Depending on who you ask, there are a limited number of basic story plots. I won't weigh in on that, though I believe it's true, because in my view the originality has nearly nothing to do with plot and everything to do with hows and whys and whatsits. To me, the characters are what make the story, and not the sequence of events (unless you are creating histories). The framework it all hangs on is no more exciting than a clothes hanger. Show me genuine, understandable, characters and I'll show you a successful story.
I love talking with children, because they come up with wildly unrelated things (try having them tell you a story about their favorite toy). Some people call that unbridled creativity, though you could also say that it's unhindered originality. After all, children don't have tons of life experience to draw on--or they also don't have barriers people have told them not to cross. We all have this ability, if we turn off our own internal restrictions. As adults, we naturally try to bring everything together with understandable context and succession. Children just throw it all out and see what sticks. It's loads of fun!
The funny thing is, despite our best intentions, we rarely come up with something actually new. Music is especially prone to repeating tunes, but you'll see repeated sequences in written stories or anything else as well. That's why I focus on characterization so much, because the people inhabiting the story are as close to original as we are able to achieve on a regular basis. However you achieve it, make something original today... I command it!
- M
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