Book #5 in the Sorcerer's Ring), Thor embarks with his Legion friends on an epic quest into the vast wilds of the Empire to try to find the ancient Destiny Sword and save the Ring. Thor’s friendships deepen, as they journey to new places, face unexpected monsters and fight side by side in unimaginable battle. They encounter exotic lands, creatures and peoples beyond which they could have ever imagined, each step of their journey fraught with increasing danger.

The Mageborn series, another top seller, is about a blacksmith's son who discovers he has unexpected powers...

Personally, I'm always slightly disappointed if a book has the standard faux-medieval setting, but I can forgive it if the author hasn't just bought into it wholesale, but added a few variations. And, as many others have said upthread, characterisation and storytelling skills trump any lack of originality anyway.

Write the story you yourself will want to read, and I guarantee other people will want to read it too. And if you do that, your writing will have its own honesty, which shines through. My most disappointing reads, these days, are the ones where the author is writing to a market-driven formula. They may be technically perfect, but they have no heart to them.

 

[Chessie]

Pauline, wonderful post. On one hand, it is disappointing that readers eat up these "market-driven formulas" but on the other, its nice knowing that cliche is ok with a twist. Readers are looking for something to relate to, especially in fantasy I think where the learning curve is a bit steep for them (learning about the world, etc). It seems like writing books these days is all about what types of stories will sell the best.

I agree though, writing what you want to read is the best chance at giving the story your all, which will reflect back at you as an author more positively in the end.

 

[Addison]

Have a thick skin and an open mind. The way is see it we try so hard to make our work stand out from others that in the long run we destroy it. Just take a step back, look at what your story is really about and what specifically is in that story that attracts you, and/or the reader, that's not in any other book, and stick to that.

 

[Alexandra]

Originality is overrated. Have you looked recently at the bestseller lists? Readers WANT the same story repeated endlessly....

Originality overrated?... never! Readers are creatures of habit, at least some are, as are many regular TV viewers (how many specialty cable channels show reruns exclusively), music fans, and so on. Many of us have become fearful creatures of habit reluctant to step out of our comfort zones ... pity.

 

[Feo Takahari]

This is going to be a bit borderline, so I'll spoilertag it just in case. I'll try to keep it SFW.

Spoiler: My problem with the story as ritual

I've mentioned plenty of times that I write fantasy erotica. I've mentioned a few times that I read My Little Pony fanfiction. When I go to FIMfiction.net, I turn off the mature filter--exotic relations between multicolored horses aren't that much weirder than the werewolves, demons, and intelligent worms I've written about.

At this point, I tend to avoid stories that take place several years in the show's "future", star the character of Spike the dragon, and have a "romance" tag. These stories form an entire genre, and it largely focuses on the elevation of Spike as an ideal hero and the demotion of the female characters to passive objects of his desire. Still, I tend to just ignore them--I used to figure they were basically harmless.

One story, which I did look at, features a version of Spike who lacks, er, a conventional male thingie, as some real-life reptiles do. Commenter after commenter was FURIOUS about this, insisting that Spike has and MUST have two giant thingies, as some other reptiles do! They saw Spike as their stand-in in the world of Equestria, having sex with ponies in their place, and even one writer approaching him in a different way was enough to make them personally feel emasculated.

This is most obvious with romance and erotica, but you see it in other genres as well--e.g. the people who flipped out when Digimon started letting adults tame Digimon, because to them, the show was and could only be about how children were special and could do things adults couldn't. This never fails to creep me out, and it's a large part of why I push for the idea of the story as original act, putting ideas together in new and unexpected ways--to me, the alternative is the story as stale ritual, repeating and confirming what people desperately want to think.

 

[Addison]

I think people generally use kids as amazing heroes with boundless power and abilities because of the "age of innocence", as it's believed only children can see fairies and such until they reach a certain age. And it's also the "coming of age" stories. Adults have come of age.....at least physically. Light bulb! See ya!