How to Stand Out From the Crowd

From Writerslife.org:

We all know that one of the most significant challenges any writer faces is trying to be original. There are so many books out there, so many stories, and we can’t help but be influenced and inspired by the things we have read ourselves.

Telling a genuinely original story is difficult, some might even say it can't be done. However, to make our stories successful, they do need to say something that hasn’t been said before. They need to have something about them that makes them stand out from the crowd.

So how can you make sure that you aren’t just writing the same old stories, ones that will get lost amongst the sea of the work that is already out there? Here are some tips and methods to try to keep your work fresh and original.

Use your intuition

There is nothing quite as powerful as your intuition to help you make the right decisions about your work. If you are following your gut and your instincts, you’ll know when you are being lazy or not pushing yourself creatively. Always listen to that and you’ll rarely go wrong and keep your work as unique and original as possible.

Don’t follow the rules

With every story, with every genre, there are sets of ‘rules’ that writers are supposed to follow. Be a daredevil and break a few of them - or at least push their boundaries, their limits. Do this cleverly, go too far off-piste, and you might confuse and upset your reader, but remember, rules were made to be broken after all.

Be honest

The more brutally honest you are with your writing, the more authentic it will be. Try keeping a journal to make notes of the things you have done, the conversations you have overheard, the things you have observed and use these in your writing. No one sees the world through the same pair of eyes as you do. Use your unique perspective to make your book different.

Ask yourself questions

Throughout the writing process keep asking yourself questions. Don’t let yourself rest or be average. Always push yourself. Ask yourself how you can make that scene, that conversation, that setting more interesting, more exciting, more attention-grabbing. Keep asking yourself how your characters could be more unique, more unusual, more relatable. Do this before you start writing, as you are writing and after you’ve finished too.

Be influenced, be inspired, don't copy

We are never going to get away from our influences entirely, and it is okay to ‘borrow’ some ideas from other writers. However, there is a very distinct line between letting what you’ve read and loved kickstart your writing and just stealing ideas from other writers. The former is OK, the latter is a massive no-no, and your readers will call you out on it every time.

Trying to make your work stand out can be tricky, and scary. It might involve pushing yourself, even going to places that make you a little uncomfortable and taking risks that may or may not pay off.

However if you aren’t willing to do these things your book may never get its chance to shine, so be bold, be daring and do everything you can to make your book stand out from the crowd, if you do the rewards could be incredible!

This must have been what was on my mind when I was hesitant about writing a memoir about depression and being on Prozac when I was inspired to write about this after reading the best-known account of the iconic medication. I felt I was stealing the author's thunder. But I was soon convinced that everyone has a different story to tell. That more than one survivor of the Titanic, for instance, should be allowed to tell their story, not just one such person. As it says above use your unique perspective to make your book different, something I was told in the beginning I gradually realized that I wouldn't be copying others, that I was just being inspired by them. Depression is a universal problem and everyone has a story to tell, even if some of what they went through was similar, if not identical to, that which others faced. 

I have been working on the diary novel, but I'm not sure what really inspired me in that instance. I've read The Dork Diaries series, but have yet to read the Diary of the Wimpy Kid books. But my main character is starting to sound like ones in these books. I sent one of my mom's friends an email attachment of my story and she described the main character as being extremely cynical and unsympathetic, and "always seeing the worst in every situation." But that's just one person's take. My mom doesn't agree from what she'd read so far. I now need others to read this one to see what they think. 

Nearly every story has been told more that once, but your voice is what makes it stand out. This was a lesson I learned when I began deciding if I wanted to begin the memoir.

More on the "Behind Bars" Analogy

I'm still pretty sure I want to use the "behind bars" analogy for my book, despite how misleading it may end up seeming to some people. I then remembered seeing this cartoon on Facebook a year or so ago:

And today, I saw this video on Youtube:

Now maybe using the analogy of "behind bars" in my story title won't be so bad after all.

