Worn out ideas for books??????

Question

I want to write a novel, but everything I write about seems to have been already written in some way. What themes, stories or ideas do you think are worn out, or used too many times?

Answer 1

There is no new thing under the sun. Aristotle said that thousands of years ago. It's probably even more true today.

Let's put it this way: A poor author can have the best idea in the world, and nobody would ever know because they cannot penetrate the writing. An awesome writer needs no idea at all to keep you fascinated for hundreds of pages.

Authors are craftsmen, not inventors. It the work, not the idea, that makes a story. If you doubt this, find an anthology where every author is required to write a story with the same few ideas... you usually end up with a completely different story each time.

Sometimes it can even help beginning writers to specifically steal an idea. Go ahead. Ideas are not protected by law in any way. You can steal ideas all day long and nobody will stop you. Write a book about a young apprentice who is destined to defeat ultimate evil. That one made Rowling richer than the Queen, but put that way it doesn't sound too original, does it?

Answer 2

i think the whole romance where the girl is never going to get a man, has loads of bad experiences and then at the very end finds her best friend is the one she was meant to be with all along....come on, give it a bit of a twist! lol! i myself do like to read about the london gangster scene like how martina cole writes. the thing is even if you write something read a million times before, if you have that little extra to make the reader live what you have written everytime they pick it up then you have a best seller. hope you get a novel written i will look forward to reading it one day

Answer 3

Actually a good question.

There are an infinity of schemes to document - you miserable would be scribe. Those that engender my particular wrath include:

The one about the struggling author with writers-block?

Where the good guys win. Triumph of light over darkness

That pursuing love leads to happiness.

That war is to be avoided and murder is wrong.

Anything that is clearly fantasy being sold as science fiction.

Science fiction.

Scientology.

The pretty guy getting the girl.

Anything generally uplifting that might inspire.

I would suggest you develop the darker side of you psyche - we just know there will be something in there screaming to get on the page. We would buy it.

Answer 4

Since humans have been around for a very long time, it is increasingly difficult to come up with anything new. So you have to try and think out of the box. But even if in a fit of frustration you said, "Okay, a giant marshmallow comes crashing into town and devours the publishing company!" Ghostbusters beat you to it.
Try not to write like Jane Austen. I know, a lot of people like her books... Still, if you look at the format for her books, all the characters, even the plotline, is identical. She has the main female character, the one the main girl ends up with, the cad who betrays said female... and so on. Pride and Prejudice, for instance.

Answer 5

Pick a subject that you know about. Take it and run with it. Every book is different as the author writing it is.
Don't give up, Steven King almost gave up and his wife sent in the last novel he wrote to the publisher and you know the rest.

Answer 6

Every story follows the same basic formula in some way:

Beginning
Middle
End.

There will be one major conflict, sometimes many smaller ones, before a conclusion, no matter how miserable, is reached.

Answer 7

No-one's written anything original since The Odyssey.

Answer 8

Write something that will bring out emotions in people. I'm not saying make people cry, but at least make them think, or get the readers excited about what they're reading.

Answer 9

Write a book where the 'hero' gets killed or dies half way through. That way you wont have your book butchered and made into a Hollywood film.

Answer 10

cool I'm writing a novel too! mines about demons who steal souls and a mysterious girl who just appeared one day years ago. sounds unoriginal I know but I'm approaching it from an entirely new angle.