Your originality is what marks you out as a writer from everybody else. When you read articles saying that there are only four basic narratives, or seven, (or even twenty-five), it can be tempting to think that the chances of coming up with something fresh are less than zero, but take heart...
Even Shakespeare snaffled other people's plots, making them so utterly his own that his sources have been completely eclipsed. When I'm teaching creative writing and set my group a subject to write about, I'm always astonished at how completely different all their stories are. This is largely because each of us bring our own particular talents and experiences to bear. It seems to me that (as with happiness) the answer lies in the little things, right down at the nuts and bolts level. One student will describe something as hot, another as febrile, and already we're in different territories, doing different things.
If you want to put this to the test, try describing something that is incredibly familiar to you - the walk from home to school, or answering the phone and hearing the voice of someone you love - with a fresh eye. Infuse what you are describing with your own uniqueness, so that it is coloured with how you are feeling as you write, whether you slept well the night before, even whether you are cold but don't want to stop writing in order to put the heating on. Bring to bear on your work all the different reference points which mean something to you, and you will truly own what you are writing about, it will be unmistakably yours, an original...
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