Originality
As I have been reading books lately, I notice that a lot of different authors say the same things. It seems they do this thing called research. They look up what other people have to say on some topic, then say the same thing, only in different words. This is not very original. This is what parrots do. They repeat the same sound sequence they hear. How is this beneficial to anyone?
In some ways, repetition is what writing is all about. If we did not use the words of a given language and repeat them, people would not understand what we are talking about. The problem I see is, why bother to say the same thing as so many other people? If you want to say something original, you have to make up your own scenarios. Then there is fiction. How many times can a person tell the same story, but just change the names? I don’t write much fiction. I don’t read much fiction these days either. I am interested in facts.
I guess if you look at it closely, the facts do not change in life. You can only write things that are true if you are trying to convey information. One person’s version of the truth might not be another’s. Writing is about what you say and how you say it. There are many books on the same subject. Every author has their own take and style on their material. Originality is in the particulars of any piece.
So, why am I writing about originality? I want to develop my own style of writing. I want to make something out of my words. This blog is my publishing platform for what I write. If I can’t be original, there really is no point in writing things here. All the posts I wrote about various things I found online were not very original. Oddly, that is the stuff that gets found and viewed. These original posts get very little traffic. Still, this is the kind of thing I want to work on and develop.
Right now, I think I am going to open up my word processor and do some brainstorming. I need to come up with a good idea for a book that will sell. I really have no idea what I want to write about, I only know I want to write. Perhaps I could use the Internet to write a book. Google makes research ridiculously easy. There are only so many facts I would allow in a book. Too many and it starts reading like a list. Then there is the question of documenting sources. Why bother? I have a huge store of facts already in my skull. Time to dust of the brain cells and see what they have to say.
