Not having an original idea is something that I hear a lot of writers complain about. People afraid to write because they don’t think what they have to say is new or unique. Yes, even I sometimes complain that I have nothing new to say.
It’s not just the writers who feel this way either. Filmmakers, artists, musicians, designers, and other creatives have, at times, all felt like what they are presenting to the world isn’t new, isn’t unique. But that’s just a load of crap. Maybe it’s not an original premise or plot, but what each artist does with it is completely original.
Just think about the Quest plot or premise. The Illiad is an example of a story about a quest. So are the Lord of the Rings and the Wizard of Oz and Raiders of the Lost Ark. And what about that ragtag, fugitive fleet on a lonely quest led by the last Battlestar, Galactica? I don’t think you can say that any of them are unoriginal. Any quest that we write will be unique, because our lives, our perspective, and our likes and dislikes are different from the other writers.
But what about remakes? How can directors or even singers just remake something that was done previously and still make it feel different? By putting their own unique stamp on it. The one that always comes to mind for me is Last Kiss, a song that was recorded in 1964 by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, about a teenager kissing his girlfriend one last kiss as she was dying. The song is sad, but the melody upbeat and that always bothered me about the song. Then in 2000, Pearl Jam redid the song. The same melody, a little slower, but the biggest change was the voice of the singers. In Eddie’s voice, you hear the raw pain of loss. Same song. Two different versions. One you can dance to. The other breaks your heart.
How about an actor, taking the stage as Hamlet? Hundreds, if not thousands of actors have played Hamlet in the past. But each actor has to find his own connection to the character, his own voice. Only then can Hamlet be seen over and over again, but feel different each time.
What about one of the most famous paintings of all time? Did you know that in 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night on the Rhone? If he decided to do something completely different because he’d already done a painting of the stars at night, then the world would have been deprived of Starry Night, which he didn’t paint until 1889.
Go ahead and write that husband and wife mystery series, or design that dress with a flower print or paint that picture of the stars at night. Whatever you create will be different, will be original, will be innovative because you are bringing you and your inspiration to your work. It will be different because no one else sees with your eyes or thinks with your brain or creates with your soul.
What’s holding you back?
Very true. My husband, a jazz musician and composer, always says, “There are only so many notes in the scale. Eventually, somebody’s going to sound like somebody else but it’s still something new.”
oh thank you. thank you. I get in this mindset sometimes and I just need to go on and write it!
I often think this and then I have to remind myself that even if the quest is the same, the voice that tells the story is different each time.
This is great, Jennifer, and should help to quiet the inner voices of doubt that try to discourage creatives from expression.
Yes! That’s what I hope. Tell the inner voices to shut it because we have work to do.
Yes sometimes I do need a kick in the pants! It’s tough sometimes to focus and write outside of the mood you might be in.
I have the opposite issue: I have too much to say!!! I know, I know, it really is a curse.
Great motivation. I have always found that when I feel I have nothing new to contribute to the overpopulated masses of the blogging community I just write. On my own, for my own. I just write without thinking. I just write my thoughts as they come, uncensored, until I dwindle so deep down the rabbit hole that I discover there are so many core concepts I haven’t even begun to address. 🙂
Love this, makes me want to mediate through my writing once more! 😀
You’re so right about this. We don’t have to be original. Since the dawn of time, artists have portrayed “love.” And yet no one would ever say, I can’t do that, its been done before. We all have something unique to bring. That’s what matters.
It’s been said “there is nothing new under the sun” and while this may be true, what you write here is so inspiring!
Yes, completely agree. The same themes will recur over and over, but each person’s voice and outlook is individual. It was actually one of the arguments made when they were compiling the lists of the people of the millennium in 2000. It was what was put forward in favour of artists, not scientists, topping the list. The suggestion being that, had Isaac Newton not discovered gravity, gravity would still have existed and someone would have discovered it. Whereas, had Dickens not written Oliver Twist, or Van Gogh not painted Sunflowers, no one else ever would have. People would have written books and painted pictures, but those works would never have existed. Personally, I think the scientists deserved their place too, but I think it is a good argument for way the arts are of equal value.
Artists and Scientists live a symbiotic relationship. Each one cannot create without the other. It’s so close that sometimes they merge and become one like Da Vinci
I found you through Laurie Stone’s Twitter. This is great. I love your thoughts about writing a journey. That is probably why most people start blogging. I look forward to hearing more of your stories as 2017 unfolds. I blog at marshajustwrites.com, and I am a post 50 BB, too. 🙂 I’m also a blogging friend of Terri Webster Schrandt. Have a great day. 🙂
Thanks for your feedback! I’m so glad you stopped by and I will definitely be checking out your blog.
Thanks, Jennifer. I hope we can become friends. 🙂
I hope so, too!
Hey, the article is really good.