Great Minds by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt

Great minds think alike, they say. So when I had several what I thought were brilliantly original ideas for children’s books over the last few weeks, I was rather discouraged to find that they had all been written already, or at least, the titles or character names I’d come up with had been used. In one case, that of Sherlock Bones, dog detective, done to death. There are several versions of Sherlock, the most prominent being a manga comic.

Trying to think around it another way, I grew more and more despondent to discover that there is also a Purrlock Holmes, Furlock Holmes, Burdock Holmes, Shirley Holmes, Fetlock, Forelock and that pretty much anything even remotely sounding like Sherlock or Holmes has been taken by a writer or an animal sanctuary. There was even a board game. In a way, however annoying for me, this one was not that surprising, given the popularity of the original Holmes, and that the characters are out of copyright.

There was also already a Hugless Douglas, though the story was completely different from my idea. But the one that really threw me was one I nearly didn’t even bother to Google, seeing as it couldn’t possibly have been thought up by anyone else. Astrogran. Now how could anyone else have come up with that one first?! I was not amused.

When you say you want to become a writer, there are three qualities that you are going to need above all others.* The first is patience, because there is such a huge amount of waiting. The second is perseverance, because you have to keep on trying, no matter what. And the third (which does not begin with P, contrary to all sermon guides) is adaptability. Thinking around things, coming up with solutions, being as original as possible in order to make your stories your own. Thinking, as we might put it, outside of the box.

So I have come up with a different approach for Sherlock. But the other two I think I will have to consign to the pile of unusable ideas. Fortunately, there is no shortage of new ones. A new idea launched itself at me in the early hours and I can’t see that it has been done anywhere yet.

Several of my writer friends very kindly told me that if I am coming up with ideas that have already been successful, then I am on the right track. So I’m going to take that as an encouragement, and remain, if you will excuse the pun, doggedly determined.

Keren Dibbens-Wyatt is a disabled writer and artist with a passion for poetry, mysticism, story and colour. Her writing features regularly on spiritual blogs and in literary journals. Her full-length publications include Garden of God’s Heart and Whale Song: Choosing Life with Jonah. She has a new book, Recital of Love, coming out with Paraclete Press in June 2020. Keren lives in South East England and is mainly housebound by her illness.

*Dorothy Parker had a slightly more ascerbic approach. She said, ““If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.”**

** ACW does not, of course, condone violence of any kind.