# Is originality an anchor for you?



## hots_towel (Oct 15, 2013)

As you can probably tell by looking at my profile, im new here. Usually with these websites, i break the ice by asking this question: How much do you worry about originality? 

I'm aware that to some extent, originality in plot, characters, and the world must be taken into account if you want your story to not sound like it was just copied from someone else. Im also aware that it shouldn't be your main concern, lest you write something you are not proud of. 

i however, am one of those people that cares too much. its a habit of mine. I constantly read the back of books at my local book store to make sure the plot i have in mind hasnt already been done by someone else already. so you can imagine how i feel about Lotr or AsoiaF, since they encompass pretty much everything in their respective plots and story progressions. thats not to say i dont like them though. 

so how about you guys, are you able to brush all that off, or are you like me and watch fantasy movies/shows/books like a minefield, hoping who ever wrote it didn't beat you to your supposed brilliant ideas.


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## GeekDavid (Oct 15, 2013)

Even if a plot is a derivative, each author will tell it a little bit differently, like how painters can look at the same object and still paint it differently.

With that said, I do love a new twist on stories, be it a completely different story or just a new twist on a familiar tale.


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## Svrtnsse (Oct 15, 2013)

I keep telling myself that originality is largely irrelevant - especially when it comes to plot.

I believe the presentation of the story is far more important than what the story is about. If the characters are flat, or the setting unbelievable it won't matter if the actual plot has never been played out before. I want to read about characters that matter and that I care about. Caring about the character means I care what they do and what happens to them.

I don't think the other way around works the same way.


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## hots_towel (Oct 15, 2013)

yea, that makes sense. it's deffinetly something to remember when im thinking about what plot points i want to use (but im still edgy about using because they, in my mind, are similar to things that have happened in other works of fiction)

 i guess one thing that bugs me about my story is that one of the story arcs is a little too parallel with "the hero's journey" for my taste. So i tried to mend it a little so it dosent seem so predictable (or at the least hit every plot point exactly as it is described in the hero's journey plot template), and sure enough, it made me scratch my head a little. 

that to me is the hard part. giving a character an adventure story with an original opening.


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## Svrtnsse (Oct 15, 2013)

That said, it's fun to have an original story. It's cool to have some twists and turns that no one will expect and which you've figured out yourself. I think the creative energy is better spent on putting these twists on details than on larger all encompassing concepts.

I guess that ideally you would do it all. You'd have an original story, with engaging characters in a rich setting. That would of course be the best option. Unfortunately, at least in my case it's not (yet) a realistic option. I'm about a third of the way through writing my first novel and the more I write the more I realise how little I actually know about what I'm doing. 
My choice was to stick with as basic and simple a story as I possibly could. My reasoning being that if I pick a basic story with a simple plot I don't have to worry about plot holes and interweaving story arcs and could just focus on writing my character as best I could.
It worked for me - except the "basic and simple story" is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I first expected.


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## Addison (Oct 15, 2013)

I don't try to be original, I just BE myself. I write my story how I see it in my head and I don't worry about originality. If it's a story that no one's written and you're a new author with a clearly new and fresh perspective and voice then you're already original.


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## Captain Loye (Oct 15, 2013)

I wouldn't say it's an anchor, but it's definitely something I keep in mind. I hate myself for sharing some characteristics with the 'hipster' movement, but I do dislike being associated with popular things - I blame it on youth culture. That bleeds over into my writing. I don't check out other books/tv series etc (although I admit I do get annoyed if I see something incidentally, like when GRRM used the Dacian falx as a Dothraki weapons in the TV series, and I'd planned on using it in my novel).

I guess the problem with originality, in my opinion, is it goes against our social-evolved brains. Our minds have evolved to think in similar patterns to what we have experienced (eg, books we've read), which helps for children to learn acceptable social behaviours etc, but it also prevents real 'out-of-the-box' brilliance most of the time. Hence why mind-altering drugs are popular in the arts .


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## Feo Takahari (Oct 16, 2013)

For me, it's not so much originality of plot as originality of message. I want to say something that I'm not hearing a lot of people saying, or say it in a way that I haven't previously heard. I don't think I'd be able to think of myself as a good writer if I was just repeating the same old ideas (especially since I disagree with a lot of the common ones.)


