As summer vacations rolled around, I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands. Due to this, I finally decided to do something I had been planning to do for some months—write a short story. For that, I began trying to come up with an idea. I wanted it to be something original, exciting, and provocative. That is when I ran into a brick wall. All my thoughts and ideas were far from original; they were merely borrowed. I felt disheartened as I had seemed to fail on the very first step of my journey. However, this was not the case. 

As André Gide stated, “Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” This is a testament to the circular nature of ideas. Novelty is very hard to find because for millennia, people have been thinking of ideas; therefore, chance is whatever you end up thinking, it has already been written about. However, there are two ways in which novelty can still exist, despite this.

Firstly, every idea has to be reiterated because the time has changed, and so the way of conveying an idea has also changed. Therefore, despite having the same premise, we can have something completely original because of the way we, as people living in a different era, choose to tell that story. 

This is proved by the novel “Demon Copperhead,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. Surprisingly, this novel is closely based on the premise of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield”. Despite having almost the same premise, the modern spin on this concept has given us an almost completely new story, which, proven by the accolades it has received, is a story worth reading.

Secondly, each human is a distinct individual, with different perspectives, experiences, and subtly different ideas. This not only means that the same concept can have a slightly different spin on it, but also that the execution makes all the difference. The author might choose to explore a completely different perspective that the author of the original idea hadn’t focused on. Or even the way the idea is handled can make a world of difference and can make it worthwhile to read that piece of literature.

This idea hit me while reading one of my favourite series, ‘Stormlight Archive’ by Brandon Sanderson, where the protagonist is being reminded of the same thing.

“Your pain,” the voice said. “All men have the same ultimate destination, Dalinar. But we are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet. Your callused feet. Our backs are strong from carrying the weight of our travels. Your back is strong from carrying the weight of your travels. Our eyes open. Your. Eyes. Open. You kept the pain, Dalinar. Remember that. For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method …”

While the excerpt might seem unrelated at first, it actually reveals an important point. The ideas are our destination, and while this might not be unique to us, our journey to those ideas is. We would have reached those ideas after distinct thoughts, experiences, and challenges. That is truly why our methods can make our seemingly unoriginal ideas into something worth reading. 

With this newfound perspective, I've had no problem writing any short story. My problem was that I thought that the 'originality' of a story was the only factor that decided if it would turn out to be good or not. But having realized that originality is immensely overrated, I have been focusing on the other aspects of storytelling, which are definitely more important than a novel premise. Remember, the magic doesn't lie in the premise; it lies in the execution. In other words, I have realized that what the story is about isn't the only thing that makes it special; it matters how I tell it.