Unique

I was having a conversation with a person I know. It was about writing for one of my existing projects. And in the process of the conversation he asked me what was unique about the world. I wasn't entirely sure what he wanted so I named some things and in the process he blew me off. "Elemental", "Extraplanar", and "Elves" were all words he had heard before. So obviously there was no way it was as "unique" as the novel he was working on so he didn't have interest in helping.

As I tip toe around outside of the Theatre and artistic communities this kind of conversation with a pretensions bag full of windy air is not unusual. In fact it could almost be argued as the norm. There are a number of people, particularly those that think they have a little talent, that are convinced that new and unique are the epitome of good works. If it has been done before then it horrid and must be cast aside.

These people are full of shit.

Or more specifically they are completely missing the point. A point about art. There is a lot of unique art out there. However most of what could be called unique is in fact... bad. "Unique" many times is used when there's nothing else good to say.

Don't try to be original. Just write a damn story, draw a picture, write a song, make a sculture.

What's been done was done for a reason. If a thousand people have done the same thing there's a point to it. Don't reject something just because it's been done before. Because at that point you are as defined by the cliche as they are. You're just exploring the negative space around it.

If you look at fantasy and say "Well there's a lot of elves running around so I'm going to replace the elves with donkey men who breath sand instead of air." What you've created is certainly unique. It's also completely bizarre and doesn't sound terribly interesting.

Well to most folk. I'm suddenly on the Sand Donkey as a concept side. But I have a deep and abiding love of the bizarre and the nonsensical. My personal tastes are perhaps undermining my point.

The better route as I see it, is to embrace the preconceptions. Understand completely what people are going to expect, and then start tweaking things. That's generally what I think. Just try and make it interesting. Make some choices and then run with the logic of it.

The trick is not to create something new. "New" is almost invariably either confusing or boring. Newness for the sake of newness is a waste of energy. And it's a waste of talent. Art feeds on art. Don't try and create from scratch, find something similar and take it in a new direction. Push the boundaries. That is where you'll find REAL innovation. It's not outside the box, it's at the edges of it.