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## Penpilot (Oct 16, 2013)

Nothing is original. Any story you write, I bet I can find a similar story. Write the story you want to write and forget about the rest. The hero's journey is a story arch type that's used in many stories. Star Wars used it. Eragon used it. Lord of the Rings used it. There's a reason its basic form can be found throughout history. Originality comes from your voice. Your unique view of a story situation. Take a look at Battlestar Galactica. The original 1970's version and the modern version have tons of similar elements in plot and character. BUT each has its differences too. 

It's not about originality in form, but finding a unique enough configuration within that form.

I used to worry about originality all the time, so much so I never wrote a single thing. Quest story, been done, love interest, too many stories have that. Story with a funny side kick, done. If you try to avoid things that have been done before, then you'll never write a single thing.


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## Jabrosky (Oct 16, 2013)

It depends on what you call originality. I'm with most people that original plot lines are hard to come by and that in the end it doesn't matter too much as long as you can present the story with competence. On the other hand, I do like working with settings and subject matter that you don't stereotypically associate with the fantasy genre. My combination of interests that motivates me to write has always tended towards the unorthodox anyway.


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## Motley (Oct 16, 2013)

I don't really worry about it at all.

I haven't read everything in the fantasy or horror genre, and I never will. If something I write reminds someone of something that's out there already, hopefully they'll like both of them.

There seems to be a big squawk about such-n-such being a 'rip off' of some earlier work. Heck, I penned a short story with a kid at a magic school and got accused of copying Harry Potter, even though the ONLY thing that was similar at all was the fact that there was a kid at a magic school. 

I focus on telling the story that's in my head to tell.


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## Scribble (Oct 16, 2013)

There needs to be some originality somewhere. Since most stories have been told in one way or another, most important for me is originality in the eye of the author. You can tell that same old story of the knight slaying the dragon, but what will grip me will be in what details the author chose to focus on.

Maybe the knight is a total dick who doesn't deserve the princess he is to win, and the squire hauled into the job of slaying the dragon struggles with quitting, and through the story becomes an actual hero. He gets to win the princess, and decides she's a useless snob, and dumps her like a hot potato and heads off to the tavern to drink. Is the overturning of stereotypes original? It's been done... Shrek? That's original. An ogre who was a hero who won a princess who was really an ogre. Talking donkey? And the dragon? It married the donkey! Talk about fractured fairy tales. The plot wasn't totally original, it is hero's journey. But the voice of the author made it original, and that gave it the twists. You can still tell that story a slightly different way, and it will become original.

I know "you are a unique snowflake" is hackneyed, but it's true. Every person is a unique collection of perspectives, humor, and experience. That is where originality comes from.


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## Helen (Oct 16, 2013)

Scribble said:


> There needs to be some originality somewhere.



I agree with that.

It's like Gravity.   

We've seen people stuck in space before, but never like that.

Most things have been done before, but freshness means a "new slant" on it, somehow.

Same same but different.


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## Scribble (Oct 16, 2013)

I don't think this is a new problem. I can imagine our ancestors around the camp fire...

"Mog, tell story!"

"Okay. Boy go kill cave bear."

"Bah! Grunk hear story many times! Make new story!"

"Uh, okay. Boy go kill cave bear, but boy have head like pumpkin!"

"Oh! Me no hear that one! Tell story!"


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## hots_towel (Oct 16, 2013)

Captain Loye said:


> I wouldn't say it's an anchor, but it's definitely something I keep in mind. I hate myself for sharing some characteristics with the 'hipster' movement, but I do dislike being associated with popular things - I blame it on youth culture. That bleeds over into my writing. I don't check out other books/tv series etc (although I admit I do get annoyed if I see something incidentally, like when GRRM used the Dacian falx as a Dothraki weapons in the TV series, and I'd planned on using it in my novel).


If it makes you feel any better, that kinda went over my head haha. I saw it and i thought "they use soviet sickles as weapons? thats kinda cool" and then i forgot about them. If i saw them again in a show or read them in a book, the last place my mind would immediately go to is Game of thrones. 

as for everyone's input, i appreciate it. im afraid the more important thing to worry about is making sure the writing does the plot any justice at all.


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## The Dark One (Oct 17, 2013)

Sorry, but originality is everything to me. I know I'm different to all other writers and I revel in that.

I've published two very off-beat crime novels and one surrealist/sci fi novel. There has never been anything like any of them...to the best of my knowledge...and I couldn't face myself in the mirror each morning if I wasn't completely proud of the fact that nobody writes like me.

