Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Jul 23 2010
Read my notes: No new plots
If you wrote the same story all the time you might get tired of writing it. No publisher would care to publish it and no reader would be likely to pay to read it. The unscrupulous in society would be unlikely even to steal it.
Now that I've said that, let me say this. There are very few new plots in the universe. What generally happens is that old plots and conflicts change time periods, settings and themes. Betrayal, jealousy, murder and redemption take place again and again. The love triangle of David and Bathsheba (and her husband) was resurrected in the likes of King Arthur, Lady Guinivere and Sir Lancelot. Modern love triangles in stories include Lucas, Peyton and Brooke from One Tree Hill and Sookie, Bill and Eric from True Blood. The stories may take place in entirely different settings and have characters and other details that are nothing alike, but the basic premise of the plot is the same. If may even be spiced up with a love quadrangle at times, but unrequited loved is going to be in there somewhere, somehow.
Since it's unlikely that any of us is going to write a completely unique story, the details of what we write become key to making our story compelling. Your Tin Man might become a wedding chapel owner in 1960s Las Vegas. Your Captain Ahab may become a scientist traveling back in time to the late 1800s. Through details and through combining plots and and other elements, The possibilities are endless. There may be no new plots, but we really shouldn't let that stand in our way.
posted at: 16:44 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
If you wrote the same story all the time you might get tired of writing it. No publisher would care to publish it and no reader would be likely to pay to read it. The unscrupulous in society would be unlikely even to steal it.
Now that I've said that, let me say this. There are very few new plots in the universe. What generally happens is that old plots and conflicts change time periods, settings and themes. Betrayal, jealousy, murder and redemption take place again and again. The love triangle of David and Bathsheba (and her husband) was resurrected in the likes of King Arthur, Lady Guinivere and Sir Lancelot. Modern love triangles in stories include Lucas, Peyton and Brooke from One Tree Hill and Sookie, Bill and Eric from True Blood. The stories may take place in entirely different settings and have characters and other details that are nothing alike, but the basic premise of the plot is the same. If may even be spiced up with a love quadrangle at times, but unrequited loved is going to be in there somewhere, somehow.
Since it's unlikely that any of us is going to write a completely unique story, the details of what we write become key to making our story compelling. Your Tin Man might become a wedding chapel owner in 1960s Las Vegas. Your Captain Ahab may become a scientist traveling back in time to the late 1800s. Through details and through combining plots and and other elements, The possibilities are endless. There may be no new plots, but we really shouldn't let that stand in our way.
posted at: 16:44 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
