Shape The Story - a new initiative

Authors usually want to control everything, particularly what happens on the page. As they should, since that is the very essence of writing stories for others to read. However, there are areas where such a proprietary approach might be limiting.

Consider the possibility of taking someone else's story and pilfering it for content to feed your own narrative, even using some of their characters and taking them in an entirely different direction. Plagiarism? Some might call it inspiration. Others, merely research. The author of the original story will most likely call it outright theft and will promptly take you to court. Consider, therefore, what would happen if that original author did... absolutely nothing.

Well, the first thing would be that the author would have suggestions, in the form of a new story, of where to take their own characters next. The author might find yet more characters in the new work that they might like to bring into their own story universe. There might be ingenious story arcs in this new work that the original author had never thought of, new paths for his or her original characters to explore. The original author might well find all sorts of new and exciting avenues to experiment with.

What about the readers? Those who might have read the original author's work would most likely be intrigued by this new story. They might find a different tone that lets them see the original author's work in a new light. Most importantly, some readers will discover the original author only once they have read the new author's story. In essence, letting go of their work lets the original author embrace a broader audience and a wider story world.

There is, of course, the case of remuneration. The original author might want to protect his or her copyright of their story and everything it contains. But how does someone else taking the story in a fresh and new direction, using the same characters, harm the author's revenue stream? Some would argue it actually increases it, since it allows new readers to discover the author's work. What really matters here is who is doing the writing. The original author did not write the new story, just as the new author did not write the original story. Everyone receives the revenue that matches the work they put in. So in fact, people make more money as a whole with this approach, and readers have more variety of content at their disposal.

Encouraged by this positive conclusion (which many people may hate me for, and I respect their opinion along with their compulsion to tear me a new orifice somewhere unpleasant and probably painful), I have designed a new writing platform, aimed at teenagers, which follows this very concept.

The platform will have a soft launch in October 2017 and will be called 'Shape The Story'.

There will be much to discuss once this launch happens, and I look forward to the many interesting conversations that are sure to take place once this project takes off.

Every idea comes from another idea. We just need to make peace with this notion in order to open up a whole new world of creative possibilities.

Creation vs collage

We live in a world of assembly. Following the motto of 'Don't reinvent the wheel', we've taken the thought to new extremes. Why create from scratch when you can plug together bits and pieces that other people have made? It puts a new spin on plagiarism - where does it begin or end in a world of cut-and-paste? It even repositions copyright as a means to an end.

Physically, we're seeing car manufacturers pool factory resources to build different branded cars using the same basic parts. It's LEGO gone wild. Prefab houses are spreading rapidly as an affordable way to build new homes. Ikea's colour palette is designed so that any piece of furniture you buy can match any other set you already have. No need to think, just plug and play. Innovation is no longer within the elements, it's within the process. It's now about how well we can build, not what.

Digitally, we're seeing a proliferation of templates for every application under the sun. Need a little motion graphics for your title sequence?  Template, cut in with some existing stock footage and you're home. Need some code for your new software package? Template, fill in the blanks and it's on. Recipes, posters, music scores, videogames, it's all canned and repurposed to suit your needs. And perhaps that's the point?

This approach changes everything, it forces us to first seek out what exists, to then figure out how to use it in combination with other things. It slows down the evolution process by breaking down the steps within innovation itself. Creation always begins by connecting thoughts that already exist in the creator's head. The key is that these thoughts were conceived by the creator in the first place, so it all remains part of the creative process. Now, however, we're just stitching together thoughts that others have had and we call the result our own.

Social media introduced the concept of 'sharing'. We now believe that 'sharing' content is equivalent to creating. We somehow feel that by spreading a piece of content around, we come to own part of it. 'Sharing', though intended as an outward gesture, has become egocentric. We share to own. And again, we take something that already exists, and we add a thin layer of personal veneer to then call it ours.

This creates a huge market for the few talented creators who can build from scratch, because everyone else wants and needs their work to make their own, like bricks in a wall. This explains the recent uproar of the last few years about the length and extent of copyright. A strong reason why people are asking for an end to copyright is because, in order to make their own ideas, they want more access to ideas others have had before. But who owns the copyright to the new ideas these people now spread out into the world?

Let's be clear, there are wonderful things that have emerged from these assemblies of ideas to derive new ones. After all, there are only 26 letters in our alphabet and yet we repackage them endlessly to produce new written work. There are only 10 digits, yet mathematics continues to surprise us. There are only seven basic music notes, yet symphonies continue to emerge. We can create this way, but it changes how we think. It would be wise to remember how to create from the ground up, lest we forget how to create in the first place.

We need to remember that the truly groundbreaking ideas, the ones that pull people through leaps of creative strides, are the ones that we build from scratch. Those ideas are the ones we come up with using intellect, intuition, trial-and-error, mistakes, ridicule, gut instinct, arrogance, daring and originality. Those ideas are the ones that make a difference.

So the next time you set out to create something, take a look at the building blocks you have, sure, but then take a step back. Look at the bigger picture, and see what's missing. Read between the lines, find the trees within the forest.

Then plant your own.

Nurture it, grow it and take pride in what it becomes. Because that tree is yours. It is unique and original. It is there for others to scale, to cling to and to embrace.

Original thought is the way to go.