Hit the Highway

I was graciously invited to guest blog today at YA Highway, so zip on over and take a peek. Stay awhile too, because there's lots of good stuff there besides me gabbing about world building.

A Familar Plot: Adding Somethng New to an Old Plot

In Saturday's post, I was talking about plots we see all the time the importance of being original. It dawned on me that it could have been taken to mean that using a tried and true plot was dooming yourself to failure.

Not so.

Any plot can be made fresh with a new twist. It's our jobs as writers to put the brain cells to work and think up those twists. Even when we can see the end coming a mile away, getting there is most of the fun. My love of underdog sports movies is a classic example. I know the underdogs are going to win, but I'm on the edge of my seat anyway, and I cheer when they do win.

A unique character can add a new dimension to a well-known story. Gregory McGuire took the world by storm by writing The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's perspective in Wicked. Spielberg's idea of a grown up Peter Pan in Hook was sheer genius.

A unique setting can also add depth and dimension. Clueless is just Jane Austen for the modern day, but giving it a teen setting made a classic story fresh again.

So, finding the original and fresh in your work is vital, but you have a million ways to do that. Don't fret if your idea is tried and true, as long as you try it in a way that's uniquely true to you.

Now, Where Did I Put My LIfe?

Shifter 2 is done finally and over to my editor. Which is why you're getting this very boring post today and not the one I'd planned. Or the one I'd thought about to elaborate on the plot post over the weekend.

I'm thrilled the book is off, even though there will be revisions later. But for now, I'm going to remember what my husband looks like, see some friends, cuddle my cats and catch up on Kate Brian's "Private" series. Oh, and go out and buy "Sacred Scar", sequel to "Skin Hunger." Been DYING for that book since I finished the last page of the first book.

Enjoy your evening all, I know I will.