It’s All Been Done Before
In one of my favorite books on creativity, Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert writes, “[T]he only way an idea can be [made to] manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner… [I]deas spend eternity swirling around us searching for available and willing human partners” (35). She goes on to explain that when one person chooses not to engage with an idea, the thought will go off to find a more willing person to work with. It’s happened to you if you’re a creative. You have an idea for a tv show, movie, book, youtube series, any creative project… and then you get busy or lazy or sidetracked and suddenly the idea is out there in the world… just not through you.
For example, I just found out about the TV show, Servant, on apple tv, and my heart sank. According to Variety, “A couple experience[s] a trauma with their newborn, but rather than deal with it head-on, they use a reborn doll.” There is a short story I’ve been working on since 2015 that deals with the loss of a baby and a reborn doll replacement.
I wrote a short story about a mermaid (& it almost made it into an anthology!) and then The Pisces came out. I developed the plot for my novel in progress, heavily involving LGBT themes and a movie star of the 60s, then Taylor Jenkins Reid (one of my favorite authors!!!) published The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I began to introspect and write about people using holograms of dead actors and singers in order to profit off of them even in the afterlife — we are now living in a world where dead stars go on tour.
In my teens and early 20s, I let these types of circumstances dictate my own work. If someone else did it, they probably did it better, and I would be seen as copying them even that was the farthest from the case. But i am no longer in the business of silencing myself or my work. Shoot, there are thousands of stories out there based on the same myths over and over, with new twists and curves. There is more than one toothbrush company, more than one car company.
If you give only one writing prompt to a class of 20, you will end up sharing 20 different stories. Don’t let anyone, even yourself, stop you from pursuing a creative idea just because others have had similar ideas. Only you can write your story, and only they can write theirs. Your job as a creative person is to put your heart, soul, and everything in between into your work and to keep your eyes on your own paper. When I actually read Evelyn Hugo, it was completely different than my story. I won’t be watching The Servant but I can guarantee that my story is not a copy of it. How can it be?
Do not let fear take over. Choose love — love of the story. Humans crave universal stories, those that can be told over and over again and appreciated, because they give a full taste of the flavor of our lives. Everyone’s flavor is different. Don’t let go of your blueberry ice cream idea just because someone else invented strawberry first. Think of all the retellings and reimaginings and new spins on old tales…
This was originally published on flappersandphilosophersohmy.wordpress.com. You can follow my bookstagram @ flappersandphilosophersohmy, or my instagram for writers, @ flappersandphilosophersoracle.
