Unoriginal Sins

Unoriginal Sins - New York Times: "Sure, some of the houses are beige and others are cream, but they all have the same two-car garage, great room and marble counters in the kitchen. That's why people buy them. That's why Alloy, the book-packaging company that helped Kaavya Viswanathan with "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," specializes in chick lit, the latest incarnation of the romance genre.

This is because the pleasure of the predictable romance novel (or chick lit) is the knowledge that a bookish girl can win. A good romance/chick-lit book is really about two things, discovery and appreciation. A chick-lit novel tells the reader that good humor, imperfect looks and quick wit are desirable even if the world at large seems to tell the bookish girl otherwise.

And who else would be reading a novel but a bookish girl? Ms. Viswanathan is a bookish girl who might have had more success at fiction if she didn't bear the burden of the overachiever. Overachievers don't generally become writers because the skill set is so different.

As I tell my writing students, if you want to be a writer work on the finer points of gossip, eavesdropping and voyeurism; basically the pastimes of the underachiever, ways to while away the hours. If you care to add smoking, drinking and carousing to your repertoire, you wouldn't be the first (though you might want to watch the whining that can sometimes be a consequence of the drinking — it's more unattractive than you think).

George Carlin said that but since I'm in such strong agreement, I might as well have said it. Or, as a character in "The Squid and the Whale" argues when caught plagiarizing a well-known pop song, the lyrics were exactly what he would've written so it really is his song."

Whitney Otto is the author of "How to Make an American Quilt" and, most recently, "A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity."