Life As We Know It - Isn't

I'm hoping I can relate what I'm feeling at the moment. Even being a writer, I can get flummoxed by the intensity of what I'm thinking/feeling.

Today is one such day. The course of life is terrifying. I spent the evening with someone who actually 'lived' a "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" scenario. Many times over. Listening to her, and knowing what she said truly happened, made my heart sick.

Too many friends have been through rough spots in their lives. I won't even begin to tell it here - one, because they deserve anonymity, and two, because you can find their stories in thousands of books.

I know authors who are afraid their work will be plagiarized if they put it out before it is published. I can only say to them, your story has already been written. A thousand times over. What you need to do is make it uniquely yours. That story that floats in your subconscious and keeps you up at night. I read somewhere that there are only about five plots in the whole world - the rest are subdivisions, if you will, to those plots.

If I look at life and the horror stories, or the happy-ending stories, I have much to write. And none of it will be like the story my neighbor is writing. Just as, unfortunately, the story of a child molester has his/her own story. The plot is there, child molester, it's what I do with it. 

This subcreation thing is mind-boggling. I can make up so much. I can tell a story every day of the week. If I don't get held down by my lack of self-confidence, my fears, and/or my poor time management. *g*

I don't want to delve into the mind of a sociopath. Thankfully, I can choose not to. But the story is there, waiting to be written.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is - go for it. Even if the idea your Muse is shouting at you is one you've seen before, you can twist it, like a piece of cotton candy, into something unique. Like a snowflake. They are all made up of water, but each one is different. 

Our genetics, our environment, all touch us and make us unique. That makes our stories unique. I'm glad I'm writing 'Blue.' I've had a moment of self-doubt, but I see now that 'Blue' is unique and what I'm trying to say, though it's been said a thousand times before, might be unique enough in the way I present it that it will touch someone. Or some ten thousand. Or some hundred thousand.

Life is unique.