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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26098
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26098
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Human being have a inbred psychological need for stories. Like all our other needs, there are specific receptors that have to be matched for the need to be satisfied. If the body does not recognize a story as story, it will reject it. We can't change the reader's need for story, anymore than we can change their need for food or approval or warmth or oxygen.

At the same time, people crave variety in their stories, as they do in their food, but only up to a point. What people are looking for is often best described as the same only different. That is actually what makes writing such a challenge. The same is easy, which is why it is relatively easy to churn out genre fiction. Different is easy, but it doesn't appeal to most tastes. The same only different is the tough one.

It is the same problem a chef in a restaurant has. The food they serve has to be be exotic yet familiar. Exciting yet comforting. Compare 50 restaurant menus and you will find they are mostly very similar in what they offer, but with variations on the theme.

So if your different approach is just different, it probably won't work, but if it is the same only different, it may be just what people are looking for.

Original score: 1