Muz
2011-01-21, 12:31 PM
So in an effort to try to get myself out of what I suspect is an unhealthy creative mental space, I'm looking for other perspectives on something I'm currently wrestling with:
Short version: When trying to come up with a fresh idea for a genre fiction novel (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), where does one draw the line between characteristics that simply classify it AS the genre one is trying to write in, and characteristics that make it highly derivative of other works within the genre (and, thus, unoriginal)?
Longer version: I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for a novel (having finished writing one a bit ago--currently pitching that one to agents, but that's not really important here). As I do so, I'm getting the feeling that I'm sabotaging myself because I keep coming up with ideas and then tossing them out due to some similarities with other books that are out there. On the one hand, it's good to have SOME similarity to popular works (from a marketing perspective, at least), but on the other, I need to make things different enough to where I don't just feel like I'm spitting out another writer's idea with the serial numbers filed off. Are ideas about, for example, elves and magic and warring kingdoms just in keeping with writing in the fantasy genre, or are they overdone and unoriginal? Another example: say you're writing detective fiction. Is a murder, a missing person, or someone coming to a detective's office to hire him/her unoriginal, or are those just standard (and thus forgiveable) tropes that make up the genre itself?
I sometimes feel like I'm an architect trying to design an interesting house, but tossing out my ideas because they use walls, windows, wood, and nails. I think I've gotten into a mindset so overcritical as to be self-destructive. Help meeeee! :smalleek:
So, to bring this rambling post to an end, what would you say is necessary to make genre fiction genre fiction, what are allowable similarities between works by different authors, and what are the areas in which there can/should be unique elements?
...And after that we can discuss the meaning of life. :smallwink:
Short version: When trying to come up with a fresh idea for a genre fiction novel (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), where does one draw the line between characteristics that simply classify it AS the genre one is trying to write in, and characteristics that make it highly derivative of other works within the genre (and, thus, unoriginal)?
Longer version: I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for a novel (having finished writing one a bit ago--currently pitching that one to agents, but that's not really important here). As I do so, I'm getting the feeling that I'm sabotaging myself because I keep coming up with ideas and then tossing them out due to some similarities with other books that are out there. On the one hand, it's good to have SOME similarity to popular works (from a marketing perspective, at least), but on the other, I need to make things different enough to where I don't just feel like I'm spitting out another writer's idea with the serial numbers filed off. Are ideas about, for example, elves and magic and warring kingdoms just in keeping with writing in the fantasy genre, or are they overdone and unoriginal? Another example: say you're writing detective fiction. Is a murder, a missing person, or someone coming to a detective's office to hire him/her unoriginal, or are those just standard (and thus forgiveable) tropes that make up the genre itself?
I sometimes feel like I'm an architect trying to design an interesting house, but tossing out my ideas because they use walls, windows, wood, and nails. I think I've gotten into a mindset so overcritical as to be self-destructive. Help meeeee! :smalleek:
So, to bring this rambling post to an end, what would you say is necessary to make genre fiction genre fiction, what are allowable similarities between works by different authors, and what are the areas in which there can/should be unique elements?
...And after that we can discuss the meaning of life. :smallwink: