Someone Wrote The Book You Wanted to Write. So What?

Someone on YouTube left the following comment on one of my videos.

“Can you comment in regard to writing about something you had been thinking about for years and thought was a somewhat novel concept, only to find someone has already written a book on the same subject? So then, you’re left wondering if you have anything of value to offer on it. This is somewhat discouraging. The subject is an overview and explanation of an element of design work that is often overlooked in architecture. Thank you.”

If you feel like this writer, I’d like to invite you to consider a few things.

Forget About Novelty

The ideas and concepts you want to write about don’t need to be original, unique, or extraordinary. They have to excite you.

I write about what excites me.

And I often find that my excitement helps me explore a topic in more depth, which in turn helps me come up with original ideas (sometimes).

Originality is the rare product of your excitement and interest. So please write about what excites and interests you. Never write hoping to be original.

The point of doing anything in this short life we have is to do what makes us happy. As long as what makes us happy doesn’t hurt us or another person, that’s what we should pursue. 

Ignore everything else.

You’re Not Them

Try this experiment: sit down with your partner and ask them to write a paragraph describing your living room. Get a pen and write one too.

Look at the two paragraphs. Are they the same? Why, do you think?

No two minds experience the world exactly in the same way, and no two minds are identical. So no two people will ever write about the same thing in the same way.

You and I might both want to write a book about the history of Rome. What we know about the topic may be the same. But our interpretation of that knowledge will be different and will be based on the books we’ve read about Rome, the trips we’ve made, what our Italian friends told us about the city, and so on.

Write about that topic in the way only you can write about it.

You’re Lucky

I’ve written a tiny book about language learning. 

You can’t even imagine how much has been said and written about this topic. Yet I decided to contribute to the discussion by sharing what I had to say.

Imagine if the second Australian explorer in the 19th century had said, “No, I won’t venture into the outback. One person has already done that.” Imagine if scientists stopped exploring the universe, the oceans, or the causes of diabetes because of the same reason.

Please write about that topic and contribute to the exploration of it. 

If you had an original idea to release into the world through your writing, but then discovered another person has already used that idea, consider this: only one other person has written about that before, so there’s so much more to say. There are so many other angles through which you can talk about it, so many opinions to share, so many stories to tell.

You’re the second person in the world who’s contributing to the exploration of that area. 

Consider yourself lucky.

Tiny Fractions

The Bible is one of the most popular books in the history of books. So is the Quran. In hundreds and hundreds of years, these books have only reached some people, not everyone. 

And they haven’t reached me because I haven’t read either of them.

Any book written by any author has the limited capacity of reaching some people only. So even if someone has published a book you wish you had published, that book will only have reached a tiny fraction of the people who read books.

You can reach the next tiny fraction with yours. 

A Million Ways

There are a million different ways to write about a topic.

• Informally
• Academically
• As if you were speaking to a 3-year-old
• Using humour
• Only telling your own stories
• Only telling other people’s stories
• As succinctly as possible
• As extensively as possible
• Only stating facts without ever giving your opinions
• Addressing the layman, or experts, or both

You can target different readers, use different styles, include only one specific type of content — the list goes on and on. The topic stays the same.

It’s what surrounds it that changes.

Final Thought

I hope you’ll get down to writing.

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I’m going to publish a video / podcast episode next week based on these ideas. Tune in to my channels here.