Had sort of a breakthrough moment while thinking about redundancies, just now, in the shower. I'm always a little bit thinking about redundancies because I'm into archiving (family occupation+autism, which is also a family occupation), and frequently I remind myself that they are good things actually (it's good to have a little more groceries than you need, it's good to save more than one copy of your project, it's good to pack enough underwear for more days than you'll be traveling, it's good to have more than one escape route, etc.)-- BUT TODAY I thought: hey this is true of intellectual/creative redundancies as well!
Oft I find mineself falling into the trap of thinking 'if I can't make something novel and completely original then it's not worth making', or some version of 'other people have told this story before better than I could', and this is an excellent way to ensure I never finish anything. EXCEPT, I remind myself once more, slapping my forehead, REDUNDANCIES ARE GOOD ACTUALLY, REMEMBER?
No one is going to read all the books, watch all the movies, hear all the stories. Not everyone has access to the same stuff, not all the stuff is made in the same place at the same time by the same people in the same language in the same context. You can say the same thing more than once and that just means there are two different places where people can encounter that idea. Ideas are iterative anyway! If nothing else (says the archivist), a long time down the road, having multiple examples of a thing occurring at a similar time is evidence of a trend in that specific period, and that's valuable in its own right.
Tell the same story twice! Put it on VHS and DVD and torrents! It's fine! it's good actually! don't keep stalling yourself (myself) out on a project because you (I) think it's been done before!! That's the sign I'm going to tap whenever I'm next bewailing that my story isn't original and other people have done it better already.
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