Am I copying an idea too closely?
I guess this is a question about inspiration versus copying. I recently came across a story that really gripped me both with the inspiration for an idea and at the same time a doubt I could ever write anything as ground breaking or well written.
I think it is that doubt that is fueling my concern. I'm not trying to take it verbatim and I'd like to think I'm putting my own spin on events as well as throwing in my own ideas. But I can't help bits of what I've read popping into my head as I write, which leads to my wanting to add a bit based on it. Not in the sense of I must crowbar this in but more they did this which could work well like this kinda thought. Is that just the normal creative process and Im just worrying over nothing?
Update: The basic idea of the story I read has a group of warriors battling to make their way through a magical maze to reach a treasure at the centre; which is the bit I really like. So writing a story about a group of adventurers each seeking glory to claim a dragon egg from an ancient dungeon would be different enough I think.
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In plagiarism, you copy another persons words and idea.
As long as you're not doing precisely that you're fine! :)
Seriously, I copy stuff all the time. In my writing, there's a city that was destroyed by a dragon. Sounds like Erebor from The Hobbit, right? Well, my city is crafted entirely of ash because when the dragon destroyed it, its fire was so hot it vindicated all life and turned everything into ash. I just took a twist on Tolkien's idea. To be honest, I bet Tolkien took the dragon-burning-down-city idea from somewhere else. Dragons burn down villages all the time. For one place, I literally ripped the entire mountainous, foggy scenery from Tomb Raider 2013 because I loved it so much. I am so glad I played that game and got to see such beauty. Lara Croft is totally gorgeous too!
If you want, you can even take that idea I had and put your own twist on it. It really, really doesn't matter. Don't stress, just chill and write, it's great. I love some of the groundbreaking things I've read and have used them in my own work. Just don't copy everything, don't copy every event in order. If you copy the events and stuff, but renames places/characters that's still copying.
Just chill and write, it's so fun to write. Throw in your own ideas, slap together some new ones, put those in, take some ideas from others, add it all together and you've got a superb best selling novel. For me, a good mix of ideas that have been repackaged, new thoughts, good inspiration, that's what makes stuff amazing.
Do you want to know what I think about your work?
I think'll be great. Mix inspiration, new thoughts, stolen thoughts, cool stuff, put your twists on the thoughts you steal and beautifully integrate them. It'll be great! I'm so excited for you to get published, please tell me when you do so I can read it!
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25192. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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We are in the business of storytelling, and it is the telling, not the story, that sets us apart. Storytellers tell the same basic stories over and over and over again. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Friends go on quest for McGuffin. Friends have setbacks. Friends get McGuffin. There are only so many ways to vary the basic shapes of stories without them ceasing to be satisfying stories.
So what sets Jane Austen apart from Danielle Steele is not the story they tell, but how the tell it. This is not to say that there is not a market for the same story told in the same way. Some readers have endless appetites for the same basic love story told the same basic way, and Harlequin is set up to deliver it.
That formula fiction, though, is not a simply copy of something genuinely original. Formula romance does not sound like Jane Austen, just as formula fantasy does not sound like Tolkien.
You can write pastiche of the the style of good writers, but that tends to stand out as pastiche. Writing pastiche can be a developmental stage for a writer, particularly is you are inspired to write by a particular beloved author. But your need to grow past pastiche if you want to be an author of similar calibre to your hero. To do that, you have to read widely, exposing yourself to very different styles and different approaches to storytelling. Read outside your genre. Read outside you era. Read the greats. All this will enrich your literary pallet and get your imagination out of the rut of your favorite author's style.
In the end, though, it is important to remember that the reader is not looking for originality. (Specifically, they are looking for something familiar, something that will satisfy their existing tastes.) What they are looking for is poignancy. They want to be moved. They want to enjoy a vicarious emotion or experience.
Blatant copying of another author in the field, or pastiche, deliberate or not, will spoil that poignancy if the reader recognizes it. Suddenly it becomes about the book, not the story; about the mechanics, not the experience.
To sum up originality is not a goal. We all tell the same stories. What distinguished us is how we tell those stories. Avoid copyright violations so you don't get sued. (Copyright, not plagiarism, is what you worry about, unless you are submitting a work for a degree.) Avoid pastiche because it distracts the reader. Read broadly, deeply, and attentively to broaden your literary pallet and get your storytelling mind out of the rut of your favorite author or style. Or write formula fiction to the formula requested by the publisher and don't worry about originality -- it is not what you are being paid for.
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