Dai V. Ross's Blog

I recently started reading Ender’s Game, and as I amble through the writer’s introduction, something he said got me thinking (strange, but true).

“..I felt a strong desire to write stories that would do for others what Asimov’s story had done for me. In other genres, that desire is usually expressed by producing thinly veiled rewrites of the great work: Tolkien’s disciples far too often simply rewrite Tolkien, for example. In science fiction, however, the whole point is that the ideas are fresh and startling and intriguing, you imitate the great ones, not by rewriting their stories, but rather by creating stories that are just as startling and new.”

Ok, so that little paragraph covers quite a lot of topics but the one I wish to focus on, has to do with creating and rewriting.

You may have heard the fact (or fiction, depending on the point of view) that there are only seven stories in the whole world. It’s true, in a certain sense – there are space stories, dog stories, hero stories, dragon stories, scary stories … but the thing and the whole of the thing is the new way in which these stories are told. Not necessarily different. New in style, new in writing, new in perspective. That’s a part of it. The other part is what touches your heart. Put it this way: I have read a lot of – stories (for example). Basically with the same storyline: bad guy, good guy, usually a love interest. It’s very easy to spot a person that just copied or ‘rewrote’ one of the greats in a pathetic attempt to be thought a writer. But what makes me pick wizarding stories? What motivates me to stand in the store, or stare at the kindle screen, deciding which wizarding story to buy?

The new viewpoint. As diverse as the human condition is, so diverse their viewpoints. It’s the excitement that comes upon reading a book and finding that the main characters strikes a chord deep within you, that the story has it’s own voice and own rhythm, and that it presents an old plotline in a different way.

That’s what I love, and that’s what I think makes a good book.

- here be dragons, wyverns, oozy creatures, flittering faeries, handsome villians and silly heroes. The geography changes constantly, but right there – see? Up there? There is the Sanctum. Where all is created and pondered upon.

You are welcome … but tread carefully.

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