"Original"

One mistake I think many people make when they begin writing is becoming absolutely obsessed with being one hundred percent “original.” Yes, poetry is art, and therefore one should always try to be original when crafting a piece – but being "original, at least to me, doesn’t have anything to do with writing about ideas that no one in the world has ever thought of before. Conversely, it’s about taking the ideas that every single person in the world has thought of and presenting them in a way that makes somedbody think, “I never looked at it like that.”

Photographers take pictures of things we see every day: smiling children, the view from a mountain, etc. Why then, do we still care so much for their work? Because, with their composition, they make us see that smiling child, that precipice, through their eyes. By achieving a unique angle or lighting, for a split second they show us a new way to see the commonplace. Poetry is the same way.

I think a big part of getting over writer’s block is redefining the word “original,” as well as the word “cliché.” If poetry, like so many of us have claimed, is about tapping into the universal, what good would it be to write about ideas no one has previously cared about? Themes like love, loss, death, and hope will never become "old." They are what, as humans, we naturally gravitate towards; the trick is finding new and unique ways to present them. Whenever I run into writer’s block and begin feeling less than extraordinary, this is what I try to focus on. I hope the concept helps someone else out too.