Original Enough Book Ideas

[solitaire]

I am in the process of writing two books. I have no background in writing whatsoever, and am ashamed to say I was never an avid reader when I was younger. I was always more of a movie/tv type of girl but I refuse to let that deter me.

I've changed my evil ways in recent months and have started reading again voraciously. All of the books are in the genre I want to write in, but I intend to incorporate the classics in my literary education. I feel I have a good grasp of the English language, at least I hope so.

I am going it alone as there are no writing groups where I live, so my sister and work colleagues are reading what I've written as I go along. I do have a full-time job so I write evening and weekends, if and when I get the chance. Of course I'm plagued with thoughts of inadequancy etc etc. I'm hesitant to join any online critique groups because the way I see it - maybe suspiciously so - what's to stop someone using your ideas.

Anyway the point of my rant is: how do you know what you've written is original enough or good enough for that matter? I know some of the elements in my stories have been used before. Unless I read every book in circulation there is no way for me to know if someone else has written a similar story. It is a disconcerting notion.

Should I just write what I feel, the story I want to tell and worry about all that later?

Any advice? Words of wisdom for a novice writer?

[DanielScocco]

I would write the story first, and then worry about its originality.

If its coming from your experiences and ideas, I doubt that it will be a problem.

[Maeve]

Solitaire,
Every story has already been written. The only originality possible to a writer is in the way he tells the story: style, characters, discoveries, etc.

You are going at your literary education in the right way, reading in your targeted genre and adding "fiber" to your intake by including the classics.

You have bitten off rather a lot if you're working on two books at once.

Every novelist eventually comes up with a method that works for him, but usually after several false starts. You say you're reading in your genre and in the classics, but you don't mention reading books on writing. I think you would find it helpful to include at least one book on writing a week. Some that come to mind: On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner; On Writing by Stephen King, and Stein on Writing by Sol Stein.

Perhaps you could organize your reading in such a way that you would read one classic per month (you can't go wrong by beginning with Dickens) and one writing book per week or every two weeks. The rest of the time you could spend reading in your genre and perhaps in other genres as well from time to time.

The books on writing will give you practical suggestions for planning your novel.

Your worries about others stealing your ideas and about how you can know when your work is original and "good enough" are normal for beginning writers. You'll stop worrying about them as you become truly involved in your writing project. Concentrate on your book. Plan it carefully, write the draft without worrying about how good it is or if anyone else will like it. Just write it. And then go back and rewrite it until it is the best that you can make it. Then ask others to read it.

Good luck.

:)

[Ali]

Hi Solitaire,

I'd echo Maeve's words above; don't worry too much about having "original" ideas as all the plots have been done already...

Some of the best advice I read about writing, when I was fairly new to it, was on Holly Lisle's site - http://www.hollylisle.com/ - she's a successful, professional author with a HUGE amount of excellent free content available for writers.

Good luck with your writing. All writers feel inadequate at times (probably most of the time...) and even quite well-established writers often have full-time day jobs, so don't feel that you're in any way inferior because of that! Stick with it, keep practising, and read as much as you can.

Best,

Ali

[solitaire]

Thanks everyone for the advice, and the tips on what books to read. I've been on Holly's website and liked what she had to say.

I'm at the early stage of writing as it is. I see it more of a marathon than a sprint. In saying that, I hope it doesn't take me years to finish them. I've only got 10,000 words a piece and since my target is 100,000, I've a long way to go.

I have both stories roughly outlined from start to finish. Writing them is the difficult part. I really have to think about what I want to say and putting that on paper - or laptop in my case - is the mind boggling part. Trying to be descriptive, imagine how your characters feel and how they'd react to certain situations, and then follow a natural progression is time consuming especially when you've never written anything before. Maybe eventually I'll be able to write like it's second nature to me, but right now words don't flow as quickly as I'd wish.

But besides all that, I'm doing fine! :eek:

[Silke]

Hi Solitaire,

You know you said "There are not writing groups in my area" -- well, there aren't any near me, either.
I am part of an online group, and it works very well. Maybe you should try to find one that suits you, online?
Most have forums, most are genre specific, but -- for instance -- Yahoo groups has a ton of them, take a look. :)

Silke

[solitaire]

Hi Silke,

Thanks for your input. As far as online writing groups goes I wouldn't know where to start. Do you post excerpts of what you are writing or is it anything you write in general? I feel like a complete amateur when it comes to all this stuff.