How do you come up with something "original"?

[Leanne]

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

What you can come up with is a new way to say something old, because although you're not especially unique either (bad luck, emos, people actually do understand you... although I'm not guaranteeing they care), you do have a set of experiences and abilities that is at least a little bit different to the next person's.  

Someone once told me (or I might have been talking to myself, I forget) that poets create windows where others see only walls.  Someone else once told me (again, can't guarantee it wasn't an internal voice) that poets twist the world sideways and use words to show others that view.  

And if all else fails, write rude limericks, because there just aren't enough of those in the world.  Too many bloody haiku.

[shemthepenman]

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

What you can come up with is a new way to say something old, because although you're not especially unique either (bad luck, emos, people actually do understand you... although I'm not guaranteeing they care), you do have a set of experiences and abilities that is at least a little bit different to the next person's.  

Someone once told me (or I might have been talking to myself, I forget) that poets create windows where others see only walls.  Someone else once told me (again, can't guarantee it wasn't an internal voice) that poets twist the world sideways and use words to show others that view.  

And if all else fails, write rude limericks, because there just aren't enough of those in the world.  Too many bloody haiku.

BRIAN: No, no. Please, please please listen. I've got one or two things to say.
THE CROWD: Tell us! Tell us both of them!
BRIAN: Look, you've got it all wrong. You don't need to follow me. You don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals!
THE CROWD: Yes! We're all individuals!
BRIAN: You're all different!
THE CROWD: Yes! We're all different!
MAN IN CROWD: I'm not...

[Leanne]

I was hoping nobody would mention the gourd...

[milo]

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

well, that's nnuts!

[ellajam]

I really don't worry about being original, I'm more concerned with accomplishing whatever it is I'm trying to say in an interesting way, something that sounds and feels right to me. When I put it up for crit I then try to make it sound and feel right to the people reading it too.

Everything comes into being in its own time and place, were those words ever put together like that? I have no way of knowing unless it is something so well read that someone can point me to it. As long as my goal is to do something original to me it maintains my interest and that's about the best I can do.

[milo]

And if all else fails, write rude limericks, because there just aren't enough of those in the world.  Too many bloody haiku.

There once was a lass from down under
Who was quite the posterior wonder 
She said, “now please stop”
As she climbed up on top,
“for my bottom’s been split half asunder.”

[Quixilated]

One time I was about to give up because everything has already been written in some way or another, and nothing was left for me. My friend told me, "maybe it has all been done before, but it has never been done by you." I don't know why, but that somehow made it better. I am unique in all the world. Simple, plain and very boring, but nevertheless, unique. That has to count for something.

Now to take your advice ... My first ever dirty Limerick. ( Don't laugh, or do, it's not like I can hear you. It's going to take a long time to corrupt me, my mother was very thorough.)

There once was a weird hermit lass
Who wrote only prose that had class
She later got bored
And learned a new word
And now she pulls poems from her ass.

That was not great, and not very dirty. But if you only knew how hard it was and will be to leave that word there. Perhaps I should write a dirty Limerick a day until it gets easier...

I'm enjoying your discussion it is enlightening.

--Quix

[milo]

  Too many bloody haiku.

evening in the orchard
sun passes through -
blood orange

---

One time I was about to give up because everything has already been written in some way or another, and nothing was left for me.  My friend told me, "maybe it has all been done before, but it has never been done by you."  I don't know why, but that somehow made it better.  I am unique in all the world.  Simple, plain and very boring, but nevertheless, unique. That has to count for something.  

Now to take your advice ... My first ever dirty Limerick. ( Don't laugh, or do, it's not like I can hear you.  It's going to take a long time to thoroughly corrupt me, my mother was very thorough.)

There once was a weird hermit lass
Who wrote only prose that had class
She later got bored
And learned a new word
And now she pulls poems from her ass.

That was not great, and not very dirty. But if you only knew how hard it was and will be to leave that word there.  Perhaps I should write a dirty Limerick a day until it gets easier...

I'm enjoying your discussion it is enlightening.  

--Quix

A poet, quite grammatically swollen,
once found her propriety stolen.
She thought, "isn't this nice?"
as her comma was spliced.
She pulled asterisks out of her colon.

[ellajam]

The once was a lovely vagina
who put her mom's prudence behind her.
She swore like a demon,
her mouth full of seamen.
On the poop deck is where they would find her.

[peacejazzspirit]

There once was a sly male indulger
Who seduced his love with words vulgar:
"With a pussy's meow,
or a drip in your mouth,
I'll feast you (or give you an ulcer)."

It was hard to think of things to rhyme with "indulger". Where's my innocence gone?

[NobodyNothing]

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

What you can come up with is a new way to say something old, because although you're not especially unique either (bad luck, emos, people actually do understand you... although I'm not guaranteeing they care), you do have a set of experiences and abilities that is at least a little bit different to the next person's.  

