Your story ideas are just a mesh of other people’s ideas, the fact that you are running around chasing up what you think already has been done means that you will constantly find that your ideas have already been done; this will mean that you will not write that book that you want to do, because of fear, because of the imposter syndrome. Fact is, you can’t be unique in the truest sense of the word, but you can write things in your style, your way, with a new twist – that’s the fun of writing!
For example – the below is not a story I have planned, it is just a sample of what you can do and how you can trick your mind into making something that resembles a unique piece of work;
Let’s say I want a princess in my story, but I don’t want her to be a regular run of the mill damsel in distress, let’s say she comes from a warrior tribe that doesn’t accept that kind of behaviour – this has already been done multiple times, the most famous is Xena warrior princess and the Amazons of legend.
Let’s also say that she falls in love with a type of monster – a Minotaur, well we all know the Minotaur has been done and of course the trope of Beauty and the Beast is very well known.
However, let’s say the Minotaur is really a gentle giant who doesn’t willingly harm people, but he is under an evil spell by a sorcerer who is trying to compel him to become violent so he can gain control of a certain area. How many times have nice people been turned into monstrous violent killers because of a magical overlord?
Then let’s say this princess tries to kill the magical overlord but by doing so, she also falls under the spell of violence and is used against her family who are uprising against him – so all is lost right?
Not so fast!
Did I mention that the warrior princess has a friend who is impervious to the charms of the magical warlord because she is a dark fae? No, right, well how many times has one magical creature overpowered another in literature?
Well, still, the overall story so far looks unique, yes? You’d probably read it wouldn’t you? I won’t, but there is always someone out there who’d like this kind of stuff, which is why I am not using this idea any time soon! Because I write for my own enjoyment and I know, I am not lonely in this world of eight billion people, there are bound to be hundreds if not thousands of people who like the same stuff I do!
Ideas like these come easy to me, because I lack the fear that so many other writers have. I’ve said it before; I am over run with ideas.
You can gain confidence in knowing you are not doing anything wrong by doing this, by reading a book called “Steal like an artist” by Austin Kleon; everyone who is anyone has done this, all it is that allowed them to make the work and get it out there is they learned to lose the fear!
Lose the fear and you get to work, basically!
Anyway, I have not finished plotting this story, let’s continue…
The dark fae is good friends with a matador (yes I know a touchy subject), but this matador will help wrestle down the violent Minotaur in order to make it drink an antidote to the magic that’s making it violent! (You lose this great twist, if you slammed the book down because of controversy) Meanwhile, the dark fae is fighting her best friend, the warrior princess and trying to release her from jail unseen despite the commotion!
They are successful, but the dark fae believes that they should try to destroy the magical overlord or this stuff could just keep repeating itself – so, the matador acts as a distraction, fighting the dangerous Minotaur which is now pretending to be violent so not to raise suspicions, whilst the dark fae morphs down to a small size to add poisons to the overlords drink and he dies of a heart attack or something along those lines.
There, good story, exciting plot, but it’s not as simple as that, you got to keep it interesting for around three to five hundred pages in order for it to sell. You can’t just go, this, that and other, done! You have to make it entertaining and last a good length!
Good Luck and happy reading!
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