Originality: What happened to it?

 Originality

What happened to it?

It's said there is no more originality in fiction. I say that's ridiculous because a new creative is born every day and often their work goes unnoticed. What this blogpost covers is how the possibility of originality is being put aside for stories being reimagined.

Existing characters and stories have been done over in different mediums and by many new creatives. The new trend is to tweak the story here and there. Plus, there is even a change in who and what the characters are. This isn't trying something new or helpful to anyone. I say helpful because many changes to existing characters and stories have become repetitive. For example, Peter Parker a.k.a Spider-man is the most relatable character in comic books. He goes through struggles from issues with family to issues with money. The one thing above all is his bond with responsibility. To change him in anyway beyond an alternate universe version is not original. It's lazy. You can certainly have other characters wearing the suit, but give them separate experiences, different names, and origins. 

Next, I'd like to point out the new Home Alone movie. The original had a boy being left behind before a family vacation. His home is invaded by criminals and its up to him to defend it. This new version coming out by Disney has the minor tweaks I mentioned. The protagonist looks different from the original and those breaking into his house don't appear as career criminals. And if you've seen the 90s version you can guess what happens next. Here's my question. Why? Disney could literally put out another amazing movie like Moana, but chose to do another Home Alone.

Reimagining's aren't regulated to just comic books and movies. Books do the same thing. There have been however better efforts to change that. Originality at near full production. I've seen books that are a combination of what is familiar to us and what isn't. I've seen Disney stories told from the point of view of the antagonist. These stories and many more are what we need to see more of.

Inconclusion, I think originality exists with every creative. It just needs to be allowed to shine. 

A Review of Immortal

 A

 Review

 of

Immortal

By

 Mathew

 Stenning

This story is immersive and has a rich world to it with characters you can feel for, especially Braithwaite. I enjoyed its voice and was surprised how distant I'd become from video games when reading it. It reminded me in a way of Ready Player One.

The beginning of this story caught me off guard at first with how it was written. I had to get a second opinion because of my ignorance of video games. I typically played video games based on superheroes or those with predetermined earned abilities. I'll have to explore more open world games when time allows it.

Overall, the book was a different experience for me compared to most fantasy genre stories. I wish Mr. Stenning a thank you for the opportunity to review Immortal. 

Motivating Yourself to Write

 Motivating

Yourself

to

Write

I woke up this morning wanting to write but when finally ready to do so my motivation had stopped. Instead, I switched to reading yet am now asking myself what stopped me.

We writers are just like everyone else, but with the added bonus of expressing ourselves through the written word. Life is full of stresses from a day job to managing a household. These responsibilities can dampen our creativity and unlike the words we save to hard drives or commit to paper, we ourselves are mortal. I'm now asking myself what motivated me to write this blogpost and not more of my current manuscript. The answer this time around is simple and that is to help all of you.

I come from a sports background, and though sports bores me now, I still find myself wanting to be the best I can be. I see others setting and frequently reaching goals. This is what has motivated me for the longest time. Set goals and reach them. Recently, though that has been harder to do. My suggestion to both you and myself is push through so one day you win. Be like Tiger Woods with a golf tournament (or in our case a word count goal) by putting as much focus on what you want to achieve as possible. The easy part would be to set aside writing by saying your too busy, or in Tiger's case... Wait! What am I saying? Be like Tiger Woods and hit that word count goal. Push yourself! He has bad shots in golf, but in our case we can delete what we mess up on. In golf, its either the bunker or a pound, and coming back from that on the final day of a golf tournament is far worse than writing a line of crappy dialogue.

Another way to motivate yourself is to look deep within. Ask what started you on this current manuscript. Was it to emulate a writing hero of yours? Did the words build up to a boiling point and need released? Or is writing a way to get your voice out into the world? I think if you search for what made you become a writer the rest will work itself out. If you had that drive to be creative in the beginning it will be there always. Writing is a part of your soul. Trust your soul and get to typing. You can always fix what you dislike later.

A final way to motivate yourself to write is to look at where you need to improve. You might have some fear that your old habits will kick in from passive voice to slipping in and out of present and past tense. Read up on what all these issues are and how to fix them. You may want to start a short story practicing what you struggle with most. I can't promise one day of practice is all it will take. Such a thing would be unrealistic in every field of pursuit. What I can promise is that by the end you'll feel better about yourself and you'll be writing.

Read What You Want

 Read

What

You

Want

I began taking reading seriously at age nineteen. Before reading meant anything to me it was just something that had to be done for school. Years went by until I dove deep into fiction where I noticed a peculiar trend, or maybe I should say habit from people on social media. Reading had become a game of politics. If you didn't read broadly you were pushed into a corner and accused of being hateful. This simply isn't a realistic thing to believe of someone, especially when fiction is a matter of taste and subjectivity.

You develop a taste for specific stories and genres, not specific authors. If an author writes amazing mysteries you'll want more from that one author. And as time progresses you will seek more authors with a similar style, or at least write within the same genre. This is how it all begins. To take possibly a more extreme view, reading taste is self bred into a person. The only time it isn't is when your parents' get you hooked on something they want you to read. Ultimately, its up to you to continue making reading choices as life goes on.

As for condemning people for what they read, ask yourself, would you want people to do that to you? Who or what gave you the moral obligation to attack people's interests? I'm speaking now, of course, to  those with a chip on their shoulder the size of a standard bookmark. There has never been a rule or law that was written or could be enforced to say you must read from certain kinds of authors to be accepted into society. I personally have read books from an array of writers. Granted a majority were from comic book writers because comic books were my first love in fiction. But I personally don't care what others read because I'm not the one buying the books. Will these people who want you to read from this author or that author foot the bill for your purchase at a bookstore or on the internet? I highly doubt it. I wouldn't. I don't and likely never will make that kind of money.

The moral of this blogpost (or rant) is to read what you want and allow others to do the same. And to clarify, not many people go around pointing out other's reading flaws, but those who do might want to work overtime. They've got a lot of books to buy.