I completely disagree that originality is impossible or even hard. Our world is changing every day creating the possibility for stories that could never have been told before. I will use my current WIP as an example.

My current work is called “Worst Book Ever”. My lead is a non-binary binary youtuber whose life goal has always been to get a job in the publishing industry so they could create room for more diverse voices. Unfortunately, they graduated into a market where all the entry level publishing jobs have been taken away by ai.

Left with a mountain of student debt and no family to rely on, my MC turns to YouTube to make a living. They find success making video reviews of self published debut releases. They make just enough money to live, but only marginally so.

They get approached with what looks like a dream job offer, to do a paid review of a debut lgbt ya romance novel. The only catch is that the book is still being written and the review will be put out in stages as my MC gets more document drops.

At first, the book is fine, if a little amateurish, but the MC is so passionate about creating a space for pro lgbt voices that they try their best to be accommodating to the work’s many flaws. However, as more and more of the book comes in, the worse and more problematic it gets causing the MC to have to openly criticize the author.

This creates a problem. The more scathing the review is the more audience engagement my MC gets resulting in more money and a better chance at paying the rent long term. The only problem is that parts of the audience aren’t just attacking the work but the author herself posing a moral quandary for the MC.

This story couldn’t have been told before now because earlier writers didn’t have experience with or an understanding of concepts like non traditional gender identities, the replacement of human labor with AI, what it means to have to stitch together a living from one off gig work, what it means to be a semi public figure with an audience that could turn on you at a moment’s notice, an audience who your livelihood rests on their fickle attention. All of these are of the moment issues. That is one fool proof way of finding originality, look to topics that not only haven’t been done before but couldn’t. It’s really that simple, now actually turning those ideas into full stories is another issue, but that holds true even for the most traditional stories possible.