As mentioned in the previous post, there is a trap in thinking that a "good" story is a "unique" story, and that only "unique" stories do well.
In that line of thinking, the critical flaw is that you're discussing the story as though it's done, (when generally this thought is had by people still writing) and that you're confusing the line between conceptual or thematic reception with publication reception.
Yeah I just used a lot of big words. I'll boil that down -- The problem is that you're worried about how the book will sell while you're still writing it, and you're attempting to reverse engineer the process so that by the time you're done writing, publication is a breeze.
I think we should first define our terms.
"Good story" -- A story you enjoy.
"Unique story" -- A story containing elements you've never seen before, or never seen done in a certain way before
"Publishable story" -- A story that can be mass produced and sold to consumers
This comes down to a matter of perspective. If we're looking at a story by its elements, and we examine the dialogue, the characters, the plot and the pacing (to name a few)...then we can easily see if the story is unique in its presentation. Uniqueness is the most objective quality here, and it's very binary - either we have seen this story done this way before or not.
The next quality is subjective, and we appeal to our senses and tastes to see if we like the story. If we term it "good" then we associate with other good things and we smile when thinking about it. This, too, is a binary decision, but has more factors influencing it.
Lastly we blend the subjective and objective together to determine it's state of readiness for publication. The objective factors are it's completion, the level of spelling and grammar and the formatting. The subjective factors fall to editors, publishers and agents who make decisions regarding how to broadcast the story. This blend does not matter if the story is "good", and only slightly matters if the story is "unique".
We can dispense with the notion that the story is good (meaning we like it) because we can easily find published books we do not like (hello sparkly vampires, female detectives trying to be masculine, and long-winded period pieces that opine and whine before something happens). A book can be published regardless of whether or not I enjoy it. I may not purchase it, but it can be available for audiences to purchase.
Being "unique" is a selling point for publication, not a prerequisite. Many books share the same theme, plot or style of characters (how many series now make use of teenagers and magic?), but it is the specific twists applied to the stories that allow them to be distinguished from one another. Story #1 may use Norse gods, Story #2 may use psionics in algebra, Story #3 may use a boarding school of supernatural creatures...but the fantasy elements are a common thread.
When writing the story, the author needs to do everything possible to focus on the act of writing and completion of the piece. If particular parts of the story are unique, then that is a bonus for later steps in the writing/publication process, but if there are no distinctly unique elements, THE STORY CAN/SHOULD STILL BE WRITTEN. You need not shoehorn in elements to "make" the story unique. You cannot quickly tack in a magical fairy into your story about divorcing parents any easier than you can heighten the drama of a mythical hero slaying monsters by taking a chapter to describe how he pays his taxes.
As I tell many writers, "Your story is inherently unique because you wrote it." Any editor, publisher or agent who cannot work with that fact as a selling point is not an agent/editor/publisher you need to use. Find others, as so many exist. It may not be an easy find, you may have to hunt around, compare data and do some legwork, but you can find people or services to get your work published.
The last of the three terms mentioned is, for many people, the scariest, if only because they do not fully grasp the meaning, or they're unclear about it: A "publishable" story is one that will sell.
That's it. If you add any weight or thought to any part of that definition, you are projecting your fears, anxieties or expectations onto the process.
Any story can be sold and produced into a book. What it takes to make that story ready for that is different for every story and every author. Some authors need to work a page at a time with an editor and see how their sentences need to be improved. Some authors need to be locked in a room for a month and left alone to write. No matter the rigors taken, no matter the length of time spent, any story can be developed, polished and completed so that it ends up on a bookshelf.
What matters is your commitment to that time and those rigors. What matters is the foundation of habits you build for yourself so that you can produce the work. What matters is the help you receive along the way to make this process easier (note: not faster).
There are people like me who offer both paying and free services to writers to help them. My rates are reasonable, my free services are available. If you want to take your ideas and get them out onto bookshelves, come talk to me. I'm always around.
You can do this - it starts with commitment, which is the topic of my next post.
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