Originality: Over Rated &

Seldom Seen. It doesn't mean you can't write.

Originality is the art of concealing your sources.
– Benjamin Franklin

The idea for this article came from my granddaughters, so I'll give them their props. It stemmed from an argument they were having. I teach them art every Wednesday, and two weeks ago, they were painting a mural outside their playhouse. Each of the four sides has a different season painted on it. One child accused the other one of copying. "You stole the design for those flowers from somewhere else," was the guist of it. Of course, I had to be the voice of reason, discuss originality with them, and make it the topic for this newsletter.

I get it; I do. We all try so desperately to be original. Still, in my twenty-five years as an art professor and while in art college myself, I can't recall ever seeing anything that didn't stem from something I hadn't seen somewhere before. Yet, my student's works were all "original" in that they were the essence of that person's hand and spirit. It is somewhat the same when I read a new book. I'll tell myself this reminds me of this particular book, or she writes like this author. It doesn't mean the book or author is bad at all. In fact, most of the time, it's a good thing. Ultimately, the author finds a way to make themselves unique and bring themselves into the novel.

Sometimes, when I'd teach, I'd have a student refuse to look at something I'd brought in to use as an example (an artist's work.) "I don't want to be influenced," they'd say. "If this is true, why are you here?"

Thought one:

Artists learn and build on achievements from the past. I don't care where you go to art school; art professors give examples of past art and have you study them. You are taught to dissect their use of line, value, color, and form, hoping to master their techniques someday. In writing, it was the same. In my writing classes, we read short stories and had to dissect them and then write our own. Did we copy them…not precisely, but we did try to distill what we learned into our writing. From the one author, it was how she created her settings; in another, it was his dialogue or pacing.

Thought two:

Take any famous work of art, Picasso's Guernica, for instance, and you will find the historical reference hidden within. These three myths, the Minotaur (the classical Mediterranean heritage), the Crucifixion (the Christian heritage), and the bullfight (the Spanish national heritage), are in Guernica. According to Artforum, "Picasso relied on news reports and editorial cartoons printed in L'Humanité, the French Communist journal, for visual ideas and ideological content, and three of Goya's paintings likely influenced Picasso's painting, according to the publication, The Article, Goya & Picasso: humanity & Horror. Did he copy it? Yes, but he also distilled what he copied into something of his own making. Did Picasso get accused of copying or stealing from other artists? As a matter of fact, he did all the time, but it didn't diminish his reputation as being one of the greatest artists of all time.

Thought three:

If originality is so crucial, then Hollywood wouldn't keep remaking the same movies repeatedly and sinking millions of dollars into them. We wouldn't want to see the same thing again, would we? King-Kong, The Bad Seed, Beauty and the Beast, Cape Fear, Carrie, and Cheaper by the Dozen. Don't believe me? The list of remakes is extensively long.

Thought four:

"True originality can't begin until you know what you're breaking away from." - Blake Snyder.

When other writers bust on romance and say it's formulaic, my response is always—you can learn quite a bit from writing inside a box. I don't see the point of having a wide-open field if you can't handle some structure first. Originality blossoms under structure and knowing what's been done before. Having tropes to draw from is a blessing, but it's essentially the same kinds of stories that a reader likes, over and over. And it's no accident that there is a multitude of romance novels out at present that use myth and fairy tales as the base of their story. See Marissa Meyers's fairy-inspired ones, for instance, Cinder, Cress, and Scarlet. For more titles, see here. For Greek-inspired ones, see Neon Gods by Katee Robert and A Touch of Malice by Scarlett St. Clair. Why reinvent the wheel when you don't need to. For more examples, see here.

Thought five:

Stop worrying about originality. "The most important human communications are the oldest and least original. Some things have to be said over and over again; we never tire of them because we never fully learn them. I think every human message boils down to one that can't be said enough: I love you." This came from Nina Paley's blog and I agree with her. I love her blog and her stick drawings. Since I borrowed from her blog, I'm obviously not worried about originality.

Thought six:

You don't have to think of an original idea if you can recognize, read, or hear one. That means you have to find them, and there isn't an excuse for not finding one today. You have the world at your fingertips; we have too much information available most of the time.

Thought seven:

True originality means integrating your voice into everything you do, whatever you write. The more you read, write, and live, the more you develop your voice. Be happy about that.

Thought eight, nine, ten and eleven:

Please give me your thoughts on originality and what you do when you feel the well is running dry under comments.

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Have a great week writing. If you are writing for Nano, I hope you are killing it!