Can Titles Be Misleading?

As I said in my last post, I have considered using the "behind bars" analogy in my title, but was worried about how misleading that title might be. Now I'm almost certain I will use that in the title, and was given the suggestion of using a subtitle to explain what the book is about.

This article mentions titles that said to be misleading. I now wonder how many kids assigned to read The Catcher in the Rye were disappointed to learn it's not a book about baseball. Strangely, the article didn't include The Prince of Tides. I can imagine some kids wanting to read that one, thinking it's about a surfer, then fining out otherwise. Titles that seem misleading to some people seem like fodder for gags on TV shows, with a TV character making an assumption about what a book is about just based on its title.

I did a search on Goodreads for titles that contain the phrase "behind bars," and though I couldn't go through every single one, I did manage find some (both novels and memoirs) that had nothing to do with prison. Rather, the phrase was used in reference to bars where people go to drink. Some of these coves are pictured below:

The search also turned up this result:

Before I clicked on this one, and before reading the full title, I wondered if this one had to do with braces. 

Though I did not click on every single entry, a glance the list did not produce one book that used "behind bars" in reference to braces. Perhaps I am getting onto something.

Have there ever been any titles that you have found misleading?

Finding a Title

How long does it take most of you writers to find a title for your books? Do you dare try to think of something new and different or attempt to use a title that has already been used, since titles are not copyrighted?

I wrote about this nearly a year ago in this post, which had been inspired by reading this blog post:

Allegra Nation

The depression memoir “Prozac Nation” by Elizabeth Wurtzel was so much of a smash hit that Hollywood made a movie out of it. I suppose that should prompt me to write a memoir called “Risperdal Nation” since I’m legitimately schizophrenic. My life isn’t nearly as interesting as Elizabeth Wurtzel’s, so maybe I’ll have to hold off for a while. You know what else would make a weird memoir? “Allegra Nation”. Ever since having nasal surgery in 2006, I’ve been gagging on my own snot and blowing my nose like an elephant whenever I’m out in public. Allegra seems to be the only over-the-counter medication that works so far. If you managed to get this far in the blog post without falling asleep, kudos to you. The point I’m trying to make is Elizabeth Wurtzel is a one of a kind author with one of a kind skills. To try and duplicate her work would be next to impossible. You can’t just remove the word “Prozac” from the title of your memoir and replace it with another medication. Suppose you have chronic constipation and you tried to write a memoir called “Phillip’s Colon Health Nation”. Would that sell very many copies? “The diarrhea splatter looked like guts after the Vietnam war.” I’m sorry, but there’s simply no way to make diarrhea or constipation interesting. Same thing with “Yaz Nation”. I suppose a memoir about having lots of sex would prove to be spicy and hot, but we don’t need to hear that you constantly used Yaz as a birth control pill, especially now that women are having strokes because of it. Hehe! I said “strokes” in a sentence about sex. You know what else would make a weird memoir? “Pamprin Nation”. There’s simply no way to make periods sound readable. “After I bled all over the floor like a Saw character, I yelled at my boyfriend so loudly that he began bleeding out of his ears.” There’s simply no way a blogger with testicles can make that sound interesting without coming off as a sexist pig. I assure you I’m not a sexist. I’m merely trying to prove a point that if you try to write a memoir based on a random medication, you won’t get the results you want. Elizabeth Wurtzel is a Generation X icon with a lot to say, even after 1994, when Prozac Nation was published. Her memoir is more than just constant complaining about being sad. It’s social commentary. It’s psychology. It’s something you can’t write if you’re constantly ingesting Phillip’s Colon Health pills. 

It was a while before I came up with a title for my memoir. I had been inspired to write my story after reading Prozac Nation, then thinking my story was just too similar to what had been told already, especially that in Prozac Nation. But everyone convinced me otherwise. Since then I have come across similar remarks such as this one, which I saw yesterday when searching for articles on choosing a title for a book. One of the comments reads:

The last thing I titled was a nonfiction novel I'm writing depicting my struggle and recovery from my eating disorder. I know there are a lot of books out there about eating disorders now but everyone's story is different because everyone's struggle is different. I titled it The Battle Within.

