# What makes your story unique?



## J Anfinson (Nov 30, 2016)

Something I see time and again is the latest fad being rehashed into hundreds of vaguely similar stories. Twilight came out and the knockoffs followed. Same with The Hunger Games. Same with pretty much every big idea, and by the way I'm not saying it's a new thing. But it seems to me like a lot of writers get hung up on these latest fads and aren't being terribly creative when they're basically retelling someone else's story but with some kind of twist. Granted, I do realize that there's only so many basic stories to tell but can't we use our imaginations a little more?

So my point being, what do you think makes your WIP different? What can you provide that hasn't been done to death? 

Me? I'm about to start rewriting my first completed (though terrible) novel. The basic premise being the dead returning to terrorize the living. So what makes it different? I'd say the characters, especially a Vietnam vet who finds himself having to face old fears (one being claustrophobia brought on by being a "tunnel rat" in the war). Another character is the son of a millionaire, and he's just been informed that he's about to inherit it all. Problem is, he has no clue how bad he's going to regret agreeing to it.

So tell me, whats your story about and how is it different?


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## LeeC (Nov 30, 2016)

Thank you for the sensible take Jake. In my SM travels I see so much of the same thing rehashed in similar fashion ... 

Yes, as I think Jake is saying, don't rehash the same old shit. There are only so many basic sets of characters, and I seriously doubt any original story ideas. So mix them up, twist them around, and come at your story from a personal angle, one you didn't pickup from another book or video. 


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Oh, and Jake, been meaning to mention that you might like Bishop's War by Rafael Amadeus Hines. Not a horror story, but a suspense thriller that's written well enough to hold your attention. Also what I'm talking about in mixing up casts and settings, and putting a new spin on a basic plot.

As to your prompt, you don't want me to get started, especially as it involves "green" stuff 


[To tell the truth, I'm so tired I thought I was in a different thread. Off to bed.]


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## The Fantastical (Nov 30, 2016)

Oh... I can't agree more about the horribleness of all of the fad books... You have them in every genre and sub genre and it just get so boring after a while as you just don't want to read yet another book about a world with more kings than it has trees... I read GoT, I don't need to read a hundred versions of it! PLEASE!!!

As to what I am doing that is different... Well the it has humour in it and I am not taking the fantasy genre seriously. I find that fantasy a genre that just works when it isn't written like it takes itself seriously so that is what I am doing. I am just going out there and making a fun adventure with lots of magic, dragons, and a well built world. No politics!!!!


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## Ultraroel (Nov 30, 2016)

I think my stories are unique exactly cause I do not want to hop on the hype wagon. My universe, my races and my characters are all built on the idea of having something genuine and new. Maybe not NEW new, but new enough to make it refreshing. Yes, ofcourse plot will be the same in mainline, but the aspects of my world itself, the cultures and the races all have an edge that makes it unique. I just started writing small books that will all give insight into this world and into the different cultures that I have made. The one I am now writing is about a "battle-twin"  team. I think the uniqueness lies not in the plot, but in the cultures and characters that I've built. I'm throwing all through another, magic, technology etc. 
I hope its enough to actually capture peoples attention.

The problem is that though WE may not like all the copycat ideas.. Most readers really like it. You can also see this on amateurwebsite RoyalRoadl.com where every other story is a reincarnation story and those are getting the best reviews.. People like to know what to expect perhaps


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## aj47 (Nov 30, 2016)

Well, my work-in-non-progress-cuz-of-school involves time travel.  As we all know, you can't go back in time before there's a time machine to "catch" you ... but what you don't know is someone famous already invented one in the 19th century, but it was only operational for a Very Short Time.


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## JustRob (Nov 30, 2016)

My trilogy doesn't have a synopsis; I've never been able to write a representative one. Perhaps the central feature, a time machine that can't travel through time, is unusual. Maybe a story about distorted chronology without any serious paradoxes creeping into it is rare. Perhaps the fact that my characters are bored with their interestingly abnormal lives is unpromising. To me the fact that I apparently based the story on my own future experiences is distinctly unique. I'm still trying to fathom out that part, the reality behind it. Hence the possibility that the science in the story isn't as fictional as it appears is tantalising. I have suggested in the past that the story could just as accurately be called mathematical fiction, but that genre probably doesn't sell well, so perhaps not. Personally I now see it as a romance with the detailed technical complications just acting as a setting.

