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The Tyranny of the “Original Idea”
Pressure to be unique constipates creativity.
What matters is THE IDEA ITSELF. … Being a writer is the skill of saying that which has not yet been said.— Nicolas Cole in Writing Is Not The Hardest Part Of Being A Writer
No wonder I often feel blocked! Where does this skill come from if it’s not already in you? There is no shortage of ideas to write about. Rather, it’s the motivation that deserts me because I can’t imagine having something unique to contribute. After doing my research, it’s painfully obvious that anything I could think of to say has been covered multiple times in multiple ways by multiple writers.
Writers are cerebral in our processes. No one is watching until they read the work. If no one is watching, and we are not in the mood, why bother? A part of our mind is saying that and we can’t get past it. — MartinEdic in Writer’s Block Is a Myth. So, Why Does It Suck So Much?
Even if I start off being in the mood, I end up thinking “why bother?” because I’ve nothing new to say. What would it take for me to get past this “idea paralysis”, where my mind is so full of what’s already been said that it would take an archeologist to unearth any potential original ideas?
Perhaps Tom Belskie provides the answer in What is Signal-to-Noise Ratio and…
