How can you be original in your work?
It’s a question I’ve been exploring all year as I worked on picture book ideas especially. Last year, many of my pb rejections said, “This is well written, but it just doesn’t stand out in a crowded market.”
Of course, that made me mad! And when I get mad, I think hard and try to do something about it. Enter, Friday Ideas. The idea was to create as many original, different picturebook ideas as possible. I’m not totally consistent in doing it, but most weeks I’ve created 5-10 new picture book ideas. Out of those, I’ve written eight picturebooks and I’m working on two more. Let’s say 30 ideas/week, 120/month. Out of that, one finds its way to the top and gets written. Yes, I’m submitting those and so far, I’ve not gotten that dreaded comment about no originality. I get other comments, now, but not that one.
How to be original? One answer is to generate lots of ideas and let the cream rise.
But I’m sure there are other answers. I’m working on an article about this topic. If you’ve done something specific to jumpstart your push for originality, please email me or leave a comment. I’d like to talk to you about your strategies.
Related posts:
Originallity is the hardest thing of all for a novelist to create, and the longer the story the harder it is to be original. There are very few trully original works of fiction out there.
I use two techniques:
Dreams: I have had some wonderfully original dreams. A large chunk of cheese will often trigger a dream during the night. Only occasionally are they memorable or remembered. When they are I have a notebook and pencil by the bed to record them.
Synetics innovation: This is an innovations technique I was taught at work by a consultancy group called syanetics. Basicalyy you think of a theme/random idea, you then expand that idea to the silliest, wildest, most bizare extremity you can imagine (this works well with a group of friends who can all feed off each other). Taking the silly extremity as your goal you throw around ideas that would make this goal possible, again silly is good. From these ideas you pick the most inreaguing (not the most logical, or the most do able, or the least silly, but the most intreaguing). You then repeat the exercize as often as you wish – each reitteration should move you TOWARDS originallity. If you want you can then work forward from your original theme/ideas to work out the barriers that separate your final goal from your original idea (this is particularly relevant for product designs).