Understanding The Origin
Of Originality

Arthur Gulumian


Many enthusiastic authors strive to uphold the qualities that make an epic tale’s story worthwhile. While reading the greatest fictional novels of revered authors, readers are dazzled by the unique and fantastic approaches each novelist conveys in their own way.

The Loss of Originality

The common author often derives many qualities that hold the essence of a previous novel and build upon their own scenarios. Today, the loss of originality is becoming a common factor in the novels of many fictional writers. The reason as to why is simple: authors are becoming less self-reliant. This creates a cycle of clichés that sprout about continuously as authors focus more towards the results rather than the journey.

The Vampire Return Example

The Twilight Saga (Little, Brown and Company 2005) by the author Stephenie Meyer has become increasingly popular, particularly in the teenage society. Twilight is the classic story of how the lion falls in love with the lamb. With the increasing popularity of the novel at work, the age of vampires had returned; however, vampires weren’t seen as vile malevolent beings as they were decades before, instead they were portrayed to be a society struggling against fate. Meyer took the mythology of vampires and created her own view of what these “once feared beings” have residing within their conflicted minds. Twilight is a prime example of how proper influence can create an original work of ideas.

Examples of Derived Works Today

Although Twilight still remains an original novel, it also stood as a shrine for many new authors to look up towards; giving them opportunities to take the given ideas presented in the previous work for efforts to operate it into their own adaptations. After the film Twilight (Summit Entertainment 2008) had officially been released, vampire romance novels have been constantly bombarding the teen fiction counter shelves. Also with the recently recognized HBO Series: True Blood (which portrays a vampire-human relationship), and the CW Series: Vampire Diaries - it seems as if vampires have suddenly let go of their cold hearts and decided to go from throat-tearing vile cannibals into loving and excessively emotional love-struck teenage boys.

Influence Becomes Originality

Although it seems originality has all but been destroyed, there still remains a remedy for this growing epidemic. To be an author is to be an individual inspired by the surrounding world. Rather than solely viewing the works of others to be a springboard towards gaining a spotlight, an author must remain reliant in his or her own ideas with confidence that the given story will become not only as great as the works of others, but far exceeding even the proclaimed epic tales.
An artist must view even the ripple of a tear dropping down a lake to be an inspiration that may lead to a great story. Even a fallen leaf on a dry October day has it’s own story to tell - why can‘t a writer?