Maybe the point is that it doesn't seem to be a story that's easily summarised as "one of them". In fact I consider it to be up to the reader to see whatever they want to see in it. The only real answer would be to read it. The opening story in the trilogy is freely downloadable from my website at http://www.menstemporum.uk/NUATmenu1.htm while the rest is in lack of progress through indifference. What is available already gives few clues as to the story's true nature though. That is my intellectual property at present, maybe always. Perhaps that's its ultimate genre then, "untold".

I have never felt the urge to jump on any writing bandwagon and this excursion into writing was an inexplicable act in itself, which I still find it difficult to understand. The words appended to the title on the flyleaf of the opening novel are the only answer I have to your question. They read "about something else".


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## Terry D (Nov 30, 2016)

Great topic, Jake! Thanks! I think a writer can think him (or her) self into trouble if they try to come up with something 'new'. There isn't anything new. All we have are our own unique views on the world through which we can filter old storylines. Combine that with creative, well developed characters and you have something unique and readable. My first novel was a pre-Twilight vampire story. Even then vampires were a tired trope, but I counted on the setting, in time and place, to give the old bat new life. The book has a dual time-line 160 years apart, and most of the story takes place in a cave in Southern Illinois. My second book is a simple story of a boy and a dog -- a rather hackneyed concept until you factor in the dog-fighting ring run by a serial killer/kidnapper. My current WIP is my take on the 'evil twin' trope. Hopefully it will stand that cliche on its ear.

I don't think it's useful to try and come up with the next big idea. All we can do is take the ideas our imaginations generate for us and explore them from our own unique perspective. Do that, and pay attention to the craft of writing, and I think we'll find that readers will be happy.


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## Ultraroel (Nov 30, 2016)

Terry D said:


> There isn't anything new.



Yeah,that's what a lot of people say. 
I'm not sure. It might not be "new,"  but was it published? i agree with the idea that nothing is new. But, I haven't seen crossovers like mine yet. I haven't seen anything of the like of the combination of the races that I made up in a world setting such as mine. Yes, the basic idea of my story isn't new at all, but the setting is very different and in my opinion something new. 

But then again. New, cause not published, might not mean that no-one tried, but no-one succeeded yet. Still I like to believe that my universe is unique and special and I believe its strong enough.


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## bdcharles (Nov 30, 2016)

Oh, I don't know. I have tried to have a book that is richly written yet entertaining and dramatic, with characters that are flawed and relatable and not stereotypically heroic but actually pretty normal, and who live in a sort of quasi-historic fantasy setting but that presents them with modern challenges like drug use and technology (not that those things are exclusively modern but...) It may of course be that this has been done already. I just had a vision in my mind and went for it. I have sequences that try and introduce a type of dreamy otherworldliness in the writing style at certain moments. other parts that tell the story via letters or songs or snippets of verse. Some chapters have "In which.." type arguments below their titles. Again, none of this may be unique, though it doesn't seem too common currently.


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## Sam (Nov 30, 2016)

_Nihil novi sub sole. _

Everything you can think of doing has been done at some juncture in human history; it just hasn't been done the way _you're _going to do it. 

What makes anyone's writing, or stories, unique is _them. 

_Jake and I can start our own zombie novel at the exact same time, never have contact with each other, and finish around the same time and I guarantee you the story will only be similar insofar as genre is concerned. Because Jake will have different characters, different settings, and he will take the story in an entirely different direction than I would. 

What makes the story unique is the person sitting in front of the screen: their experiences, their beliefs, their world view, etcetera. 

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The unique part is the ability to take the ideas, churn them around in your head, and fashion a new spin to put on them.


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## Jay Greenstein (Nov 30, 2016)

Unique? Forgetting the self published work, editors and agents get thousands of submissions, day after day, year after year. There _are no_ unique stories.

How often do you think sci-fi editors get a story in which we learn that the castaway spacefarers turne out to be named Adam and Eve? How many variations are published each year on Cinderella (a worthy person, held down by circumstances is given a break by a kind outsider)?

No one turns to page two because the story is "different." They won't know of that difference for many pages. They turn to page two because the _writing_ on page one is interesting. And that's why they turn every page—for the writing. The vast majority of rejections come on page one because someone whose voice we can't hear is talking about things for which we have no context—or interest.

