Original ideas...or not. Plus more blog love with a free book!

I wanted to do a quick post on original ideas. Or, more appropriately, how ideas are never very original. No matter how hard we try and come up with something original, there is always SOMEONE out there who has done it already. So how can we write and stand out?

One idea is to mash up several common ideas to come up with something new. Kind of like the mash-ups they do on Glee.Two completely different songs to make an original, unique performance.

So I really have no profound words of insight, but to encourage you to take your book ideas to the next level. You can take a normal book structure and make it your own. You don't have to come up with a completely original concept. Why? Cause there probably isn't going to be one. You are writing about a vampire? Well, how can you make your vampire book distinguishable from the next vampire novel? Can't tell you that answer. You need to find out on your own. Cause, if I had that answer, I sure as heck wouldn't be posting it on here. (grin).

This idea made me think of this video. (Mild language warning.) Even the great composers are repeated.

And... to further our month of Blogger love for the month of February, we are going to give away a book. 

Win a pre-order of Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. 

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Results will be announced on Friday, February 11th.

Book is released on March 22, 2011

  Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Hey! Did You Copy Me?

This post over on Sarah LaPolla's blog, Glass Cases, got me thinking. The post title?

You Are Not Original (and that's OK) 

We all hope that the WIP is fresh. We want agents to sit up and think, "OMG! I've never seen this before." Except they won't.

Why? Because most plots have been done to a certain extent. Even Shakespeare got inspiration for Romeo & Juliet from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 (who was rumoured to have got that idea from someone else).

See, even the master drew from literature around him.

Before we run crying, delete our WIPs and eat our weight in chocolate, I'm going to say I get it. I do. I'm like every other writer out there. I hope my WIP is something agents haven't read a variation of before.  But to do that I have to put a different spin on it. Make it mine.

But how?

It could be a unique setting. It could be a plot twist. It doesn't matter as long as it's something that sets it apart. 

My music teacher once told me that there are only a certain number of notes you can use. Sooner or later a composer will repeat the melody or phrase of another composition. The thing that makes them different is what they do with it after.

So the next time you get an idea about two teenagers from different sides of the tracks who fall in love, but the odds are against them, don't worry. Don't worry that Romeo & Juliet, Twilight or Wuthering Heights did it before you. Do it, but make it yours.

If it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for us, right? 

What Makes An Author Stand Out?

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I’m not certain how many of you watch America’s Got Talent. I've been watching this season and enjoying it quite a bit. Tonight the final four contestants will attempt to win the prize of one-million dollars. Thousands of people competed for this prize of fame and fortune, much like a writer does when he is querying his/her manuscript or submitting pages into a slush pile. So what makes these 4 contestants, 3 of them singers, better than all the others that tried out as well?

Originality.

Let’s take the first act, the non-singing one, called Fighting Gravity. Throughout the whole season, the judges kept telling them how original they were. They do a black light act that is pretty fun. And though they are only college frat boys, they found a niche and ran with it.

The second contestant is a singer from Mississippi named Michael Grimm. I really believe that his personality is what makes him unique. He is a great singer, but the world has a ton of great singers. It is his image (or voice to a writer) that makes him unique.

The third contestant is an opera singer named Jackie Evancho. I’ve heard my fair share of opera singers in my classes at college. (I was a music education major back then.) She is great, but, once again, there are a ton of great singers out in the world. So what makes her special? She’s only ten. Her age makes her unique. It reminds me a little of the YA fantasy novel called Eragon written by Christopher Paolini. I was drawn to that book originally because it was written by a 16 year old kid.

The last contestant is my favorite. His name is John Quayle. He too is an opera singer, but his alter ego, Prince Poppycock, is quite the entertainer. He turns his performances into…well, quite a spectacle, in a good way. He is defiantly an original in every possible way.

Let’s face it. There are thousands and thousands of writers out there, and they are all trying to break into the business. There really is only so many publishers and so many book spots that can be filled. We can use these performers as a learning tool. Singing and stage are a form of art and entertainment, just like writing. How they became successful can tell us a lot on how we can succeed at writing.

A ton of people write, lots write well. To be successful, one can't just be a great writer, they need to do it in a way that shines out in the dark mass of writers fighting to be seen. If you are an excellent writer with a generic concept, your book will probably not sell. If you are a good writer with a new and fresh idea or an exciting voice, you have a better shot at catching someone's eye. Concept and Voice are THAT important, especially with so many talented writers amongst us.

Oh, one more thing. An awesome idea falls flat with bad writing. Along with that great concept or voice, always strive to improve your craft.

So what makes an author stand out to you?