(This was exactly what I had been told about depression stories).  

Even though titles are not copyrighted, most people would dare not use one that is highly distinctive, though they could do so.  I was not aware of the fact that titles are not copyrighted until years after seeing this Peanuts cartoon:

He could have used these titles, though doing so would probably cause confusion with the books already bearing these names. Woodstock must not have known that titles are not copyrighted 🙂

In the new afterword to Prozac Nation, author Elizabeth Wurtzel says that "Prozac Nation is a great invention. It is a pity you cannot trademark a title. Alas. ..." I knew I could not use this title since it was so distinctive, but I still wanted to emphasize being on Prozac myself. I would have wanted to do the same for Paxil, Zoloft or any other antidepressant. 

And now I'm trying to come up with title for my diary novel. I have considered calling it Life Behind Bars, but am worried that that title might be too misleading, even though it seems catchy and is the title of one of the diary entries/chapters. This title stumped a fellow client at work, making wonder what the book could about. Then I showed her the source of my title. One suggestion I got was Smile, but I was quick to point out that a graphic novel with that title exists, and that the subject matter of that book is about a teen getting braces, the same as my diary novel. Again, the title is not copyrighted, but it would be confusing for two books on the same subject to have the same title. And smiling is less emphasized in my story. Rather anxiety over having to get braces and subsequently adjusting to them makes up most of the story. The character lists the things he's looking forward to and not looking forward to about having to sport orthodontia, with the negatives outweighing the positives. So I think Smile would not be the best title for my book. I now want to somehow use the "behind bars" analogy without sounding too deceptive as to the title's meaning.

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Chapter Break Bingo – April 2018

Here is the new card for April.

Click on the card to download (or right click here and save-as).

Mark up the card however you wish to claim the squares.

Some clarifications on the squares:

Teen Book Con Author: Yes, you probably didn’t attend this year’s Teen Book Con in Houston. But I did. And it’s always amazing to me to see all those teens excited about reading. So let’s reward the authors who take time out of their schedules to attend this convention and read one of their books. Here’s the list. I’m reading Caraval!

Try a new genre: Read a genre you don’t normally read. For example, do you normally read contemporary? Try historic. Normally read science fiction? Try fantasy. You can cross off two squares if you don’t normally read YA by reading a Teen Book Con author!

Current topic: Read a book with a current topic. I’m thinking politics, war in the Mid-East. Economics. You get the idea.

Here’s a recap for clarity (with specific dates for example):

April 4 – new bingo card available

May 3 – Julie and I will post our April completed bingo cards. You can link up your bingo cards in this post

May 4 – new bingo card available

June 3 – Julie and I will post our May completed bingo cards. You can link up your bingo cards in this post. We will also be posting the April winner of the most squares in this post.

And so on and so forth.

Here is what I am reading:

1. The Egg Tree--Katherine Milhous (1 square): Easter Egg
2. Little Women--Louisa May Alcott (4 squares): Siblings, Library Book, Physical Book, Girl Power
3. Ready Player One--Ernest Cline (3 squares): Try a New Genre (Cyberpunk), Games of Skill or Chance, Technology
4. Hotel For Dogs--Lois Duncan (2 squares): Audiobook, In a Series
5. The Silent Wife--A.S.A. Harrison (2 squares): Free Book, Lawyer
6. Roller Girl--Victoria Jamieson (1 square): Bright Colors on Cover
7. Two-Way Street--Lauren Barhnoldt (2 squares): Vacation or Road Trip, Free Space
8. There Will Be a Slight Delay--Jack Prelutsky (1 square): Jokes
9. Dr Wortle's School--Anthony Trollope (1 square): Set on a School Campus
10. Impulse--Ellen Hopkins (1 square): One-Word Title
11. Funny in Farsi--Firoozeh Dumas (2 squares): Shelf Love, Current Events (Immigration)
12. File M for Murder--Miranda James (1 square): Cold-Case Mystery
13. The Alchemyst--Michael Scott (1 square): Witches/Demons
14. The Silent Wife--Kerry Fisher (1 square): New Adult
15. Children of Blood and Bone--Tomi Adeyemi (1 square): Teen Book Con Author
16. ChocoMimi, Volume 1--Konami Sonada (1 square): Birthday

