You know that little piece of wisdom, "there are only seven actual stories ever written" (or something along those lines), so how in the heck is someone supposed to write a unique story?
I know it's possible, you just have to take a peek at the best-sellers list to tell, but whenever I put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) I really do feel like I'm on the right track. I get right to the last few chapters of whatever rewrite I'm working on and then start to think about writing the query, or the synopsis, and then... I just... can't.
Those things are pretty crappy to write in general but there is a heap of really great advice out there on how to go about it. And the main piece of advice that keeps jumping up is, "focus on the unique points in your story, make me want more".
I've recently had two partial requests and while I'm super excited about that, I'm seriously doubting that what I've written will stand out from a crowd. SO, even though I haven't started shopping this MS yet, I'm already thinking about rewriting it. Again. For like, the fourth time. But I know I'll probably just be right back in this position in another couple of months.
What I'd like my writerly pals out there to tell me is, do you write with the intention of making your MS as unique as possible? Or do you just write what you want and fingers crossed for later?
And most importantly, how do yo do unique?
Good questions, and I'm not sure I'll be super helpful in answering them unfortunately. Every time I get an idea I think is unique, I end up hearing about something similar or coming across something like it in my research. I think it really is true that there are only so many stories out there, but I also believe that if you gave two people the exact same idea and told them to run with it, they'd end up with completely different novels. You can make yourself crazy trying to find something no one has done before, so I say write what's in your heart and as always, hope for the best!
ReplyDeleteYeah that's the issue I constantly have. I mean, I feel like my characters etc. are all pretty one-of-a-kind but... I just find it so hard to put that across in a query/synopsis. I keep going back and rewriting the first story I wrote, and even though I doubt it will ever be published, I just enjoy myself too much.
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