Are You Unique?

[image error] I've been reading many more blogs lately. Among the best are those by Jeff Goins and Ava Jae. Of course I haven't read everything, but I like these. Jeff is more motivational, but he provides grounds for the techniques to develop you as a writer, while Ava provides a little more technical knowledge of the trade. I reckon the only thing missing, and to make a triangle of awesome is to look at developing ideas. So over the next few blogs I'm going to do that in more detail than usual. I mean, that's what I've been doing anyway. I'm not just ranting for my health here. I'm trying to make you think and see things differently so you can write more interesting stories. There's far too many about this chick who meets this guy but they can't be together because of this poo hole, then they do anyway. Why not fall in love with a donkey, or a backwards anthropomorph from Neptune with a spontaneous implosion disease? Isn't it an obvious progression? So let's get going.

Some people ask me "Matt, why are your stories so crazy?" and I hurl five fish at them and complain about the average angle of decline in young men's posture nowadays. Some people ask "why are your stories unique?" Those people I like a bit more. They are asking the right questions.

I like to think I write this blog to help other people have and develop ideas and not to distract me from the voices that melt out of the dark impossible screaming for my very fried turnip (no, I don't know why inter-dimensional demons like turnip, but it keeps me awake at night). So here's possibly my most important piece of advice, and how I begin writing my stories.

The first, the very first thing I consider about the idea I have is: what makes it unique?That's my starting point. It's the root of my labour. So it is destined to grow and spread throughout my work and produce new coloured fruit that tastes like chocolate lemmings or something. If I can't find anything fresh in my idea, no new approach, no antlered rodent, I dump it. Mostly this is intentional, sometimes I just grow bored of it. However, whichever way it happens, it is a good move.

Firstly, no one wants to read the same story over and over again, which is often why people complain about best selling authors 5 years down the line. I certainly don't want to waste my time writing a story that has already been written. Most of all, I don't want to be known for writing that kind of trash.

As I sift through my wardrobe (that is actually the hollowed out carcass of a pretend bantha) looking for my orange and green kilt and Darth Vader outfit, I some how doubt that it will ever be a problem for me.