Babel Clash

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been a fan of the paranormal genre since I was a kid. Prior to even starting my own book, I glommed through as many authors as I could find who wrote stories that were dark, dangerous, sexy, and supernatural. After I got my first book contract, it never occurred to me to stop reading in the paranormal genre just because I’d soon be a published author in it. 

However, I know many authors who avoid reading in their own genre because they don’t want to their stories to be influenced by plotlines from other books. I can understand that logic, and I’ve always said that writing isn’t one-size-fits all, so whatever works best for an author is what he/she should stick with. But personally, I don’t worry about being influenced by reading in my genre. Ideas and plotlines, I have a lot of. Too many to ever write, in fact. What I don’t have is another way to gauge what’s been done to death already. For example, I got an idea years ago about a story featuring a teenage heroine who recently relocated to a small town to live with her father (named Charlie, after my grandfather) because her mother was too self-absorbed in her own life. The heroine soon finds out that the small town has a secret – it’s populated by werewolves, and my mythology behind werewolves was based on Native American lore. The heroine was going to end up torn between two boys, one of whom was her age, the other who was hundreds of years old, but still looked like a teen because werewolves didn’t age like humans did. 

Ahem. Many of you will recognize a lot of similarities in this synopsis to Twilight, but I’d never heard of that series when I got this idea. I heard about it later, though, and then realized I’d have to change so many things to avoid the inevitable “rip-off!” comments I’d get if it were published that it wouldn’t even be the same story anymore. I could name dozens of other examples where I *thought* I had a fairly new idea for a storyline, only to find out that it’s been done multiple, multiple times before. Now, I know everything’s been done before and there are no real new ideas, but I find it helpful to have a barometer for what’s a new(ish) spin on a classic trope, and what’s too close to another work to pursue. I get that by being familiar with what’s out in the paranormal market.  

So for  me, reading in my genre is not only what I love – it was love of the genre that led me to want to write in it in the first place, after all – it’s also a way to winnow down future story ideas. If I have a plotline that’s too close to something that’s been done before – especially famously done - I know I either need to put a different twist on it, or abandon it altogether and go with a different idea. As I said, ideas are one thing I have plenty of J.

-Jeaniene Frost

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