Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30115
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30115
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think you are confused about "originality". Every super-spy movie is "original", but the plot is the same. Nearly every romantic comedy is original, but the plot is pretty formulaic.

What is **_original_** is the setting, the characters, their motivations, the complications. One rom-com about a break-up, that causes a girl to use the tickets that were supposed to be for her honeymoon to go feel sorry for herself in Paris, where she meets a rough but lovable laborer and understands she was really never in love with her fiance --- because she is in love now and has never felt THIS way before.

Or take Notting Hill: Julia Roberts plays a famous actress that encounters Hugh Grant, a small London bookstore owner. Complications are different and revolve around her fame (and his complete lack of it or experience with it). But the plot is the same; how do these two people destined to be in love for life ever get past themselves and their obstacles to be together?

Do not make your story confusing, if **_you_** can't keep track, readers (or more generally the audience) have no hope. Your originality is in you descriptions, your settings, your dialogue, the problems you create for them.

If you want a "twist", there is generally **one** , expertly woven into the narrative:

> Cole Sear: I'm ready to tell you my secret now.
> 
> Dr. Malcolm Crowe: Okay.
> 
> Cole Sear: Come closer.
> 
> Cole Sear: I see dead people. They don't know they're dead.
> 
> Dr. Malcolm Crowe: Where are they?
> 
> Cole Sear: Everywhere.

This was early in the movie, and the strongest possible hint at the twist, but few people saw the twist coming. But it is ONE twist. It isn't too complicated. Crowe [Bruce Willis] is helping this psychic kid deal with a problem that is terrifying the kid, 90% of the story is exploring that problem and seeing how the kid grows to handle it.

A good twist like this is awesome, but don't pile twists on twists. One is enough, and you don't need any at all. "Kingsmen" is not much different than a 007 flick, or Taken flicks, or Die Hard flicks. The originality is in the heroes, the villains, their skill sets, the problems they face, their attitude, their motivations for risking their lives to save anything from a single girl up to everybody on Earth.

Original score: 1