Words and concepts
Oh, I thought of one of my topics. Yay!It always irks me when I come up with an idea or a word or a concept, originally and all on my own, only to find out later that I wasn't first.
First example. Kidlet. I was twelve or thirteen when I personally coined this word. I had never heard it before. I used it happily for a few years, until the evil day that I read a book by Orson Scott Card in which he used it. I was devestated. Really. I was so mad that my personal word was in this book that I looked to see when the book was published. I think I was about five when the book was published, so he obviously had claimed the word first. I was so peeved that I quit using the word. And to top it off, it was a lame book. Grr.
Second example. Where story ideas come from. I've toyed with the concept that there are just alternate realities that beam out stories to receptive minds, and that the author is just a medium for scenarios that transcend space and time. Sounds cool, neh? And as a bonus, it saves me from taking responsibility when my imagination becomes really odd. See, it's not really me. I'm just the transciever. Yeah, other people came up with this idea before me, too. Sigh.
Third example. I don't do drugs. At all, ever, because I have this real fear that I'll stop liking and being satisfied with this reality. So while reading a Charles de Lint book this week, he took the concept and expressed it more eloquently then I'll likely ever be able to, and on top of that, if I do try to express it I'll look like I'm just copying him. Aargh.
I think there are too many people in the world. There's just too much competition in the race to hold a new, fresh idea. As a writer, I sometimes feel like I'm sunk before I even begin.
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