Recycled Stories and How to Avoid Writing Them
One of the biggest lessons I learnt through my 20’s was that what we absorb directly correlates to our experience of life. What you take in, consciously or subconsciously, will bleed out into everything else in your life. Don’t underestimate what I’m saying here. Creating a life that you want is largely about choosing what you take in, because what you consume, consumes you.
I see evidence of this on a regular basis, every time I scroll down my Medium newsfeed. Every article repeats the same ideas and contents on a near constant basis. It’s why many writers on the platform read less and less from other writers as time goes on. Yes, most of us live in a homogenous western culture which is being perpetuated across the globe, but it seems like we are all tracking the same algorithms. The same content is rehashed, rebranded, and rewritten to join the rotating Ferris wheel of information, ultimately leading to a vacuum of originality and vision.
If you want to be original, then I urge you to spend more time alone, where the only thing you consume is the sweet sound of the birds and your unique internal voice. Do you really think Haruki Murakami, Stephen King or Isaac Asimov spent hours tuned in to the radio or television set each day in order to generate ideas for their first novel? No, a good writer values their precious time as a way to construct thought-provoking ideas and delve into a fabricated world of their own imaginings. If you can’t imagine yourself in your story, how can the reader?
If your idea or content is not at least slightly original, then how are you helping the world or yourself by publishing it? Surely your action is only leading to more of the same.
I am not saying that you should avoid any social contact, rather the opposite, but please remember that all digital platforms are programmed to be mentally addictive and feed off your dopamine. Use it as a tool and not as an emotional crutch for what you need in the real world.
Despite this, I realise many of you reading this, will be young writers and as young people generally do, you will be absorbing information from all directions in a curious, anxiety-ridden sort of way. I was the same. Young people feel like they have something to prove, a mountain to climb, constantly looking upwards at the difficulties that lay before them.
No amount of information will make you worry less or make the challenges ahead any easier. You can rest assured that you will do what you have to when you need to. Or fail and learn from it. Accepting yourself and the inherent suffering that comes with any reward is part of the long arduous journey to adulthood.
Realise the truth, that with the best intentions, you are only succeeding in tying yourself in knots. So do what brings you joy and use any suffering that arises along the way as a compass to identify that you are approaching change, which is something you can follow through with or retreat from. Know that either option will have its own sacrifice.
You can also rest assured that you will not heed these words and you will instead choose to forge ahead and learn the hard way, as has been the way for countless generations past.
