I stumbled across this image this past week and immediately saved it as my phone’s wallpaper and screensaver.

It appeals to me in part because I am a writer.

But it speaks to me even more because I’m a reader. A reader who sometimes is frustrated by finding the same-old, same-old when I read a dust jacket or amazon.com blurb.

Oh, I know that the Good Book says (in Ecclesiastes) that “there is no new thing under the sun”. Truth be told, there probably is a finite number of   plot lines.

Boy meets girl; fate/someone else intervenes; boy and girl part; love conquers all and boy and girl reunite. Everyone loves a happy ending.

Or, if it’s written by one of a couple of current writers who have made a living on same-story, different-name and different-catastrophic illness plots, it’s a tear-jerker.

Boy meets girl; boy or girl either has or is soon diagnosed with a terminal disease; said boy or girl passes away.

Then there’s the often-tried story line in which boy has girl; boy cheats on girl; girl finds out and leaves boy, retiring to a beach cottage she recently inherited from her aunt; girl meets good-looking widower with small child living in cottage next door . . .

I think you get the idea.

But even though there may be only a certain number of plots, it sure would be nice if so many current writers didn’t use almost the exact same elements in their execution!

I want something different. And so, I’m going to write something different!

My book won’t have a beach cottage or a handsome new next-door-neighbor. There won’t be a book club that meets once a month on Wednesday night. Or a group of sisters meeting at their family
home — or beach cottage — one more time before selling it now that their parents have passed on.

My book likely won’t be published (the publishing world is a hard one to break into these days), but that’s okay. I think Ms Blume is right, and I’m going to heed her words.

I’m going to write the book that I can’t find on the shelf.

So . . . what is the book you can’t find on the shelf?  The book you’d like to read?

Please join in the conversation by sharing your thoughts and ideas via a comment below.