I watched the movie Flicka last night, for lack of anything better on the tube. Now, I understand the need in Hollywood to play around with novels to make a movie and to some extent I can understand their desire to switch from male to female, white to black or whatever the PC flavor of the year is. That’s all fine but what really irritated me was how they took an original idea and made it unoriginal.
Stories about girls and horses are the norm, what Mary O’Hara created with My Friend Flicka was unique. Yes, there were stories about boys or men with horses, many of them, but Ken McLaughlin was a special character, he was a dreamer in a world of literature where boys acted like boys, he was soft and caring where others were rumble-tumble, she created a character who defied what was considered a typical western boy.
All of this got me thinking about originality. How do we make our stories original and unique in a world where we’re told that there are no new ideas? Can just switching gender or race turn a story on its ear? As writers we need to think outside the four corners of normal to find that one little thread we can pull until the norm unravels into something new and fresh and unique. Is it easy? Not by a long shot. Can it be done? Yes.
Take a look at “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson. This book was written in 1954 and it is still fresh and unique today. I know, because I just finished reading it. And trust me, the book has a uniqueness that the movies have never captured (I haven’t seen the newest one with Will Smith, only the first two). Mr. Matheson turned the world of vampires upside down. What surprises me is that nobody has built on the world he created, nobody has taken that story one step further. Everyone writing vampire stories and novels are still building on the old Dracula format. And that is a great loss.
So, what do you do when you’ve finished a story and realize that, yeah, this has been done to death? Do you experiment with changing the POV character’s gender, race, or sexual orientation? How do you think beyond the borders of what has already been done to create something unique?
15 comments:
If you don't realize the story you're writing has been "done to death" until you've finished it, perhaps you need to rethink your approach to crafting stories.
It would be far better to think your idea through before commiting to a full draft and try to incorporate your twist on the same-old-same-old into your intitial draft.
But how do you think "beyond the borders"? Brainstorm all the possible variations.
For example, the basic concept behind "Romeo and Juliet"--two young lovers, one male and one female, are kept apart by their familes--has been done many times.
But what if:
You did it as a musical?
The lovers were elderly instead of young?
The lovers were gay?
The lovers were lesbian?
One lover was human and the other was an alien?
...and the other was a ghost?
...and the other was a vampire?
...and the other was a zombie?
...and the other was an adroid?
...and the other was a god?
What if one lover was young and the other lover was elderly?
What if the lovers were of different races?
...different religions?
...different species?
And so on.
The variations on this one basic concept are nearly endless. By brainstorming you may find one that hasn't been done or hasn't been done often or hasn't been done well and then you have your basic story.
Then you start writing.
I try to do that, Michael, but sometimes, I still catch myself going down some well-trod path. Then I have to stop and brainstorm again.
One thing I've caught myself doing is writing several stories in a row with the same theme or situation. While the stories are different, perhaps one a horror story and another crime, there's still a sameness about them.
It may be that over time you come to accept a certain similarity among your stories because you have an inherent need to explore certain themes.
I write many stories that deal with disintegrating relationships/lost love/unrequited love. Rather than force myself to pick happier themes I try to write these stories the best I can.
Ahhh, nice to know I'm not the only one with recurring themes. Mine nearly always revolve around family dynamics, most especially mother/daughter themes.
Skip the Will Smith one. It started out well, but went completely astray. It is one of my favorite books-and I just read it for the first time last year.
I picked up a copy of "I Am Legend" at the booksale this past weekend, Patti, on your recommendation. What I didn't realize was that the copy I bought also contains ten of his short stories besides the novel. His shorts are great as was the novel! His first chapter is a great lesson in how to build suspense in a story.
Good question. I'm starting to write vampire stories (yeah, I know, insert tired cliche here), and I'm definitely trying to find a way to make them different (more human I guess would be one approach, and definitely more angrier).
Even though I've never read a single one (including Dracula) or seen any movies, I've certainly seen my fair share of jacket blurbs and reviews, so at least I know what road not to really travel down.
But G, how will you know if it's original if you don't know what came before? Even Matheson, while writing an original story, used all the myths of vampire stories in his novel.
Well...good question. I honestly don't know what might of came before, but if I'm like every other person who has written/try to write a vampire story, I've sat with pen and paper in hand coming up with ideas that for the most part have been probably been worked to death (female vampires, sex, light erotica, etc.).
The only other remaining idea that I came up with, that I honestly don't know if it's been used with any degree of overuse, is sex and cannabalism.
I'm not thinking of the story itself, so much, as the everyday or night lives of vampires, such as traveling at night, sleeping in coffins, crosses, garlic, and holy water, just to name a few.
Most genres have certains "rules", or maybe expectations is the better word. If your vampire is going to be strolling about in broard daylight, you're going to have to come up with a good reason as how he's able to do this.
By reading what's come before, you have the basic idea of the lives of vampires, then you can set about showing how or why your vampire has gone beyond what's expected. Does that make sense?
Yup.
But let me ask you this: aren't certain rules made to broken, or at least bent to particular degree?
Of course rules are meant to be broken when you're writing, but a very smart and experienced writer I know said "you have to know the rules first, before you can break them".
With your vampires you need to know the "rules" of their world because much as you want to change their world, your vampire readers know the rules and need an explanation of why you bent or changed them.
The Underworld movies bent the rules of both vampires and werewolves to a degree but they folded their reasons into the storyline so the viewer could understand how this could be. I haven't read Anne Rice but I believe that her "Interview with a Vampire" broke the mold also.
Gotcha.
Still leaves me plenty of wiggle room in the end. I do want to update them, but will try to incorporate a litle bit of old with the new.
I know old can be good, but sometimes old doesn't do it for me. Probably why I don't read certain genres because they cover the same rules with little variation to the overall theme.
By finding originality in stories, it is easier for a writer to find something different while combining multiple genres. I just received an ARC for a book coming out in August that has a blending of multiple genres: the main one being pulpy crime in a horror setting.
I love mixing genres, Barbara, but there is a slight catch when you do that. Finding a market that will cross the genre borders. While there are many that will take cross genre stories there are just as many others who have a strict policy of not. And for novels, publisher like a "tag" so booksellers know where to place a book in their store.
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