A unique story is not one with unique characters, or with a unique plot—in fact, within every story, there is a plot and characters unique from all the stories in the world. And nor is a unique theme the guaranteeing factor for coming out with a recognisably unique narrative, even as we might agree with the truth that all the former factors matter—and they indeed do.
But what stands out to bring a uniqueness to the narrative, even though the story or subject may be about a trivial and common matter, is how the characters unfold the plot. The plot is set by the writer, and the writer predetermines what the end of things would be, but it is the characters that he builds in that story that carry out the course of events that lead to the full revelation of the final picture of the plot.
This is where the uniqueness in every story is centred. It is the reason, for instance, many an author has written about love and yet there are those stories that stand out above others; it is the reason many a writer has written about family affairs, and some stories have become all-time classics above others. The difference between these stories with others is not in the theme, nor in how the characters are stationed or in the genre, but in how the characters carry out the work required to weave the whole fabric of the story.
We have always emphasized to our writers, here at AuthorPad, that you as a writer are a god, a creator and a designer of your own art in that world which you create to welcome your readers into. You are free to take your story anywhere. So, that means, you can twist the scenes and intentions of your characters so that they are entertainingly wound around the central theme of the story, regardless of the order, aiming at creating uniqueness from that fit creativity, and finally distinguish your story from the rest even though it may be concerning a generally common aspect.
In fact, the best impactful writings are not those that were written on bizarre subjects, novel phenomena, or even about mystical things, but those that were written about everyday themes of life but with phenomenal structuring of the characters and their actions around the main plot.
A typical example, if one may be given, is how Romeo and Juliet, the famous love tragedy, stands above many of the usual love stories that have been narrated all around the world. It is not that ‘Love’ is an unusual thing, nor that the parting of lovers is uncommon, but the way in which the characters bring into happening the fate dictated by the plot—the tragedy, which in this case the characters play out to be an extremely gloomy death—is remarkable.
So, rather than marching your characters through the plot as if they are performing mere rituals of an ecclesiastical session, consider playing with them in the weaving of a narrative and placing them where they cause more intrigue and making them do what is unusual, but still having the bigger picture of the end of the plot in mind.
Remember, great writers are not those who have the most unusual and greatest things to relate to, but those who know how to transform the small things into literary magic—those who know how to knit simple threads into magical crafts.