This is something that's hard to grasp when you're young and not well read enough.  Through all my years I've been astounded, then increasingly made aware of the fact that just about everything I thought has been thought before.  And in depth.  Name a topic, any topic.  You're not the first, and certainly not the best.  

Sometimes I think that, besides of what you speak of about the potential "uniqueness" of your experiences, that it's those who can synthesize human experience the best at this time, and do it well, are the poets who will resonate the most with us.  I think synthesis trumps "perceived" uniqueness of insight, feeling, style, etc...

I don't know...I just find myself reading the best "synthesizers" of any particular domain/discipline of thought and endeavor of late more than anything else.

Having said that, "The Art Of Poetry" by Paul Valery was a good read to me about things like this.

[John]

In the world of fiction writing, it's the same old, same old, question about 'something new.' The question is valid, but research seems to show that any number of topics and ideas revolve around the same human themes - love/hate, revenge and retribution, success/failure, life/death et. al. These are the bones to be fleshed out with individual creativity.

And creativity means sitting down nice and quiet and having the courage to let words flow - in a jumble, stream of consciousness, free thought, from notes, whatever - onto the page, even if it looks and sounds like dogs' vomit. Just write and scribble and doodle and bugger about. But get the ideas down. Let the juices flow, even if flowing juices are a cliché. It doesn't matter. Write. That is where the idea of newness and uniqueness comes from. New themes will be hard to find.

There was a nefarious monk
who went for a nap in his bunk.
He dreamt that Venus
was tickling his penis
and woke up all covered in sweat.

[milo]

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

I would say dead indeed since the quote is over 2,000 years old.  The English language did not even exist when he wrote that statement. Here's the thing though, I'll bet if you took a time machine and transported him to today he would be revising that statement with a blush on his face.

Every generation spends too much time lamenting the impossibility of creating anything original - well, except for the ones that actually create something original.

[just mercedes]

if the cowboy could still climb aboard
he'd be lost in the outback of course
but time is the rub
he's here in the pub
on a barstool instead of a horse

[billy]

there was a young lassy called quixie
with big eyes and the face of a pixie
with a mouth made for goblin
an arse made for wobblin
miss quixie the pixie was sixy

sexy didn't rhyme

[ellajam]

there was a young lassy called quixie
with  big eyes and the face of a pixie
with a mouth made for goblin
an arse made for wobblin
miss quixie the pixie was sixy

sexy didn't rhyme

well, at least you didn't say she was sixty.  
best position was nine and sixty.
I'd get broken just so she could fix me.

[billy]

leanne in the forum
limericks abound
haiku hides in fear

The short answer is:  you don't.  Sorry.  There's nothing new under the sun, as some dead bloke once said.

What you can come up with is a new way to say something old, because although you're not especially unique either (bad luck, emos, people actually do understand you... although I'm not guaranteeing they care), you do have a set of experiences and abilities that is at least a little bit different to the next person's.  

Someone once told me (or I might have been talking to myself, I forget) that poets create windows where others see only walls.  Someone else once told me (again, can't guarantee it wasn't an internal voice) that poets twist the world sideways and use words to show others that view.  

And if all else fails, write rude limericks, because there just aren't enough of those in the world.  Too many bloody haiku.

[Magpie]

Too many bloody haiku.

bloody periods -
fuck it
i'll use a colon:

[newsclippings]

First you must poop. To clear your arsehole of any lingering shit. Be sure not to start writing on the toilet, as you might soil your thoughts.

[crow]

Well, define original, right? On the one hand, every fingerprint is unique. On the other, if fingerprints weren't basically iterations of the same genetic idea, there would be no such word as "fingerprint."

So, on the one hand, there "just is" originality. It's a brute feature of the creative universe. If that weren't so, copyright, patent, and trademark would all be non-issues.

On the other, originality is impossible, because attempts to defy preexisting categories while working in an extant medium are absurd. So, for instance, even the most idiosyncratic narrative shares something with every other narrative—otherwise, you'd call it something else. You'd call it "Here's a potato," or something. And if you insisted on calling whatever-X-thing-is a "narrative," your audience would balk.

To me, the thought that there's nothing new isn't pessimistic. It's not saying to the would-be innovator, all your efforts are a vanity. What it means to say isn't "don't try to express new ideas," but rather, a certain amount of redundancy is a regular feature of technology and art. That is, it's an effort to dislodge notions of authenticity from any unhappy impulse toward uneconomical/pointless/excessive self-differentiation. (Otherwise, you're trying to assign utility to aesthetics, which is a maddening idea . . .)

Simple as I can say it, my thought is, the only meaningful way to distinguish originality and destiny is to say that destiny houses a set of obligations, and originality does not. A destiny is a set of honorable forces that shepherd a work toward its maximal agreement between the authors identity and its expressive embodiment. Originality is a set of accidents that account for only the most primitive version of the work. 

Something like that.