Mind you...that might explain why I haven't had that much success just yet. People are more comfortable with stuff they recognise.


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## A. E. Lowan (Oct 18, 2013)

There are no original plots, not really.  This, in my mind, is one of those secrets of the universe that's really not much of a secret.  You know what the _real_ secret is?

It doesn't matter.

Because what there will always be are original authors who will bring into the world original characters, because those characters come from their souls, and their souls alone.  There will only be one A. E. Lowan, and one city of Seahaven where a young wizard named Winter Mulcahy is all that stands between a fractious preternatural population and violent chaos.  Where she struggles against personal demons and preternatural politics to hold the city together by the skin of her teeth and the blood of her friends as a force beyond her imagining threatens to tear the city she loves from the Mortal Realm.

Is this plot that original?  Probably not, but it's the story that only my writing partner and I can tell.  In another writer's hands, it becomes something completely different.  Winter would be completely different.  The magical system would be different.  The creatures that wander the streets of Seahaven itself would be different.  The originality lies within us, the writers, and our voices, our vision, our execution of our ideas.  So who cares if another writer "beats us to an idea?"  That's just an idea, and ideas are cheap.  Take it and refine it, make it your own.

The only thing we bring to the party that is truly original is ourselves.  So, get to work.  We have stories to write, and we're the only ones who can write them.


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## C Hollis (Oct 18, 2013)

Just look at Cameron's Avatar movie.  Not only was the story NOT original, but the storyline was one so overused I had to keep myself from vomiting in my mouth at the theater.
However, when he combined that unoriginal story with a herd of other elements... Well, you know the rest.

I cant say that originality is an anchor when I write my stories, though I do like to add elements that I feel are different from the norm.  I can't really say those elements are original, because there is a lot out there I haven't read.  I like to think some of my stories are fresh and take a different approach than the norm, but I'm not going to say they are original.

My stories have been told.  I have story ideas and outlines for six books in my desk, and they have all been told before.  Even with their little unexpected turns, the stories have been told.  They just haven't been told by me.


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## The Dark One (Oct 19, 2013)

A. E. Lowan said:


> There will only be one A. E. Lowan, and one city of Seahaven where a young wizard named Winter Mulcahy is all that stands between a fractious preternatural population and violent chaos.  Where she struggles against personal demons and preternatural politics to hold the city together by the skin of her teeth and the blood of her friends as a force beyond her imagining threatens to tear the city she loves from the Mortal Realm.
> 
> Is this plot that original?



Sounds like something out of The Sopranos...


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## Zero Angel (Oct 19, 2013)

For me, the plot of my stories is almost wholly involuntary. I can guide, I can direct, and I can world-build, and the rest writes itself, so I'm not worried about originality in that regard. I wouldn't force falsity on the plot and characters in order to conform to some measure of originality.  

(This is actually one of my hurdles in writing because seeing what happens is extremely awesome and then it's like, do I really want to take the time to share with everyone else? That requires hard work!)


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## shangrila (Oct 19, 2013)

I _love_ subverting tropes in any way I can, but at the same time I don't feel like I need to do it to tell a good story. My WIP right now is, at its heart, a tale of revenge. Not exactly original, right?


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## GeekDavid (Oct 19, 2013)

shangrila said:


> I _love_ subverting tropes in any way I can, but at the same time I don't feel like I need to do it to tell a good story. My WIP right now is, at its heart, a tale of revenge. Not exactly original, right?



I do too, but the catch is that you need a few tropes in there so the reader isn't completely lost in the story.

In my next WIP (for NaNo) I'm currently planning on having the hero ask the wise old guide if there's a prophecy predicting the hero's appearance, to which the wise old guide will say something like, "Don't be silly. You're in the right place at the right time but that doesn't mean we've been waiting generations for you."


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## Xitra_Blud (Oct 19, 2013)

For me, while I like creative and "out there" stories, I believe that there are things that can just be _too_ creative it that makes any sense at all. Like, sometimes, the author is so creative in his story and trying to avoid clichÃ©s that it just becomes impossible to follow. Like GeekDavid said, "Each author will tell it differently." To me, it's not _what_ you write but it's _how_ you write it and how you put your own twist to it. Most things have been done before at least once or twice, but what separates them from all the other stories is how they told the story.


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