S27E3 - How Important is Being Unique?

One worry that consistently nags at writers is the belief that their story is not unique. We often compare our ideas to those of writers and storytellers before us and think they may be too similar to be interesting. The good thing we all need to remember is that people actually like stories to not be entirely unique.

Tropes exist for a reason. There are some tropes people will seek out. For example, one of the common ones now is the "enemies/rivals to lovers" trope, or the "found family." While the framework of each story with these may be similar, the story itself is still unique because only the author can create that tale.

The first step in overcoming this idea is to consider what it means to be unique, then what elements of the story actually need to be unique. Structure, tropes, some plot elements, and even some character ideas can all come from other places. In this episode, Leigh and Ley discuss the term "unique" and how it applies to writing your own fictional narratives.

First aired December 9, 2021.