Something Original...Ever????

As is always pointed out there are no new ideas, no new stories. Heck the other day I was watching The Godfather for the first time (yes for the first time, I know I know, I am utterly ashamed it took so long). Now I am currently writing a YA that is just about killing me. It's been all I've been thinking about, and the problem solving involved in this one is huge. So, I'm watching this scene between Pacino and Brando, I think for a moment, and then I lean over to my friend and say, "Evidently I'm writing The Godfather." I've never seen this movie before, I truly could not have been trying to emulate it. And truthfully my story is also in many ways not at all like that film/book as well. But you know what? The similarities actually made me happy! It showed me that what I am writing about involves universal themes that interest other people and not just me.

Shakespeare stole his plots, and most accuse modern writers of stealing from him. It isn't the what, but the how. How you tell the story, the characters in the story, the passion, the energy, the life you bring to the story, that makes it unique. Alex actually has a very similar plot line to yours, only my MC goes on a rescue mission to save her grade six teacher (who is basically a father figure to her), and yet at the same time I have no magic in my story, and plenty of pirates. And I bet our narrative voices are way different from each other.

And that's a good thing.

Writing is amazing. It truly blows my mind the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) nuances between authors, and what over the centuries we have been able to do with really pretty much the same base line. The possibilities are endless . . . plots . . . not so much.

Something about your book is unique, because you wrote it. So focus on the things that are different from the standard fantasy tropes. Your voice is also unique, so let that shine through. If the characters are wonderful, make them wonderful in the query so agents want to spend more time with them. Whatever strengths the novel has, play those up.

I'd also suggest being specific about the trope parts. It's not that your protag discovers she has powers, it's what she can do and how that matters. The villian doesn't just kidnap her mom, her takes her to do what? And this matters how to your protag? These are the details that will show your story and not just the tropes.

If it makes you feel a bit better, the novel I just sold has a pretty unoriginal plot. A girl with a secret magic power has to do some pretty dark things with it to save her sister. What makes the story unique though, is what that power is, the choices my protag makes, and why it all matters in the end. Look at your story the same way and I'm sure you'll see what makes it stand out.

I can't add any advice because I think the others have said it well - focus on your character and what makes your book unique.

Look at Gail Carson Levine or Shannon Hale, a couple of names that came to mind. With brilliant writing and clever additions, they crafted best-sellers out of very familiar stories.

Good luck.

I find going for eccentric stuff always creates a blow of fresh air in the whole thing.
My perfect story is one that would be filled with eccentric and extreme stuff happening. As I write my books, I try to go for images or lines that remain in the mind of the reader. I try to create those images through the most interesting and quirky and curious events I can make up, using of course, characters that are interesting and just curious little personalities.
I'm not as crazy as Douglas Adams or Roald Dahl or Dr.Seuss, and I wouldn't put my stories on the same shelf if my story was ever to be published, but I try to do stuff that people will remember. You could say that I'm a bit more down to Earth, more Jules-Verne-esque, but I try to make things interesting.

I do understand what you feel when you say something like "After all, my story is just like all of those out there".
This is the very reason why I went for trying to come up with different stuff before I started writing my story.
I constantly felt, before I even thought of writing a book, that the stories out there were all pretty much the same, and I wondered why nobody would just drop all of it and really try to write something NEW. And when I mean NEW I actually MEAN NEW. I don't mean, "Harry Potter comes out, then there's a ton of wizard books coming out." or "da Vinci Code is popular, then you see tons of conspiracy books coming out"
I'm talking making a "Harry Potter", making a "da Vinci Code", making a "Lord of the Rings" making an "Alice in Wonderland", a "Sherlock Holmes".

And let me tell you. It's not easy trying to be original. You can't really guide yourself through other people's stories because, after all, you're tying to do something NEW.
The most you can do is learn the basics of story telling, perhaps learn a bit of the Hero's Journey. But after that it's a lonely trip, he he. You're on your own after you learn the basics.
I, and this is just my personal case, try to go for eccentric stuff and really construct scenes in ways that, yes, in a way do fit the Hero's Journey(it's almost impossible not to do it, simply because of the way human characters react to situations) , but it's all done with scenes and characters and situations that I honestly have not seen anywhere. I really DO try to go for that.
I don't go for Evil lords or princesses to save, or objects to be grabbed at the last minute or people with weird decasyllabic names with tons of apostrophes or villages with farms... or magic for that matter. But I do try and give it a fantasy, dream-like quality to it. That's what I like in stories.

If I wrote a story that was out there already, if I wrote a story that I knew would become almost indistinguishable from others on the shelves, then I wouldn't be fulfilling my dream of "having a fresh story out there".

Perhaps people have different standards, I guess.
I don't know what I just wrote. I hope it helps in SOME way or another.

I'm querying a book right now that I thought would be one of a kind. I mean, really, it's a modern story featuring a homunculus that decides to become a detective.

So I was telling my mother-in-law about the agent that's currently looking over the ms, and about how I was hoping he wouldn't think it was too "out there" to be saleable, and she said, "Oh, I don't know. I read a story a while back about a homunculus that helped solve crimes, so I would be more worried that he'd think it had already been done..."

Everything's been done. If it hasn't been, there's probably a reason.

But no two people could ever tell a story of any depth in exactly the same way. There are things that set your book apart. If one of them happens to be a plot twist or a conflict, so much the better. Then you can focus on that action in your query.

Best of luck!

I wouldn't worry about the story being unoriginal. However, when you query, I would just try to add in the details that make it original. Also, as has been said about a thousand times in this thread, focus on your character and what makes her different than other characters you have read about.

When considering originality, consider this: Harry Potter is about a young boy who discovers he has magical powers and that there are people out there wanting to destroy him. Twilight is about a young girl who discovers there is a world beyond everything she ever knew was possible and she falls so helplessly in love with that world that she is sucked into it. The Dark is Rising (The Seeker) is about a reluctant hero that needs to save the world. All three of these plots can go back to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. So, again, don't fret about unoriginality.


James Mascia
www.islandofdren.com

Sounds like you're stressing over it. Don't. Query those agents. If you get no takers after fifty or so submissions, then stress over it. But right now, I wouldn't worry too much. Every story has been told, it's just that we have to find different ways of telling it.

Good luck and happy writing!

The thing about stories are, there aren't too many different kinds of plots. There is really nothing cliched about rescuing a loved one from danger, because it is just such a universal theme. It's an archetype -- something that naturally appeals to the audience.

Originality lies in the details. The other day, I was reading The Book Thief, and the themes it tackled had been done many times before: Love of knowledge, losing a loved one, adjusting to a new surrounding, friendship, standing up to evil (ie the Nazi Regime), committing good-natured crimes, life and death -- ALL of them had been done before.

So what made it original to me?

1) Unusual narrator: Death him(her?)self. IMO, EVEN if the author stole the entire story from someone else (of course he didn't), this alone would make me want to read the book.

2) Unique voice: the author tells the story like nobody else. Especially the imagery and figurative language -- it was so beautiful.

3) Unusual crime: Stealing books!

4) Unusual narration: a lot of jumps in time, which DOES make sense in the context of the book, since the narrator is an omniscient being

So, again, originality is in the little things, the details. Don't sweat too much about creating a new "type" of story, a completely new plot. If nothing else, even if you think what you write is cliche, make sure that it is YOUR cliche