Ideas ≠ New Ideas

I’ve had an idea for a children’s book for a while now. I’ve dabbled with writing and sketching it off and on but nothing really clicked. The other night, the stars aligned and I got rolling with it. Started digging deeper and researching. 

I came across a book just like my idea...and it wasn’t like “accidental inspiration”, I’ve never seen this book before. Not consciously.

So, ok. “It’s not a complete tragedy” I told myself. “We can pivot a bit and still tell a solid story”.

I accepted the pivot and resumed researching.

“Nooooooooo”.

That idea—also exists.

I sat and stared off into space.

Mark Twain said, “there is no such thing as a new idea”. Isn’t that a depressing thought? Of course, that is frequently taken out of context. What he meant by that quote is that all our thoughts are permutations of other thoughts and experiences, remixed into something “new”. In other words, we are made up of the things we are exposed to and we build on that.

It’s a complex feeling—gutted that your idea is “taken” and proud that your idea was good enough to be a thing someone invested in. But the most difficult thing is...what now? Am I forced to move on? Do I still tackle the idea but with my own “twist”?

Apparently the “what now” is writing a blog post venting my frustrations and looking for someone to commiserate with.