I have a question for my fellow writers, do you ever get frustrated because you feel that all of the best story or book ideas have already been written? The reason that I ask is because I feel that way some times and it gets really frustrated
Never. A lot of the best stories I've read(which have been short stories) were very original. One was about a man that bit a dog to save his daughter. Another was about a soldier in Vietnam that convinced his girlfriend to come to Vietnam to be with him. Another was about a soldier in Vietnam that always wore his girlfriend's stocking on his neck before a battle. Just be original and write well.
Can't say I have either mg. Are you sitting there in front of a blank page wondering what to write about?
erebh: As a matter of fact i'm not i'm actually swamped with writing projects I just had this specific question in the back of my mind and I thought I would bring it up here on the forum.
OK, it sounded like you were frustrated because everything you wanted to write about was already done. My mistake...
I've never felt that way. I think it might be because I understand that it isn't the idea that makes it literature; it's the skill, intelligence, and passion of the writer. Don't worry about the idea. It's the mg357ness of your work that will make it stand or fall.
Just for giggles, some day use the site's search function for threads titled "Question?" Quite a few come up, right? Without opening them, see if you can guess what the poster is looking for.
Cog - you're funny Mg - not really, because my story is my story about my characters, so how could anyone else have written it? And the best ideas that have already been taken no longer seem like the best to me because well, it was the best because it was new, creative and perhaps original. For me to reuse the idea, it would no longer be any of those things, thus it ceases to be "the best". Whatever I feel is "the best idea" is gonna be something I get excited about, and if I'm excited about it, then I don't really care about anything else
I never have this problem because everything has already been done before. It's the same with music: every (good) melody/chord progression/riff has been done a thousand times over and more (no surprise there, really, since Western music only has 8 notes to begin with). All we do now is redo in your own way something that's been done before. It's often like adding a new spice to a food that makes it taste very different even though it's essentially the same food. Back in school a classmate once accidentally put salt in sweet rolls and sugar in bread; that was definitely an original take on an age-old idea. Didn't taste that good, but props for effort, unintentional as it was. I view writing the same way. I mean, how many times we've read girl meets boy? Or hero saves the world/girl/guy/dog/apple pie? Doesn't matter if the basic premise has been done before as long as you do it your own way, give the old fairlytale some twist that distinguishes it from the rest.
Someone once told me there's around 3,000,000,000 published works from all time, not counting short stories, fan fiction, and whatever else on the internet. Chances are whatever one person thinks up, it's been done in some form or another. YOUR job is to make it your own and better than the rest.
Now that T.Trian has mentioned the music, I guess that in music composition there would be more to worry about. (I´m really not familiar with that) But in writing, seems to me that coming up with the same, or something very close, would be much more unlikely.
I don't think I could write if I didn't enjoy it. If I don't have an idea, I don't write. I take a break, do something else. It's like trying to sleep when your not tired. The harder you try the harder it gets. If I get to the stage where I was frustrated, I take a break BUT then I might think about the emotion of frustration and put it into words for future use. Maybe even develop a plot around a frustrated character. How does he/she cope with it? How do his/her friends react. Hey, is something coming here or has it been done before? Anyway it was fun thinking about it, might use it next time I'm stuck.
