The Struggle For Originality

How many writers- new and old- suffer from trying to create something original? With more books being published than ever before, finding an original concept is proving more difficult. Let’s forget the part where Shakespeare basically ruined it for all when he knocked out the ten major themes in books. Seriously, save a little for the rest of us.

The bottom line is that chances are that great idea or story plot you are cooking up has already been done. That is not cause for concern however. Sure, just about every storyline you can think of has been written, but not with your individual twist.  Oh sure, there are some definite copyright infringements going on- take all those cheap, cheesy covers going around that have one of the Trade Federation Starships from the Star Wars prequels- but there are limitless possibilities an author can take to make the story theirs.

The future is a bold mix of what the mind might imagine and what has already happened being reshaped. I once read that it takes roughly 1 million written words, yeah that’s right 1,000,000 words, before an author gets good at his/her craft. That’s a lot. I mean a lot. At first I thought it was nonsense, but the more experienced I get the easier my books flow and the stronger the story and the prose.

All this helped me decide to write my own how-to book. I scoured numerous references and industry professionals I know from around the world to put together a comprehensive guide for beginners to build the foundation for their fiction book. Like so many things before it, there’s not much new information there, but the presentation is unlike any other.

So where do you fit in?