The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 17 Oct 1993

>>> Item number 19203 from WRITERS LOG9310C --- (62 records) ----- <<<
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1993 18:00:04 JST
Reply-To: WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Sender: WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
From: Mike Barker <barker@AEGIS.OR.JP>
Subject: METACRIT: It's been done before

[meta-comment on critiques - is this TECH?]

"It's been done before. See xxx, yyy, zzz,..." seems to be a popular critique, and there is a certain justice in it. After all, it is somewhat embarrassing when an editor says "Shakespeare did this, and his version is more readable than yours."

(it is even worse when someone says "they did that on Gilligan's Island, and they stole it from the Three Stooges." And the real pits are when someone says "Didn't I see that on When The World Turns..." Luckily, most editors won't admit that they know these versions:-)

However, I am unconvinced. Kuhn, over in the scientific paradigm land, points out that many important discoveries come about when new people, somewhat unaware of the prevailing "wisdom", take a fresh look at exactly those old points that "everybody knows" don't go anywhere. It is embarrassingly evident in literature that the lists of "cliches" are often close matches to current bestsellers and prize-winning new author's works.

So why does one re-telling get booed while another gets printed?

I think part of the difference lies in types of stories. Those stories which primarily depend on a single twist or some similar trick are likely to fail if they have been done before in a similar way - try to rewrite an O'Henry short story, for example, and you are likely to end up with something pretty stale.

But, if you work at characterization, setting, and the rest of the details, if your story has that elusive quality of "depth" to it, then it is more likely to stand up even if it echoes an older story.

If you happen to know it is like other stories, then spend the time to work out a new slant, a new approach, a new solution or some other variation if possible - or at least make sure your story digs deeper and shows some other details than those other stories. But don't get hung up on avoiding all possible echoes of previous stories, or in trying to read all the libraries of the world to avoid ever redoing some theme.

Just make sure your story is the best one you can write. Make sure it is really your story, told as only you can tell it.

Then (when someone points out the other well-known writers' versions) laugh and admit that those other storytellers were pretty smart, figuring out what you were going to write before you wrote it. You can also borrow the old line about "great minds work in similar ruts" if you like.

So what if it's been done before - birth, death, love, even lunch has been done before, but it's still worth doing again now and then...

(If you believe in reincarnation, then all of it really has been done before... again and again and again. Take one eight-fold path and call me in the next life:-)