Saturday, June 4, 2011

Has Everything We Write Already Been Said?

Roughly five billion people in the world are literate (that was a VERY rough estimate, by the way. It might be off by a billion or two). People from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. All writing. What is the chance that whatever you say hasn't been said many times before by many other people? Not very good.

It's kind of humbling, really. So many other people have had the exact same thought patterns, and come to the exact same conclusions. When writing, it is natural think that it is one of a kind. And in a way, it is (assuming you didn't plagiarize). But no matter how random, or how many words you say, someone else has probably thought of it before.

In our culture today, we don't really think about how big the world is much. Oh, they give big numbers, but a billion is not a number that we can relate to. It is just that so much of American culture is focused on individuality. It is common to hear that no one is exactly like us, but there are many that come very, very close. If everyone was asked to explain their personality in 500 words, how many would be exactly like mine? I have a feeling quite a few.

Although many ideas aren't new, the trouble that many people have is implementing them. For example, someone else might of thought of a similar plot to my Perla Vardo series. But, if they didn't let the world see it, like I did with my blog, does it really count? Does an idea that doesn't impact anyone actually count as existing? Of course, that goes into the age old question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make any noise? We won't get into that today, however.

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