That's been done before

You know, one of the things that has always bugged me about writing has been in relation to the actual ideas that we get.  Here, let me give you a prime example.  I had this great idea of a story.  It's about how each story that is written is actually a real universe (anyone that knows me knows my love of multiple universes so this is a play on it) and that there are groups of people, aka writers, who are able to glimpse into these worlds, watch a sequence in time then take it from there.  Think Myst meets Sliders and you get the idea...for the most part.

So here I was revved up, excited about this fantastic idea and I tell this person whose opinion I respect the most and guess what he says, some other guy has done something similar.  It wasn't until recently that I realized just how much that annoys the hell out of me because if you think about it, someone somewhere has already written a story with a similar idea.  The thing is, it's never exact and I got to thinking.  A writer isn't necessarily someone who comes up with completely original ideas...no, a writer is someone who takes an idea already done by someone else and goes at it from a different perspective.  That's what makes it unique.

Want an example?  Well, even if you don't I'm going to give it anyway because that is just who I am.

Vampires!  Ha, the age old story device that everyone just seem to love.  Don't believe it?  I give you the newest series Twilight.  Ever since Dracula (the original for those who start thinking up some hunky guy who portrays the man go watch it in the original black and white, now that was something else.  Better yet, go pick up the original book by Bram Stoker to really get a treat.  Trust me, worth every word) people have been writing about Vampires.  You have the Dracula 2000 series (an eye for an eye brother...I so love Epps in that film btw), you have Buffy and Angel (Angel, anytime you want to drink my blood give me a ring would ya?), you have Twilight, you have my favorite author Laurell Hamilton who makes them citizens and go all nuts with that angle (love it btw), you have Lestat and Lewis, and you have Brian Lumley's take of Vampires are really parasites.  You want an original Vamp story, read the Necroscope Series!

My point is that Vampires have been done to death..no pun.....actually slight pun intended and yet we still gobble them up chew them up and wish they were real so that we can become one...once we become good looking and hot again that is.  Wouldn't do to be a fat Vampire with wrinkles would it? 

So it's been done before, so what?  That's what I"m going to say when told that, yeah, and so have Vampires.  Don't see anyone complaining about that do you????

I think I can, I think I can

So here I am, with my book Memory Lane, pretty much edited.  Okay, so it needs a bit more editing, a bit more scrutiny and finding those stinking commas to put them in the right place is necessary, but for the most part.  The darn thing is done.  At least it better be done because in a way I'm sick and tired of Memory Lane.  I'm tired of thinking about it, I'm tired of worrying about it, most of all I'm tired of knowing that it is there on my computer not doing anything.  The thing is that I have to finally get off my ass and send in the letters to the Agents so that I can get representation so that the damn thing can get published.

Get it published, get promoted, do as I'm told and walla, I'm a published author.

Sounds easy?  Hardly, more like it's a struggle to fight between relief that it's all done, apprehension of what the agents will say and down right fear that I've been deluding myself for all these years on my writing skill.  Oh, sure people tell me I'm good, but they aren't what I call professional editors (no offense gang, but lets be honest, you're just a reader, they are the ones who get paid the big bucks out of my paycheck when I get published).

I think about all these things and realize, "Dear Lady, I simply don't want to go through the hassle and the rejection" then, just when I resign myself that I have to do something I find out a friend of mine who just started a book already has a freaking editor.  How sick is that?????  Okay, not sick for him obviously, but when I think that this guy was able to attain a closer step to my dream.  I think, to be exact, that I'm green with envy.  Not a pretty green either, but a sickly green.

After I heard that I'm filled once again with this desire to push ahead while being hit with this fear that I can't do it, that I'll fail....that I'll never get published.  Then it will be a smack in the face that says "Ha ha, see, I knew I couldn't why try?"

But then this other voice whispers to me, "You just won't know and if you think it won't happen then it won't."  It's like the whole the little engine who could.  I think I can, I think I can.....but what if I can't....sigh