Okay, so what do I DO about it?

I've heard it told that there's no such thing as an original idea anymore. I'm not sure I believe it (it is a weird, wacky world, after all) but it did get me to thinking: If it's all been done, how do we do it again? How do we make something so unoriginal and played out (space travel, for example, or the fantasy good vs. evil wars) into something new and interesting? I've been working on a story for a while, now, and it's nothing less than depressing to think that someone might see it someday--provided I ever get published (but am I being negative? Pessimistic? I think not)--and say "Dude. He's TOTALLY copying Larry Niven" or "Stephen King" or "OSC" or...fill in the many, many well-established and (dare I say it?) genius writers who came before me.

How do I bring "done to death" back to life?

Chris

Seriously, though, the way writers take familiar plots and make them fresh are varied. Using different characters than those you typically find "living" through the plots is one terrific method. Look at what putting a ditzy female (Buffy) in the traditional vampire hunter role rather than vampire victim did for the dark fantasy.

Another is to change the scenery. Set a murder mystery in a world where the ghost can come back and ID his killer in open court...puts a whole new spin on a familiar crime plot.

Harry Potter---ok not all that new, but the approach was new and so was the idea that young readers had more than rocks for brains in their reading selections.

Been there done that----you just have to be there and do that in a different way.

Then you have to sell it.

And even when you think you have a new idea there may be a book out there using the idea, but hey all you can do is try.

When you do hit on the idea you will know it---when you send to agents and editors almost all the rejections you get will be personal ones---I wouldn't know where to place this, ect ect. You will even get ones that say, ok I am going to pass on this and most likely you will prove me wrong in doing so----

Give it a shot, you will find a match if the idea is either new or done in a way never done before---but still be ready for a fight.

Shawn

Well, there are plots, and then there are the speculative elements of your story. Plots are by and large immortal. _Romeo & Juliet_, for instance, has a continuously reused plot, and yet we see it over and over in different versions and they continue to be (to various audiences) compelling--and the original play was based on a plot that hailed back to the Greeks, with the story of Pyramus & Thisbe.

Speculative elements in a story, however, can become badly overused. In the best case scenario, such an overused idea makes it harder to sell a story and to catch a reader's attention; in the worst case, the ideas are an automatic trip to the rejection pile.

A good example of overused speculative elements: works that are essentially derivative of Tolkien and introduce nothing of substance beyond (for instance) elves, dwarves, magic rings, wizards, and royalty in a vaguely Middle Earth-esque world. Editors and readers have already by and large read the original stuff and will notice it's much better.

I do have three suggestions that (I hope) will be constructive here: First, read widely in *recent* published speculative fiction, to see what's used and overused. Second, twist ideas, as Hildy already described the idea so well. Third, delve into the world you're creating with questions about why and what else and what came before. At least for me, this leads into directions that I haven't seen other people come up with.

And ultimately you can even get away with a much-used plot and overused speculative ideas if the story really lives. If people are drawn in by the characters or the feel of the story or the voice in which it's told, it doesn't matter nearly as much if they've seen the ideas before, unless they're the particular kind of spec fic readers who read only for ideas.

Sometimes, the thing that may be slowing you down or holding you up (or, blocking your writing) is that one additional idea that will make it all fall into place. So don't stop with two ideas.

The thing to remember is that "novelty" and originality are not the same, and "originality" is hardly the measure of creativity in any case.

Don't try to be "original", just be yourself. You can't be anyone else anyway. Really put yourself into a story, and you'll have a character that will either be truly unique, or you'll have a character that the reader will truly understand and love (note to self, cry bitter tears over always missing the latter sometime tonight).