PEELING THE ONION

One of the hardest things for a writer to accept has to be knowing nothing he or she does is original; it's all been done before.

Literally, EVERYTHING has been done.

Every writer has that moment when they think up a story that is the pinnacle of their talent. It's amazing, incredible; if they do this, it'll set the world ablaze. And then, a newsbyte comes out about a story just like it. Or worse yet, they show a friend their synopsis and they tell you it reminds them of something else.

I have a friend who does that ALL the time. I'll show him a synopsis and he'll tell me he likes it, but it's cliché. And when I ask why, he picks the most elementary thing, like a car chase in an action scene or a hardboiled detective in a murder mystery.

I used to crash hard whenever that happened to me. I can imagine it's like finding out your woman fakes her orgasm, you're shattered. But you learn there are only so many stories you can tell, and the ones that are legendary follow a formula that has existed before the written word.

The biggest thing I took from reading Campbell and McKee was the point of creation, it isn't about doing something original, but approaching an existing idea from a different angle that hasn't been explored. And if it has, then take the approach and explore that (I could say it's like an onion, but that would be "cliché" of me).

When you create something new, people will think it's original, because very few audiences ever really remember anything, and it’ll stimulate them differently. But, when stories repeat, each less satisfying than the other, the audience does feel a loss, or depletion, on some level. Several times have I walked out of a movie with a re-run theme and approach feeling so unsatisfied that I drown myself in dvd's as soon as I get home. Or, I feel compelled to stop in at a store and buy something new to fill the emptiness of my experience. I never knew why I'd feel that way until I read STORY (by Robert McKee).

Now, I still find myself dealing with the disappointment of "stolen" ideas, it's easier to deal with, but it still hurts. Take for instance the new movie Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves.

I'm a big Keanu fan, I think the man has serious chops that people don't credit him for, partly because people look at him and think he's less than serious about his craft. But, that's the magic, those actors that are easy going about acting are the most dedicated. They do their job, and they do it well. They don't throw it in your face about how much research they did, or how they prepared for a role. The magic comes from not knowing how the trick works. It's said he (and Tom Cruise) portray the same characters with no variety. But guess what people, that' s an example of how conformable we are, nobody is different, everyone is or tries to be the same. Because different is dangerous in our world. Too often are different people deemed crazy, or put on an unattainable perch we'll never reach. Your either Bill Gates, who’s a recluse, or Malcolm X, and he's dead.

So, I'm a big fan and looking forward to the movie, so like any geek, I'm on the website (http://constantinemovie.warnerbros.com/) and reading the synopsis when I discover that their take on the comic character is very similar to one of my own. In this movie, Constantine is a man who can see hybrid angel and demons on earth and this ability drives him to attempt suicide. He survives obviously, but then uses his abilities to help others in hopes of finding "salvation", whatever that means (I think it's death; if you can't kill yourself, get someone else to do it for you).

My first thought was, "FUCK!"

My second was, "Goddamn Motherfuckers!"

I had about ten other similar responses before something occurred to me, if the Hollywood fuck machine can shit out a character similar to mine, then my character wasn't all that special. That caused me to re-think him, and I'm happier now than before. He's still the same character, the changes were minute, but enough to make him different for the genre. That makes him new, and, dare I say, original.

If every writer freaked out whenever someone had a similar idea and started over, nothing would get done. And if a writer were actually able to come up with an original character, I honestly question if anyone would identify with him or her. Like people, it's the tiny stuff that makes something new, while the majority is just like everything else, and those small details make it original in it's own right.

I took an art class in high school, one day that sticks in my mind was an assignment where we had to write our names in some symbolic manner. One of my classmates, and friend at the time, was an anime geek, so he was using anime characters in his piece that he drew from pictures in a Newtype magazine. Another student, prick that he was, made a big deal out of it, saying that he was copying and that was stealing. But our teacher thought differently, "No one can copy art. What he's doing is inherently his, because he's putting himself into it. The most important ingredient in art is you, and that can't be duplicated."

Lesson learned.

JPG.

PS… Later, we all found out our teacher once dated Jim Morrison when we saw her on Inside Edition.