Adrian Plata: What is a new story?

This is my usual bio information: I'm a Senior at Stanford majoring in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I enjoy reading, writing, hanging out with my friends, and playing video games. As a active member of the Stanford Archery Team, I also am a competitive archer who shoots with a compound bow. I like to believe it will be helpful in case of a zombie apocalypse, but we'll see how that turns out. I'm very easy to talk to and am always down to chill. =) Also, I love boba.

As much as I’d like to believe new stories are coming alive every moment, I feel like every “original” story has actually been done before; what we consider new is just a unique spin on stories that have been done before. Characters can change, places can change, and the circumstances can change, but I do think the core of most stories has been done before. I remember hearing once that there are only two types of stories: the arrival of a stranger and the journey. I honestly think that they are the main types of stories and everything else is a subset or branch from those two core storylines.

One way of thinking of a “new” story would be a unique spin on another idea. Take romantic comedies for example: there are dozens of romantic comedies and most “good” ones have their own theme, world, or set of characters that separates them from all the other romantic comedies. A new story can simply be an author’s personal approach to a story they’ve heard or read before. Maybe instead of a man and a woman it’s a man and a man. Maybe they’re in space. Maybe it is from the point of view of animals. Each different aspect has hundreds of ways of being told and in that sense, a story can be new.

Short stories also provide a very unique sense of storytelling in a sense that they arguably have more leniency when it comes to creating a story. There are short stories that are purely description, short stories that end abruptly, and short stories that bounce around between perspectives and ideas. I feel that the short story form has a lot of freedom in terms of form to create new stories.

Varying forms also create unique senses of storytelling that aren’t just limited to novels, short stories, books, etc.. As our society becomes more advanced we are presented with new ways to tell stories, whether that be through photographs, film, or even augmented reality. New stories can always emerge from new outlets of telling stories.

What is modern is always changing and evolving the way we see a story. A story that was “modern” at one time can become a classic in another. So an old story can become “new” to different generations who might not understand where an author makes certain choices or what societal standards used to be.

While I may not believe that there are new stories in a sense of originality, I do believe that all a story needs to do to be new is to never have been read. A story needs some fresh ideas, interesting characters, and a good style to be considered “new.” In essence most stories are new the first time they’ve been heard, and that will continue to happen as time goes on.