Vanilla Is A Flavor

Everybody gives me crap whenever I eat vanilla ice cream. Somehow, because there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ice cream flavors in existence, ordering vanilla is tantamount to saying "I don't like ice cream, nor do I want to be out getting it with you." In reality, though, vanilla is a flavor, and it is a delicious one at that. Vanilla is a classic and ubiquitous flavor because it is elegant in its simple perfection. And just because it is simple in no way means that it is plain.

I sometimes find myself having the same kind of issue with writing. Somehow a simple story, like a three-act play, is considered boring and stupid. Where is the action and intrigue? Where is the twist that makes it different?

Well, when people are talking about a simple story I'm writing, the wist is that it's my take on it. It's my characters, my setting, my voice. The conflict and resolution may be predictable, but the journey may not be.

The irony, though, is that when it's a story that I didn't write, I find myself making the same arguments against it. Somehow, when I am the audience to a simple story, it always feels cheap and derivative. But when I am writing one, it is my unique expression of a classic tale.

What I realize, then, is that I always need to experience an argument from both sides. Somewhere between it, I will find the truth.  Just because I am giving my version of a classic story does not mean other people have to care, or even that they should. There still needs to be something unique to the story, something special that does make it stand out as a worthy derivative. That said, there is such a thing as a worthy derivative, so if a story has been done before, that doesn't mean I can't do it again; I just need to find something different within it.

Similarly, vanilla ice cream is perfectly fine, but only if it's good vanilla ice cream. If is cheap and flavorless, then it's better off avoided.