Always remember that
you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. ~ Margaret Mead
I always thought I
was weird. (Some people say I still am. LOL) I didn’t know other people had
stories running around in their heads until I took a writing class at a
community college by Maris Soule, an author and now someone I call a friend. She
described that phenomenon and I thought, yay, I’m not the only one. In a way, I found
that reassuring. But then I realized I’m not unique.
Except for one
thing. The stories and characters running around in my brain are mine alone. No
other writers’ stories are exactly like mine. Now that’s unique. Then again, I wrote
a science fiction romance, The Pilot.
I worked on that story for at least five years. After it was published, I took
time to read more sci-fi romances and happened across Linnea Sinclair’s Finders Keepers. I freaked out. The
story I thought was so unique had so many similarities that I wrote to her and
explained I’d never read her book and hoped she wouldn’t think I’d copied her
story. She wrote me the nicest post about how often similar stories or characters/things show up in real life or in fiction. I've seen plot devices in television shows or movies that were similar to those in my already published books. Like there’s something in the ether
that we writers feed off. Just when we think we’re unique, bam, we find out we’re
just like everyone else.
When my daughter was
growing up, people would say she looks like me. They’d call her Little Diane.
Now she has a daughter who looks like her and people call my granddaughter Little
Liz. While there are some physical similarities, I see my daughter as a unique
personality. Same with my granddaughter. Quite unique.
Now I have a new
granddaughter. Of course, everyone is trying to figure who she looks like.
Since she changes each day, that’s a little difficult. Sometimes I see my son
in her, sometimes my daughter-in-law, and sometimes, another family member. She’ll
keep on changing and it won’t matter who she looks like. She will be her own
person.
Here’s to the uniqueness
in all of us. Wouldn’t it be boring if we were all alike?
8 comments:
When people say my daughter looks like me, she's horrified. Of course she's a teenager, and I'm ancient by her standards, wrinkled, chubby, that could never happen to her... LOL I agree, we're all unique, even if our stories are sort of like someone else's. Hey, we should use that in marketing. "Fans of so and so will love this book!"
Good points, Diane. We choose our spouses for their oppositeness and often pick friends with unique personalities. We see enough of ourselves in the mirror :-)
Jannine, that was my daughter's reaction, too, as a teenager. Now she's the mom and hearing it from the other side.
Rolynn, you are so right about spouses & friends.
My daughters, too are horrified to be in any way compared to me. Doesn't matter, looks or actions, the horror remains the same. I have to say, I didn't believe there was a similarity with my oldest daughter until she had her senior pictures taken. Guess I needed to step back before I could see it. Congrats on that newest girl baby of yours.
My kids think I'm not marching to the same drummer and I'm happy they think so. It's too hard to keep in step.
When I was growing up, people always said I looked like my father, but as I've aged, others are saying I look like my mother. Of course I look like neither, but there bits and pieces of each in my looks and in the way I think and act. As you said, Diane, we are unique. Thank goodness.
Great post, Diane. The wonderful thing about being unique -- even when you're writing the same story line, you bring your own vision and experiences that make it yours. (And I just realized Jannine said pretty much the same thing!)
About look-alikes, when my younger son was born, he looked just like my sister, except for the color of their eyes. Now an adult, he's the spitting image of my father-in-law! Go figure.
Enjoy your new granddaughter!
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