Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping our elementary school with vision and hearing screening. You know, the time when you stand ten feet back and squint at the chart with your eye covered?
While the majority of the kindergarten and first graders had perfect vision and could rattle off the letters without even blinking–literally, there was one kid who didn’t blink the whole time he spouted off the letters–a few struggled to read even the giant letters at the top.
They would lean to the side, peak around the stick or squint really hard to try to get the letters into focus.
Books are no different. Many of them are formulaic. insert new character name here. Add a dash of new hair color and give the MC a cat instead of a dog. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy. Best friend butts in…yada, yada, yada. Throw in a bully, and we’re good to go.
But every once in a while, a book comes along that appears fresh and new and exciting and never before read.
I picture two kinds of writers in the above scenarios.
- The ones with perfect vision who whip out formulaic novels without blinking an eye, and
- Those who squint and twist and lean just enough to see things in a different way.
What kind of writer are you? How do you find unique ways to look at your world? Better yet, how do you translate that into a novel novel?
Readers, what books took you by surprise with their originality?
Curious minds want to know!
pS. Spell check hates that I used novel twice in a row! Spell check meet novel the Adjective and novel the Noun.
Words from the Woods 