Orginiality

I enjoy following other blogs and I ran across one that had me alternating between laughter and indignation.  It belongs to KT Grant and can be found at  kbgbabbles.blogspot.com.  Her latest post WTFckery or Not? You Decide was awesome.  Point number 3 is where my blog comes into being.

I'm going to apologize ahead of time on this particular post and preface with "THIS IS JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION".  It is not to be taken as if the voice of something higher (or lower) made a proclamation.  I'm a writer, I'm a human and strangely enough I have opinions on things.  Some opinions are a bit louder than others.

For those who know me, they understand my deep ick level for the Sparkly Vamp series.

It's not fair to get into my irritation of the major inconsistencies of some of the supernatural mythos that abounds because even I have to admit that every writer has the right to change whatever they want in their own worlds.  Doesn't mean every reader has to like it.

However, I do have to take exception of comments made by the personification of the premier Sparkly Vamp when he tried to say his storyline was being copied by other such stories as True Blood and other titles.

I was shocked.  Seriously, how much does he really know of the whole vamp story history because it doesn't take much to realize that Charlaine Harris' books were out WAY BEFORE Stephanie Meyer.  Such ignorant comments are infuriating. Especially because I've tried so hard not to publicly shred this series.

Here's my take on originality.

At some point I heard the following comment, "Every story that will be told, has already been told previously."  When I first heard that I thought, "Nah…they're wrong!"  Yet, as the years have gone by and I gained deeper insight into the craft of bring words to life, I realized–they are absolutely right.

There are basic story themes to every story, the top three being:

Good overcomes evil.

Boy gets girl.

Underdog saves world.

What sets a story apart from another isn't the basic story, it's the characters, the world they live in and the voice they tell it in.

I love Urban Fantasy and if I really look at it, most of my favorite books revolve around the same plot line.  There's a big bad out to dominate the world, but the flawed hero/heroine has to save the day despite messing up big time.   So if the plots are the same, why read so many different authors? Because their characters, their worlds, their voices enthrall me.  Each takes a different perspective on the same problem.  Each approaches the solution a bit differently and their characters stand alone.

So Sparkle Boy–instead of trying to say your story line sets the bar, why don't you try being an original character that stands apart from the crowd? Have a little more depth and little less angst, be a a little more human. You might get lucky and finally lose your sparkles.