Every Story HAS NOT Been Told
The idea that every story has already been told or every message has been shared is a potentially depressing one for a writer embarking on a writing journey. The problem with this saying is that it’s patently false. Every story has NOT been told.
When people say this, they mean that every story archetype or pattern has been discovered. Examples of such archetypes are the hero’s journey, the rags to riches tale, or rebirth and transformation. There are also a slew of archetypal characters such as the gambler, the hero, the villain etc. Thousands of pages of academic study have been devoted to defining these archetypes in both literature and the human psyche.
As writers, these are a gift. They provide us with a pattern, a starting place. However, archetypal plot patterns and characters allow for an infinite number of combinations that can be imagined and reimagined. That is where writing gets fun and why I can safely say that every story has not been told.
I like having a starting place, knowing that if I am taking a reader or a character on a journey, she will learn some sort of lesson through the journey or else what is the point? Knowing this allows me to imagine and create her journey with an infinite number of variables. I get to inhabit the world of “what if?”
This is one of my favorite places to live in my quilting world too. I always start with a pattern, but rarely, if ever does my finished product look like the given quilt. I always tweak it in some way, or I use a completely original pattern that I design myself. The fun part about quilting is that even when two quilters use the same pattern, the quilt never turns out the same. This is no different than two writers using the same archetype. Their stories will always differ.
A few friends of mine completed the same kaleidoscope pattern, and their finished products illustrate my point. These quilts were all based on the same pattern, but through variation in color, value, borders, and fabric choices, the quilts appear to be entirely different patterns. They’re not, but they’re all beautiful and successful creations. They each tell a different story though the pattern remains the same.
This is how creativity and archetypes (or patterns) work. We can start with a foundation and then vary it to our hearts content, and that’s what makes writing or creating of any type so much fun.
This is where creativity and ideas meet form and structure.
For a book to work, we need both, and thankfully there are an infinite number of ways to combine them into original books (and quilts).