Someone brighter than me once said that there are only 7 basic story lines, well after watching yet another version of children taken from teenage mothers in Ireland I know what they meant. In all seriousness, there are limits to the ways in which you can construct a story but the emotional responses by humans to a variety of situations count in thousands.
So that is what the TV production teams are doing, they are regurgitating stories and putting a different emotional stress on how the stories are delivered or who is to be the centre of the story. Then, by using classy actors, they deliver a well-used tale in a different way.
The next step for our writers is to use similar tactics to refresh the characters we create and the stories in which we place them. Of course, that is where the marketing people will try and guide you into what they feel is the best way to make sales, but the stories as you create them are your babies!
In writing For the Best I felt that Patrick Steele was coming towards the end of his current pattern of behaviour. That simple feeling meant that I had to consider how he would react in situations similar to those encountered in previous stories. That action refreshed my thinking about the character with which I had become very familiar. How you change your character's responses is personal to you but go with your gut feeling.
The emotional aspect of creating a story is the key to how you feel about your work but the response of readers will probably be different from your perception but those responses are beyond your control. It's a lottery. The need to innovate will always be there but the fuel for the writer is in the observation of emotions in action in other people responding to different situations. There is no downside to observing for a writer but beware of repeating situations as in the one described above. Eventually, it will pall.
God Bless
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