Such is the Paradox of Originality: In order for us to tell new stories and generate exciting ideas, we must write stories that participate in the real world, using ideas and structures that have already been used.
A compelling story doesn’t rely on plot to be interesting, it relies on the elements of storytelling to make that plot interesting. Such is the Paradox of Originality: In order for us to tell new stories and generate exciting ideas, we must write stories that participate in the real world, using ideas and structures that have already been used. If no man is an island, then no artist is wholly original. However, our job isn’t to be wholly original. As artists, we seek to explore and expand the boundaries of the human experience; as writers, we explore that experience in words.