Original Ideas

There are no original ideas.

Or are there? 

If there are no new ideas then why are we all still trying to write something original? And why do people keep reading?

I have been excited about the novel I’m starting. The idea seems new and fresh enough that I have thought a lot about how to make it work. I couldn’t think of any other book that had been written from this angle. Then I picked up Far World by J. Scott Savage, and there it was. A character who was born on earth, but we are meeting her in another world as the story begins. She doesn’t even know earth exists. My idea. It’s already been done. Of course.

What’s fascinating is to see what Scott Savage has done with this idea. It’s very different than what I’m writing. Even though it’s the same idea, it’s a different angle. A different character. A different world. 

If you stare at life from a different angle you may see a new facet to an old idea. A writer asks new questions that haven’t been asked quite like that before. We turn life inside out and find the extraordinary. We examine it and look for a new facet to that old way of looking at a situation.

We write something original.