Writing Tips

Inspiration and Voice

Some people have no problem with lacking inspiration. Frankly, it's everywhere, and yet still we as writers can hit a roadblock, smash our head on the desk, and tell ourselves that we are never going to come up with ANYTHING creative. Ever. 

All to often I see "Plots for Sale" threads, or people begging others to give them pre-made, pre-packaged, original plots. Let me tell you something:

There is no such thing as an original plot. If you are constantly going through you idea cache and throwing out ideas because "someone already wrote that", then guess what? Someone probably wrote a similar idea before they had the idea. Ah, the circle of life.

But, let me say. There are plots that are so over-used that you shouldn't attempt something original with them unless you are supremely talented. Ie. "High school girl meets jock, and they end up falling in love, the end." This is less then un-original. This is horribly cliched. There are good cliches and bad cliches. Unless you put a different spin on this tale, it will usually be a bad cliche. 

But back to Inspiration. It is okay to be inspired by a movie/book/music piece that someone else wrote. But there is a difference between inspiration and thievery. Be careful not to take that awesome idea you had after reading the Hunger Games, and have it turn out to be this:

"Girl is forced to fight to the death with a boy that she never payed attention to before but now has fallen in love with. In the future. And they both live."

And trust me, I know the feeling one gets when you've written 40,000 words of a novel, and suddenly you find, BAM. A famous author has already written a book with a plot quite similar and if you ever tried to pitch this to anyone, they would ask if it was fan fiction. *facedesk* But, if there are no original ideas, there is only a fresh, new creative way YOU write. Nobody else can write in your voice, and you can't write a classic in someone else's voice. So go for the 'good vs. evil' plot with a  'chosen one' destined/prophesied/supposed to defeat evil. But make it yours. Even if your writing, when you try on your own without styling after some famous work, sounds like crap, still do it. If you give up, you're never going to do anything at all. Period. So either write and find your own inspiration, voice, and style, or give up and live in the gloomy bin forever.

So be inspired. Find something you love and write about it. Don't research it to see if it's already been written. Write about true love, good vs evil, the undiscovered nobody becoming a star. If this is your inspiration, don't let no famous writer's 1,000,000 sold copies get in your way. Just don't steal. If you write the darn thing, you might find it sounds a lot different then the original inspiration, as long as you take full ownership of the idea and brainstorm about it.

Tell me if this post makes no sense. I wouldn't be surprised. 

Anyways, if you're bored enough or care enough to read, here's another true story from Auntie Star about my own troubles with inspiration and having the same idea someone else has already had, except they did it better:

I was writing a story, and was about 40,000 words in. It was set in a future dystopian society when a powerful president, called the 'Regent' ruled solely. Children had to compete for a place in the society, or else they were exiled.

Then I casually read the Hunger Games. And my writing life fell apart. My protagonist was strong and good with a bow. So was Katniss. Her name was Kata, sharing three letters with Katniss. She had a little sister, named Maelie, who she constantly looked out for. Katniss had Prim. They both lived in a future society where children had to compete, and if you weren't you were sent to an unfavorable place (District 12 for Katniss, Hail for Kata). The love interest was named Perth. Sounds a lot like Peeta. Perth and Peeta were both rather weak. 

So, the moral is, read famous books. At least chose different names :P

~Star