October 5th, 2017 at 11:27pm
On the topic of this video stating nothing is original; there's this writing theory that there is four over-arching stories ever told. Think of Cinderella; the evil stepmother trope, the "pretty girl is only pretty if she lets her hair down or wears a dress" trope, etc. Also, think of how many times Disney has revisited the Cinderella theme: "Once Upon a Song," "Another Cinderella Story," etc. Every five or so years, they redo the story (from animated to live action, the addition of sequels, etc). The fact that "nothing is original" is just a matter of writing.
HOWEVER; I think it's important to note that the originality, the goodness that is the writing, comes from the person who's writing it. Writing takes a lot out of me because I'm pouring my heart into it. But the originality is your take on the classic story. That's the truth about this, "nothing is original" BS. So you're story may be part of a larger story (it could be a fan-fic, or it could be an AU of a classic story like Cinderella), but the stories that you weave into the larger part of it, those are original.
As for the pushing a certain agenda on to the reader, that's a big ole "hell yes." You're writing to influence your readers; their emotions, their opinions about characters, their speech pattern, etc. And for the most part, it is okay to do this. When I hear one of my favorite guitar players saying, "Real talk, though," and I start saying that, it's not in a bad way. I don't take it in a negative way, either. I think there is a very definitive line between influencing your readers in a good way, and in a bad way. Usually, you can tell almost immediately if it's good rhetoric or not. If your readers are not taking the writing the way that you had intended, then I think it's on a writer to correct them and steer them in the way that was intended.
And for the feeling of losing yourself, I think every writer has those problems. I've struggled in the past to find something that I'm really passionate about, and the way that I had to heal was I had to take a step back from writing for a while. After a week or so, I finally felt like there was something that was worth writing for me. And the writer's block that I went through was from something similar that I read, like you had. I felt unoriginal, and like my writing wasn't doing what I wanted it to. In that case, I had to remember that the person I was listening to, like in your situation, was doing the same thing that they were accusing me of: They were trying to influence me to feel like what I was doing was bad.
Finally, after a few weeks, I had said, "Stop it. I do what I love, and I'm good at it. And it doesn't matter that you're feeling bad about your own stuff; that doesn't mean that you have the right to do this shit to me." And the feeling of finally being free released me from my writer's block, and I felt confident and comfortable with my writing again. I think that this was one of the most important things that I have ever done in my life. I'm not saying that this will work for everyone, but I think that if you're not confident in your writing, you may want to take some time away from it to reflect and regain your confidence.
Anyway, I hope, moving forward, you're going to be able to get back into your confidence and writing, because I know you're a great person with great writing.
Just to be clear, I am okay now and your comment really helped. I just needed some re-grounding and support and you helped give me that support. Thank you very much. :)
@ Don'tFearTheReaper