Challenge completed on April 29. 25 squares completed.

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Words for Wednesday

It's been some time since I've participated in this meme. The prompts are at Elephant's Child's blog this month.

This weeks prompts are:

1. game
2. bag
3. torch
4. queen
5. fit
6. pardon 

And/or

1. beach
2. shadow
3. orb 
4. chilly 
5. collision
6. desperate

It was a chilly night at the beach house in the middle of summer, and the family living there were playing a game of cards. Just as one of them drew the Queen of Hearts card, a light shone though the front window. The family seemed desperate to go out and see what was happening. Through the window they could see a shadow of an orb-shaped ball that was lying on the sand. They had been using the ball to play a game that afternoon. Then came the collision of the waves. Then came a flame from the torch in the lighthouse in the distance. It was starting to look spooky.

A knock was then heard on the door. Everyone was shaking. The man opened it to find the landlord with his tool bag, who said "Pardon me, Mr. Smith," but we have an inspection of the beach house this week. We must make sure everything fits and it up to code. Just letting you know."

"Thanks," Mr. Smith said. He want back to playing cards with his family.

Whether or Not to Write a Series

Those of you who have written series--how did you come to this decision? The other day, I was thinking of ideas to add to my diary novel, which I then though could be the start of a new book. I was having a hard time deciding how to end the book. When I began writing it, it sounded like this could be the start of a series, but I wasn't too sure then. But now I think I may just start a second installment. First, though, I need to conclude the first one and will be thinking of how to do so.

Since it's YA/MG fiction that I am attempting, it seems series-worthy, no matter how many books end up from it. Again, thinking too far ahead, but I'm almost certain I'll be beginning another one. And on a side note, I'm still confused if my work will be classified as YA or MG. I recently decided that 12 will be current the age of the protagonist at the time of the events in what I have written so far. Does that make it Middle Grade or Young Adult, once the character ages to 13, which I can see myself writing about next.

Also, I have yet to come up with a title for the first book, let alone an entire series title.  I have already come up with chapter titles, or should I call them diary entry titles? 🙂  
The beginning of the first one reads:

So begins my journal….



HOW I HATE MY LIFE

April 5, 1983



How do I hate my life? Let me count the ways.


I hate the way I look. Curly dark hair, dull-looking brown eyes and teeth sticking out in all directions…an overbite. It should come as no surprise that my dentist said I need braces. Hearing this triggered my anxiety. I was sure Mom would not be able to afford it and I would have crooked teeth all my life. I’d said that I would gladly skip it, but no such luck. My mom is always working to be able to feed the two of us and now she says has to get a second job so that I can get braces. If Rachel Blair won’t let one thing slide, it’s the fact that my teeth need straightening. “You’ll look and feel so much better,” she’s been trying to convince me. But she will say we can’t afford other stuff, like that new thing called a VCR that allows you to record TV shows to watch later. ...

Oddly enough, the boy dreading and then subsequently getting braces seems to be the focus of much of what I have written so far. He calls it "Preparing for Life Behind Bars," the title of another of the entries/chapters.

This site gives five reasons for writing a series, the second of which reads:

A book series takes the pressure off of you to put everything into one book. Too many authors have taken too long to publish their book because they wanted to be sure they included everything ever needed in it. With a single book, you don’t have a way to follow up the information.

I now seem to think this point might work in my favor. But no decisions have been made just yet.