Is there an original story?

I want to be a novelist. A young adult novelist to be specific. Anyone who knows me knows my love for Harry Potter. I love the Hunger Games as well. I'm trying to read more. I go through phases. For a couple of weeks I'll have a stack of books by my bed. And maybe I'll get through one or two of them. Then I'll find myself watching Gilmore Girls and playing games on my iPhone.

If I find myself in a slump with reading then I turn to Harry Potter. And honestly some reading is better than no reading. Though I have read the series more times than I can count. And I know to get better at writing I need to constantly be reading new things. And when I do finally get myself set up with a new book I enjoy it. It just usually takes me a chapter or two before I'm hooked. And it's so easy for me to become distracted by pretty much anything. Even by doing nothing.

That's when I get really frustrated with myself. When I sit around and do literally nothing. I'll sit and stare at my planner and journal just waiting and hoping for inspiration to strike. Or I'll be telling myself to get to that to do list and...I do nothing.

That's what I'm really hoping to break myself from. Maybe I won't end up writing anything in here but gibberish. But even gibberish to me is progress. It's much better than just sitting around and wishing I was doing something with my time.

So I want to be a young adult novelist. And I want to write something good. That is me stating the obvious yes. Of course I want to write something good. I guess I feel the need to say it because Twilight is a very successful young adult book. And yes I've read it. And I even enjoyed it. But that doesn't mean it was good.

The problem is many young adult books are very similar to each other. Many have the same elements and very similar characters. I sat down about a year or so ago to brain storm ideas for a book. I had settled on an idea and was pretty excited about it. But then I heard about this book at work (I work at a library) and the book just sounded so similar to what I had wanted to write. So I lost my excitement for that story. And it just got me thinking about how so many books share so many similarities. How is someone supposed to write an original story?

I want there to be magic. I want there to be a love story. I love stories that have a royal family. I love it when the female characters are there to actually be a part of the story and not just a love interest. I want there to be mystery.

Mystery for me is what kept me coming back for Harry Potter. From book one J.K. Rowling set mysteries that would continue for the whole of the series. And she knew exactly how to handle such long running stories. She would give just enough hints that the reader would be satisfied for the moment but still yearning for more. That's what I want to do. I want to write that story that has the reader happily anticipating the next one.

And so until next time... :)