Feed My Thoughts

Edition 2 – Part 1: Feed My Thoughts on Originality

Let's face it; in the world of today, no ideas are original. Concepts that once were unique are now common themes to any novel. But this, howbeit, does not necessarily mean you're screwed. This edition is all about how to make your story unique and stand out from the crowd.

Setting and background

We all love a good romance; who wouldn't, but to be honest, the whole girl-meets-boy scenarios, though varying, can be a bit overdone. A great way for spicing up your romance is to try changing your setting and background.

Here on 抖阴社区, the schoolyard is an all-too-popular scene for romance to bloom. This is where you can add to your originality; try somewhere extremely controversial instead. If you've got cultural background in another country, then perhaps your characters could be from two different countries and you could explore their cultural barrier of their relationship. Also consider places where it is harder for romance to blossom — Kings Cross, for example, or Afghanistan (Khaled Hosseini does this heart-breakingly beautifully in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'). Generally, closed communities (societies that will not allow the protagonists together) are brilliant settings for romances as they have the forbidden-fruit type romances.

The more interesting your setting, the more conflict you can create and the more you can contribute to your story. Of course, the romance genre is merely an example; interesting settings should be used in any genre.

Appropriation and development of ideas

The best skill of any writer is the ability to take an overdone idea and make it intrinsically their own. For any writer, this skill is paramount to make you stand out from the crowd. A publisher should be able to ask you what makes your story individual and you should have at least ten strong, valid reasons.

So, how do you uniquely appropriate a generic idea? Start with the basics — the stereotypes surrounding your ideas. Say, god forbid, you want to try a vampire romance. I'm just going to say right now, that although there are original vampire stories, you will have a lot of trouble with people outside of 抖阴社区 as seeing your story as original. Note that I am relatively anti-Twilight-type-vampires, but I am doing this due to the excessive popularity of vampires in teen fiction as well as my love for the older, eviler vampires pre-Twilight.

Essentially, the general stereotypes of a vampire romance are:

Ø  The vampire is a guy and the narrator/protagonist is a weak female human

Ø  The vampire is a member of royalty/someone important

Ø  The vampire lusts for the protagonist's blood

Ø  The protagonist is a part of some sort of vampiric prophecy

Ø  The protagonist has been kidnapped by the vampire for a very bogus reason (why the vampires don't eat the protagonists like the rest of their victims, I don't know...)

Ø  Etcetera...

Once you have identified the 'usual', I would suggest you avoid/tweak these stereotypes. So perhaps we could have a (severely not to my taste) vampiric romance, where both characters are vampires. The entire plot could revolve in a hunting-like game, wherein both characters attempt to seduce the other through malignant trickery. *

Another idea could be about a vampire who tricks a human into a romance with him on the basis of sex/drinking her blood. While he has no feelings for him, she could develop a blind obsession with him. The story could end with her realising the truth, but discovering that he won't ever let her go. This vampire would actually be an asshole rather than the "assholes-turned-romantic" type vampire stereotypes.*