When I was in Thailand I met a shoe peddler who claimed to have the hottest new shoes. When I inquired about the brand of the shoes the peddler enthusiastically replied “Nike by Adidas” while pulling a pair of shoes that had both the Nike and Adidas brands from under his shoe stand. When I think about these shoes I wonder if they can be considered original.

The word original makes me think of something fresh, inventive, or novel. Based on this definition I would say these shoes are original. It certainly took inventive and novel thinking to combine two competitors into this crazy product. But can a mutant creation that blatantly rips off original creators really be original?

Original products like original writing are hard to find. A lot of writers waste their time trying to combine their favorite authors into the Nike by Adidas perversion. I think François R. Chateaubriand best described what originality means in the writing community when he wrote “the original writer is not he who does not imitate others, but he who can be imitated by none.” While originality is difficult to achieve, I agree with Herman Melville who said “it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”

Do you wonder if your work is truly original? Please join our writing community let your peers help you evaluate the originality of your work.

Jacob