When is repeating yourself a bad thing?

When I was brainstorming The Keeper, I started out with characters. I knew my MC, knew his situation, knew the third grade teacher in whom he was interested, and had an idea for a couple central scenes. But my outlining and story just seemed so sparse, definitely not something I thought could hold up an entire novel. Then I added a thread of magical realism and all the sudden the holes seemed filled, the story complete. Like magic.

The same thing just happened again. For novel #2. I have my main character, a stubborn 18 year old girl this time instead of a 40 year old man. She's haunting me just as much as George did, not willing to let me go on without her. Even though I've been trying. I've had the same problems. I know her, I know her family, I know where she's going and who's going to be there. Still, though, there just doesn't seem to be enough for a whole novel, and not enough uniqueness or excitement. Then a magical realism thread dropped in, and it all seems to work. And it's not about my teenager falling in love with a fantastical creature, so that's good.

But for some reason part of my brain is fighting this new development. I specifically wanted to keep things in the realm of realism for this one, not do the same thing as last time. This one will be in first person instead of third, a teenage girl instead of a middle-aged man, and a totally different story, but still, I wanted to do realism. But this story isn't letting me, and despite my hesitations I'm excited about just jumping in and going with the flow. Ah you guys, being excited about a new idea is one of the best parts of writing.

I wonder if I'm having a hard time with straight-up realism because I'm young? Maybe I just need to experience more and then I'll feel like I can write a real-life story. I'll keep trying, but for now I'm okay mixing it up with a dash of magic.

Do you find yourself coming back to a set of basic story elements time and time again? How different do you try to be with each story, and is it okay to do some things the same?


Sarah Allen