In Honor of Christmas – Borrowing from Stories You Know and Love

Christmas time has come again. As you wrap your gifts and prepare for a little Christmas of your own, you sip on some delicious egg nog and realize you want to commit to writing a book, script or short story. But where to begin? What story can you possibly write that hasn't been told before? How do you know if your story will be truly original, or if people will accuse you of stealing your idea from something else? The solution is simple. Don't stress about it. Go ahead and write your story and embrace the similarities with another story. Every story ever told is both a unique creation personal to the writer and a blend of elements found in other stories that the writer has consumed at some point in his or her life. You probably will not write a truly original story in your lifetime, but that doesn't mean you can't write many truly great stories.