During a recent monthly craft chat, an Inkwell member told me that she sometimes gets nervous about reading too much in her preferred genre, because she’s afraid of accidentally copying something that’s already out there. While that particular variation of this fear was new to me, it was not the first time I’d heard an author fretting about her ability to write something original.
Here are the two beliefs I hold firmly on this matter:
Every story is derivative in some way.
By bringing her own perspectives, experiences, and voice to the page, every author is capable of telling old stories in new and original ways.
The Myth of Originality
“Derivative” is often held up as the worst condemnation a writer can hear of her work—particularly among the self-appointed Literary Elite. In fact, authors are constantly under enormous pressure to write something that’s entirely original—something that’s never been done before.
And yet…
Storytelling is inherently iterative, and every story is built on a rich foundation of structures, themes, and archetypes that have resonated with audiences for as long as stories have existed.
We see the same universal themes — love, greed, ecstasy, desperation, etc. — crop up over and over again as writers strive to explore them in new ways. Today’s authors use storytelling structures dating all the way back to Aristotle, and some of our most popular contemporary stories are new twists on ancient myths (Madeline Miller’s Circe and Song of Achilles, the TV series Once Upon a Time, and the musical Hadestown, to name a few). Every beloved Disney movie is built on an ancient fairytale, and genre fiction readers flat-out expect their favorite tropes to appear at just about the same point in every novel they pick up.
So no, there’s really nothing new under the sun, but the way I see it, that’s not a liability; it’s an invitation to engage with the stories we love and draw from them in order to create our own.
Building Original Stories on Familiar Foundations
Now, of course, this is not to say we can slap a new cover on Ann Patchett’s latest book and call it our own. That’s plagiarism.
So how do we create something original on top of universal frameworks and ideas? By embracing our unique lens. Every author brings her own life experiences, cultural background, and personal philosophy to the page, and that’s what empowers us to approach familiar themes in new ways.
For example, what book comes to mind when I give you this basic premise?
“A kid travels through a portal to magical world and ultimately saves it from destruction.”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
Harry Potter, by JK Rowling
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
And those are just the half-dozen I could think of in about thirty seconds without Googling. Six different authors, spanning over a century, writing books that can all be boiled down to the same basic premise. But, because each author brought their own unique perspective to that premise (C.S. Lewis’s Christianity, Norton Juster’s synesthesia, Madeleine L’Engle’s interest in modern science, Rick Riordan’s expertise in Greek mythology, and Sarah J. Maas’s penchant for turning Disney princess stories on their heads, for starters) the books are dramatically different from one another. They each draw from their own source materials and sources of inspiration to turn a well-worn idea into a unique story.
So, to the Inkwell member who worried about reading too much in her genre, I say don’t. The more stories you consume, the deeper your well of source material and inspiration to draw from. To authors who put off writing because they worry their ideas aren’t original, I say write. Embrace the themes you love, and approach them through the lens of your own experiences. One day, with any luck, a young author will draw from your work to tell her own story.