Sunday, May 8, 2022

Lucian's "True" Story

I recently came across the video below as a result of YouTube's recommendation engine.  It's about the ancient Greek writer Lucian and his crazy science fiction story.

It's just one more example of the "everything has been done before" truism.  If a science fiction writer thinks he's writing something completely original, then he simply hasn't read enough.  There are no new story ideas under the sun.  Your "original" idea has been done before, and it was probably done before the fall of the Roman Empire.

My advice: don't try to write an original story.  Just try to write a good story.  There's nothing wrong with doing a fresh take on an old idea.  And it's what you'd be doing whether you knew it or not, so you might as well reconcile yourself to the notion.




No comments:

Post a Comment