Comments on: The Tyranny of the Original Idea

By: Glendon Mellow

Glendon Mellow — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:39:54 +0000

Originality is even harder to come by when there are this many people on the planet, and a growing number on-line.

I used to believe I was doing something “different” in university when I would paint acorns bursting with human arms, and images of extinct animals…then I realized it was the same old story: creation and death.

When I went online with The Flying Trilobite, I was still a bloggy-nobody and in short order a reader informed me about the webcomic Girl Genius had winged trilobites. I was devastated. The authors of Girl Genius were cool about it, and since then I’ve seen them in a coat of arms, and designed as an artful fence. If winged trilobites aren’t original, nothing could be.

…ideas are cheap and plentiful. It’s the execution that matters. I’ve heard the same from another artist I admire recently. Inspiring words, and I gotta finish some ideas.

By: Eronarn

Eronarn — Sun, 17 May 2009 02:19:34 +0000

I actually love reading multiple takes on the same story or concept – as far as I see it it’s okay if my writing is an extension of that love. I think that you can also make the argument that sci fi greatly benefits from these periodic “re-writes” as technology progresses. Some of it is downright visionary in its predictions for the future but glaring examples can be a bit jarring to readers in the present.

By: bioephemera

bioephemera — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:14:55 +0000

Great post, great issues to discuss. I think a lot of artistic insecurity comes out of being afraid you’ll do something derivative. The really successful artists aren’t afraid of that – and sometimes they end up crossing a line and being more derivative than not. But at least they do it with confidence, and aren’t paralyzed by fear!

By: Toaster

Toaster — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:49:43 +0000

I once composed a song in 13/8 time, thinking myself ground-breaking and progressive. Then I realized that jazz had been there long before me, I’d just grafted electronica onto it.

By: Mike Haubrich

Mike Haubrich — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:08:49 +0000

Thanks for this. I didn’t finish my thought on originality (in the spirit of brevity, I suppose.) What I didn’t add was that later I came to realize that what a writer can hope to do is incorporate the ideas, plots and themes of the stories they think bear repeating with their own ideas, plots and themes and experiences.

I learned that originality is “organic,” because each of us have different spheres than the writers we read and the people we listen to. Ideas overlap and overlay; West Side Story may be a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet, and the Twilight series may be yet another version of a similar idea, with a different sort of bloodletting. I had decided to keep on writing, because I thought even if someone else had thought of a similar plot or essay issue they had never seen it through my eyes.

So if the most recent song lyric I wrote uses Bob Dylan’s melody (and even uses his theme,) it is mine nonetheless.