Originality

Bonjournee! Est-ce qu'on est prete a commencer cet chapitre? Oui? Allons-y!

Wait.

Before we begin, I would like to say something.

Once upon a time, MANY hours ago, this chapter was filled with lists of cliché stories, and why to never use them again, and basically that's it.

Then I remembered how I made a pact to make this guide different from all the other fanfiction guides and do my best not to hurt anyone, and rewrote THE ENTIRE THING.

(See, kids, this is why you EDIT.)

So, instead of being about CLICHE STORIES (yes, I know there's no accent on the E on that word when there should be one, no need to point it out), we will be discussing ORIGINALITY.

Ugh! But I wanted to see you mock and ridicule the "bad ones"!

Sorry.

In this chapter, two things will be done:

1) A tale of woe and writer's block
2) Exercises to get them creative juices flowing

We'll start with the first one.

(But if you want a list of cliché stories you should avoid, read Cliché Catstrophes by MajorGodComplex. She does a better [and funnier] job at explaining cliché stories… by ridiculing and mocking them.)

Ah, writer's block.

Every writer's nightmare.

All writers get this at some point in their lives. They're brainstorming, or writing out a pre-writing stage, or maybe just trying to come up with something, when UH OH. LOOK AT THIS BRICK WALL OF NOPE BLOCKING MY BRAIN.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE.

MY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS.

SO I THINK I'LL JUST SIT HERE IN FRONT OF MY COMPUTER/PAPER, WAITING FOR IDEAS THAT WON'T COME, FOR ANOTHER SIX HOURS.

THEN I'LL WALK AWAY FROM MY IN-PROGRESS STORY FOR TWO MONTHS, BIDING MY TIME TO SIT DOWN AGAIN AND THINK.

That's writer's block.

When you don't freaking know what to write.

It's like a block.

But in writing.

(…It's science.)

But here's the thing; don't just walk out on your story! Think! Brainstorm! Write out all possible events that can happen from the point that you're stuck at.

Example:

Point you're stuck at:
The Seven, Nico, Reyna and Thalia are turned into babies.

Possible courses of action:
-The gods take care of them.
-The other campers take care of them.
-They're too much trouble, so they're given to a Muggle pre-school, where monsters kidnap them so that they can raise the ten of them to fight on their side and become the ultimate weapons against their kind.

Which one of these is the most original?

Hmm… probably the last one.

So write that one.

(Unless, of course, you want to write a story about Zeus changing Jason's diapers.)

-o-O-o-

There's another way to deal with writer's block—walk away from that story for a while, work on something else for a bit, then return to the thing you're having problems with. Your brain will have loosened up and be more flexible to ideas, and maybe while you're away and writing something else, the idea will hit you like… like…

…a really sharp rock to the head.

(I am so good at metaphors.)

Anyway, this is called inspiration, and it can come from anywhere. I'm serious. If you're in the middle of a really bad writer's block, be on the look out for it. It can come in the form of a younger sibling to a YouTube video to a neighbour's cat named Stinkypaws.

-o-O-o-

But another way to avoid writer's block is to figure out beforehand IF you should even start writing the story.

Think of it this way—a brilliant yet only 5% formed story hits you one night while you pleasantly dream of panda bears and killer tulips.

You think it's an AMAZING idea (for the instant).

You go off and write the first chapter of forty-seven.

OKAY. HOLD. CUT. PAUSE. STOP. PLEASE.

First thing: You didn't pre-write (which will be discussed in a future chapter) so you have no idea where this will go.
Second thing: WAIT. Just… wait.

When you get an idea, don't start writing immediately.

Wait at least three days before, because you don't even know if this story is a good idea, and only time will let you realize if it is or not.

Then, if after a couple days you deem the idea safe, PRE-WRITE IT FIRST. (AGAIN, THIS WILL BE DISCUSSED LATER.)

Maybe you get an idea to write a story of stories of over the rainbow. (Remember this example from, like, chapter one?) Seems like a sweet, nice story, but after three days you might come to realize you only have obvious dreams, and not really in-depth and emotional ones. (Examples: Leo wants to become a mechanic and get a girlfriend [preferably Calypso]. Check. Annabeth wants to become an architect. Done. Frank wants to become Prime Minister of Canada. Duh.)

Another way to get rid of writer's block is by doing exercises.

For example, if you don't know what story to write, just start off with a random interesting and catching start, like Rick does.

Examples:
During the third attack, Hazel almost ate a boulder.
Until she met the exploding statue, Annabeth thought she was prepared for anything.

Et cetera.

Then figure out how Hazel almost ate a boulder, and who the freaking heck made that statue go BOOM!

These are called prompts.

Prompts are little beginnings to stories, and then you have to take them and finish them.

Google search prompts and see if anything comes up that you can use. If you want, you can use prompts to forget about your writer's block for a bit, or use them to actually start a story if that's what you're stuck on.

PROMPTS YOU ARE FREE TO USE:

-"Oh," thought Cupid. "That was a wild miss…"

-Annabeth looked back at Percy and grinned. "C'mon, Aquaman," she teased. "Those toilets aren't going to plunge themselves."

-Piper gasped. There, lying dead on the ship's upper deck, was a penguin dressed like Elvis.

-Reyna drew closer to the fire and held her clammy fingers over the heat. "You know, for a guy in a skirt, you're pretty tough," she commented.

-[The love story of a shoe and a sock.]

-[A demigod fight from the perspective of an obnoxious and self-centred blade of grass.]

-"Don't drop the banana!" Leo shouted. "Good source of potassium!"

In prompts, you probably want to choose which genre you're going to use first, and choose it randomly. For example, the first prompt seems like an obvious romantic parody, but maybe it could be an AU story of secret agents Travis and Katie. You may surprise yourself.

-o-O-o-

There's a final way to think up an original story, and that's by taking all those wonderful story items (main character[s], setting, beginning middle and end, etc.), choosing something random for each, and throwing it all together.

Example:

Main characters: All the important demigods of HoO
Setting: High school AU.
Plot: There's a science experiment gone wrong in the science room, and everyone gets their respective superpowers in it. (Leo = fire invulnerability, Piper = charmspeak, Percy = control over water, Hazel = making people see what she wants them to see, etc.)

See? Not bad for a good twenty-chaptered story. Someone should take this.

...

MY IDEA IT'S MINE NOBODY TOUCH IT!

-o-O-o-

(…and it's like there's already a story out there like this one and I just haven't seen it… oh gods the embarrassment…)

RECAP

Write out all possible events that can happen from that point that you're stuck at.

Walk away for a bit to work on something else.

When you get an idea, don't start writing immediately; wait a couple days.

Prompts are good for getting the creative juices flowing again.

NOBODY TOUCHES THE HIGH SCHOOL AU SUPERPOWER STORY IT'S MINE (unless, of course, it isn't, and then I apologize).

Don't stop being original!

-One-Seven-Five-Six