Peanut Butter & Jelly

Peanut Butter & Jelly

Nicola Morgan recently posted on how she had written Mondays Are Red, a Young Adult novel about a 14-year-old boy called Luke who has synaesthesia A month later, author Tim Bowler's book, Starseeker came out.  It was a Young Adult novel about a 14-year-old boy called Luke who has synaesthesia.  


But you know what, both books were completely different.  So don't worry if you hear that you idea has just been scooped by some other author.


Think of it like that one day in grade school when you and all your friends showed up at lunch with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  (Back when they allowed kids to even have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches).  Each sandwich was probably different:

• Some moms used wheat bread
• Some moms used grape jelly
• Some used strawberry
• That weird kid with the funny glasses may even have had apricot jelly  
• That girl who always wore pigtails might have hers cut in the shape of a heart
• Yours might have been cut diagonally, 
• The kid on your right had one that was cut horizontally 
• The one on the left had his cut vertically
• The cute boy across the table had his sandwich whole
• Your best friend Alex might have crunchy peanut butter
• Your enemy might have peanut butter only (serves them right, too)

The point is, that they are all essentially peanut butter sandwiches.  What really mattered is that your mom or dad made that sandwich for you and they did their best to make it the way you like it and you did.


The same goes for writers: we may not have control over who has what idea when, but we do have control over who writes better.  That means we have to work on our novels and revise them and make them the best that they can be so that when an agent or editor gets our book, they'll say, "Wow, I really like creamy peanut butter with strawberry jelly on wheat.  This is much better than that other one with crunchy and grape jelly in the shape of a heart."


Here's to better sandwiches!