Despair while trying to write a novel

[brentspeak]

Any fiction writers in here?

For the past two years now, I've been researching, brainstorming, and hoarding random ideas of all kinds for a proposed political novel of mine. I should have already finished this thing by now, but I keep getting stiff-armed in the proverbial gut by repeated discoveries that many of what I thought were my original ideas for situations, dialogue, etc., are not so "original", after all. Example: In November of 2004, I was reading Bernard Knox's introductory essay to his translation of Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex", and one, brief part of the essay got my attention immediately: Knox mentioned in passing the brilliant but reckless Athenian politician, Alcibiades, and how Alcibiades employed stirring rhetoric to convince the Athenian assembly to launch an ill-advised expedition to conquer the far-off Sicilian islands. This expedition ended in total disaster.

I thought to myself: "That's a great idea for my story! I can have a scene where someone in the book who's against the proposed invasion of Iraq but doesn't want to be seen as being "against us" recites the story of Alcibiades and the Sicilian Expedition as a covert way to argue against the invasion." I thought, 'Wow! What luck for me to be able to draw a parallel between the Iraq War and this other actual event, and to use it for my story.'

Then, today, I find out that I'm not the only one who's aware of the Iraq War's similarity to the Sicilian Expedition, and that several writers last year have already written about it, including one guy who's written a play.

So much for the "great idea". Now, anybody who reads my story won't exactly be impressed by the linking of these two events,

x( x( x(

This type of thing has happened about a hundred times so far with this story: fictional ideas of bizarre situation I dreamt up later turn to actually have happened in the news, either in the past or after I came up with the idea a year earlier.

Urghh, despair. Hard to get motivated to write the dumb thing. x(

[pitohui]

1. haven't written any fiction in years but yeah i understand

there are just too many people chasing the same stories and ideas, esp. since fiction is almost not sale-able these days w.out some kind of "reality" tie in, for instance, the writer is a cop or a lawyer or slept w. j.d. salinger (seriously, i recently read a book where this was the writer's qualification)

my thought would be if your story idea is in the news or news-based at all, it is not going to be original and you have a very tough row to hoe unless you have another way to stand out from the crowd

to be honest as there are no shortage of stories being told in the world i decided that "lack of motivation" was my inner voice telling me not to waste my time, as i was able to make sales much more easily in nonfiction

so in your shoes feeling unmotivated i would simply put the project away

this sort of goes by the person tho, you may have a story to tell and it must be that story so you can't just walk away despite the obstacles in your path -- also for all i know you already have a contract/commitment so you've got to bull forward no matter what -- in that case i'll just send a hug and wish you luck

[crispini]

2. There ARE no original ideas.

Just go ahead and write the darn thing, and you'll be happier for it.

[reyd reid reed]

3. One thing that can't be escaped...

is that just about every story you can think of has already been written. The trick is for you to write it differently and better.

Don't get discouraged...just write.

:hi:

[brentspeak]

4. Thanks, people, for the encouragement

It's aggravating that one's emotions (or rather, one's self-defeating thoughts) can cripple our minds so effectively. I'd like to be able to turn off the "despair" and "worry" sections of my brain so that they don't get in the way of the "intelligence" and "creativity" parts.

[soleft]

5. It's that damn collected unconscious

That's why when you get a great idea you have to pump it out because if you're thinking about it's out there for anyone to grab. Happens to me all the time.