Inform your reader and you're in competition with every newspaper and history book. Entertain them, and they're yours.


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## Riptide (Nov 30, 2016)

I try not to think about it too much and try to just write the story. I know it's already been done before, especially if i can come up with three to four variants of the story before I even start. I'm just trying to write it better than everyone else. It might go against me to know I rarely read in the genre I'm writing. Then again, I have nothing to steal except my own imagination... or movies. 

But you know, this new WIP of mine is about a scifi time traveling army soldier - who isn't actually an infantry soldier, but is a wire dog instead so has never seen combat.


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## midnightpoet (Nov 30, 2016)

I still like mysteries, and still working on one - I'm tired of the ubiquitous cop show, and try to stay to actual mysteries.  It's not as popular as it once was, and I suppose there's not much that hasn't been done - but I'm still trying.  I got the idea for my present WIP, which has stalled for the moment, from a real event that happened in my own family.  I think it's not so much that it's probably been done, but how it's presented.


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## J Anfinson (Nov 30, 2016)

Jay Greenstein said:


> No one turns to page two because the story is "different." They won't know of that difference for many pages. They turn to page two because the _writing_ on page one is interesting. And that's why they turn every page—for the writing. The vast majority of rejections come on page one because someone whose voice we can't hear is talking about things for which we have no context—or interest.
> 
> Inform your reader and you're in competition with every newspaper and history book. Entertain them, and they're yours.



I agree with most of that, with the exception of someone turning the page because the story is different. Personally, I don't care how great the writing is, if it's obviously just another rehashing of a popular tale then I'm rarely interested. Give me a reason to want to read your story. Give me something that other writers aren't providing. To nail me you need a combination of good writing, interesting characters, and an intriguing situation. But that's just the basics. That's just to get a fighting chance that I'll want to keep reading. There's still another ingredient needed. And that's that there needs to be something about your story that makes me choose it over the next one. You're competing with (dozens? hundreds? thousands?) of other books. So I guess I just need to see something that stands out from the crowd. Something that isn't just another predictable living dead story. Or isn't just another Cinderella. The argument that good writing trumps all only goes so far, in my view.


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## Cran (Dec 1, 2016)

Sam is right. What makes any story unique is the writer. Sure, ideas can seem new or different, and can be played with in different ways so that a writer might make a name as the next benchmark in a genre. 

I've written two (partial) chapters of two different stories where I am trying to avoid the usual or common tropes of their genres. Both have been inspired by WF challenges. 

In one, Santa (Saint Nick) and Satan (Old Nick) are the same person, who, thanks to Jake, is trying to save the world from an alien invasion one Christmas Eve. 

In the other, I have a crew of scaled down androids piloting an explorer survey ship, with their human counterparts in ... well slow time confinement probably describes it best - think cryo (without the cold) deep sleep but able to communicate via dream-state connections ... on a mission to find one or more worlds capable of supporting human life within one human generation (ie, ~25 years) because the Earth and its Sol colonies have been infected by the Pax Terra virus (long story, very sad). So, they are racing against time, but also against other alien races who have also lost their homeworlds to the virus. 

But these stories, if I ever complete them, won't be unique because of the ideas in them; they will be unique because I and not someone else wrote them.


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## LeeC (Dec 1, 2016)

If it helps with the consensus of thoughts, maybe an example would illustrate. Take for instance a very successful writer we all know of, Margaret Atwood. Her book "The Year of the Flood" set in the same world as her 2003 novel "Oryx and Crake" is in it's framework a rehashing of many futuristic depictions of inequality and strife, even some of her own. She's made it her own though, especially different from writers with less understanding of human nature, in bringing out more repugnant aspects likely if we stay our current course. You might say she brings out very real aspects of our nature in a simple way that makes us shudder. A short example of such follows.
In the future, the HelthWyzer Corporation acts as the government. Its top researchers and their families live in a guarded and barricaded compound that separates them from the underclass. The police have been replaced by the private security force of HelthWyzer, the CorpSeCorps, and its storm troopers keep the peace by simply doing away with undesirables, "terrorists" and anyone who opposes the corporation's activities. More often than not, the victims' bodies, usually minus some important organs, are ground up with sundry other ingredients, some of them mammal, in the addictive SecretBurgers. The SecretBurgers chain then employs young people desperate for work, all of whom must wear baseball caps and T-shirts that say: "SecretBurgers! Because Everyone Loves a Secret!"

