A Writer’s Rant, Number 578,695,768,957,895

Writing is so discouraging. I can work my butt off forever on one great story, and then discover that it falls into a category. A really bad category. One that is so saturated with poorly written garbage that it seems impossible for my story to rise above.

Writing is unfair. Everything that’s popular has been done before: Another historic retelling of a royal family, another sitcom about a feisty mom, or another crime-scene murder mystery. Some Disney channel cartoons are more creative than the highest-grossing (usually comic book) films. Familiarity sells better than sex. But a nobody like me can’t be familiar, or I’m considered cliche.

Writing is so fixed. So what am I supposed to do? Come up with something truly original? Really? This is story-telling, people -- there’s no story that hasn’t already been told. It’s true! Cavemen repeated themselves, and so did the Greeks. Shakespeare did it all again 400 years ago. Christie, Poe, Dickens, Verne, Doyle. Old, old, old, old, and old. Stan Lee was original ... 50 years ago. Even Stephen King’s formula of taking something we love (clowns, hotels, cars, pets, etc) and making it horrible, is so worn-out after 30 years. Yes, even this rant is so cliche. Ooh, another angry writer. How negative. How Bukowski. And how tiring.

“Just keep trying. Hard work pays off. The successful writers are the ones that never quit. So-and-so got rejected fifty times before they made it.” Jesus, talk about a tired storyline that’s still retold. And everybody still swallows it up too.