Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37952
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37952
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Many stories share similarities. If one story is about a school, it doesn't mean that no story ever again can be about a school. If one story is about magic, it doesn't mean that other stories can't also be about magic. Michael Ende had a story about a school of magic before Rowling did. Both are perfectly fine.

There are multiple stories about dragons, there are multiple stories about Napoleon, there are multiple stories about forbidden love. What makes each story unique is the particular way in which all the elements combine: the character traits of the characters, the situations they find themselves in, they ways they react, the particular ways everything goes wrong around them. In a way, story elements are ingredients, like flour, butter and eggs. The story, and its originality, reside in how those elements are combined, what they make in the end.

If my characters act and respond always the same as the characters of another story, if they find themselves in situations that are the same, if all the story beats are the same, then perhaps I should reconsider what I'm writing. (Or perhaps not - one can write a retelling of an older story that's in the public domain, but one should not pretend otherwise in such a case. _West Side Story_ makes no claims of story originality, but admits freely it is a retelling of _Romeo and Juliet_.)

Original score: 12