Of course, if you're a cute and limber young woman, you might take a much better job with SeksMart, where you could work as a "comfort girl" or perform as a pole dancer at a club like Scales and Tails. More likely than not, you'd probably need Bimplants with responsive nipples, and you'd definitely be wearing a Biofilm Bodyglove -- for disease protection -- and lots of glitter and paint and colorful feathers or iridescent scales: Fantasy is the name of the game. But "plank work" -- no matter how soft the actual bed -- can still be brutal, especially if Painballers drop in for a little amusement. The Painball Arena -- actually a forested no man's land full of hidden TV cameras -- pits teams of brutish criminals against each other in a kill-or-be-killed competition. You can watch the action on cable. The few who survive the arena are more predator than human, as well as insane.​
. . .​

Seems a striking and realistic setting to me, that only those who refuse to see can deny. And yet, what is she saying that hasn't already been envisioned by other writers? 

You might think I don't read outside the type of book I wrote, but you'd be missing the point that doing so furthers one's writing craft and expands one's perspective. I see many stories that beg to be written, like one about the potential of increasing avarice in a setting expanding the current goings on in the Dakotas. No new idea there, and the same basic premise Atwood used, but easily made "unique" through setting and characters. Problem is that I've got more going on in my head than I have time left to write. 


*“If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.” ~ Frank Zappa*


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## Darkkin (Dec 1, 2016)

I have a realm of nonsense populated by cliches told in rhymed form poetry...It is basic hero's journey, in a world inhabited by creatures like Roaring Hedgehogs, a boy with a clockwork greyhound who catches and returns echoes, a boy with a clockwork mind, a giant gannet who can bend reality, girls made out of glass, a blue giraffe, turtles who carry the moon and sun, an ocean imbued with fireflies, a fox made out of blocks, another from socks, a maker of ocean bottles, and a three headed, twenty-four armed beast known as a Trioctopi...And the Lollop...

It is not unique, it is just plain insane!  8-[


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## T.S.Bowman (Dec 14, 2016)

I guess the only things different in my WIP is my approach to a "typical" fantasy. Not Urban...not Epic. Just a little of my own flavor added to an pretty tasty stew. The other difference would be the way I present "inner" dialogue. 

I'm just having a bit of fun. Fantasy readers will either love it or hate it. Doesn't really matter much since it's chances of publication are slim. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk


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## Bishop (Dec 14, 2016)

Right now I'm writing something of a post-apocalyptic fantasy... basically a horrible event shattered the world in an original fantasy setting. The main characters are a group of grave robbers employed by a woman with a drive to find a particular artifact from before the fall of the world, while keeping her reasons secret. Little do they know the dangers awaiting them when they find what she wants...

Okay, so maybe it's not that unique, but I like to think the cast of colorful characters, the lingering air of mystery about the world building and the main character, as well as my own personal minimalist style will offer something appealing. Even if I'm the only one that ever reads it.


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## Jay Greenstein (Dec 14, 2016)

> And that's that there needs to be something about your story that makes me choose it over the next one.


The sad truth is that in the studies of book-buying habits, it turns out that the average person makes the decision to buy or pass on a given book in three pages or less. So how different can it be in three pages, given that every writer knows you need an early and effective hookl?

A publisher's first reader, for the most part, makes the decision before the end of page one—often paragraph one. So screw your different story. If you don't sell the reader with the writing they'll never know your brilliant idea. Story matters, but it comes in a distant second to writing.


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## J Anfinson (Dec 14, 2016)

Jay Greenstein said:


> The sad truth is that in the studies of book-buying habits, it turns out that the average person makes the decision to buy or pass on a given book in three pages or less. So how different can it be in three pages, given that every writer knows you need an early and effective hookl?
> 
> A publisher's first reader, for the most part, makes the decision before the end of page one—often paragraph one. So screw your different story. If you don't sell the reader with the writing they'll never know your brilliant idea. Story matters, but it comes in a distant second to writing.



It doesn't need to be different in three pages. You just need to make me believe it's going to be, which often times that's what the blurb does. Convince me your story holds that promise or I'm not interested. 

Maybe I'm just a tough sell. I thought it'd make a good discussion at any rate. Nobody has to agree.


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