# Has this (my idea) been used before?



## A.J. (Aug 16, 2016)

With so much out there these days, especially in the self published market, it seems difficult to know for sure if your ideas, plot, sub-plot, or theme is being put out there RIGHT NOW. 

Does anyone know of an online resource or specific database out there that you can cross-reference with to be sure? There must be something.


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## Devor (Aug 16, 2016)

. . . . only the site that shall not be named.



Spoiler: DO NOT OPEN



tvtropes.com

You were warned.


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## CupofJoe (Aug 16, 2016)

There are almost certainly What's Hot and What's not list on Industry sites.
Aside from that [the site that shall not be names - aside] I can see it being a shed load of work leading to a lot of arguments that the ideas, plots, sub-plots, and themes have been misunderstood and are not at all like how they've been described...


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## Ban (Aug 16, 2016)

Ok, now I want to know why Tvtr... uhm... nevermind, shall not be named.


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## FifthView (Aug 16, 2016)

Banten said:


> Ok, now I want to know why Tvtr... uhm... nevermind, shall not be named.



Guilty conscience.

Should we use it as an inspirational resource or like a mirror telling us everything we do, everything we can think of doing, is mere rehash?  Well, both.


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## Devor (Aug 16, 2016)

It's also a huge time sink.  One visit and you'll find yourself clicking on embedded links for most of the afternoon.


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## Peat (Aug 16, 2016)

Devor said:


> . . . . only the site that shall not be named.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That post needs a soundtrack







More practically speaking, even the Site That Shall Not Be Named doesn't cover them all, particularly with the self-published market as it is. Doesn't come close. My advice? Assume every idea you have has been done before *somewhere*. Because it probably has. Concentrate on your combination of ideas but most of all, concentrate on doing it better than any other person out there can do it.


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## Ireth (Aug 16, 2016)

What Peat said. "There is nothing new under the sun," after all.


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## FifthView (Aug 16, 2016)

I'd expand on what Peat said about "concentrate on your combination of ideas."

Here are some Google Search results:


"dog" — 1,480,000,000 results
"poodle" — 36,200,000 results 
"toy poodle" —  423,000 results
"brown toy poodle" — 35,700 results
"brown toy poodle puppy" — 14,700 results
"dark coco brown toy poodle puppy" — 4 results

Ok, I cheated a little by using quote marks for specific phrases.  But it's meant to be a metaphor.  As we move from a generic and common trope to more specificity with peculiar combinations, we reduce the chances that what we write will feel as if "it's been done before."

But also as Peat said, we need to concentrate on doing well whatever combo we choose—so it doesn't feel like a desperate attempt at originality! 

So you're doing a love story?  How boring and unoriginal.  Oh, but it's a romance between an orc and a sapient toy poodle set on a space station in orbit around Earth?  Hmmmm....heh.


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## Devor (Aug 16, 2016)

I'll add a little to the discussion here.

Being creative is about three things:

 - Be yourself.  Draw on what you like, know, think, believe, feel, whatever, and do your own thing.  Frame the question of what you're looking for in your own way.

 - Draw from different triggers.  What does a fantasy story look like?  Swords, sorcery, castles, whatever.  But if you draw from different triggers - cups, longing, and museums, for instance - you might end up with a fantasy story about a magical drug served at a museum's concession stand that gives visitors memories and experiences of the things they're witnessing as they walk through the museum - the groundwork for a totally different kind of story.

 - Seed the wrong triggers to your audience to set up the red herring.  Your story can be totally mundane and you can still look surprisingly creative to your audience if you play your cards right and conceal your big reveals behind false expectations.  You mean it was Quirrel, not Snape?  WOW!  Wait, so what, it had to be somebody.  But I feel duped and shocked, my expectations were subverted, so it's a creative surprise.


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## Peat (Aug 16, 2016)

Devor said:


> - Draw from different triggers.  What does a fantasy story look like?  Swords, sorcery, castles, whatever.  But if you draw from different triggers - cups, longing, and museums, for instance - you might end up with a fantasy story about a magical drug served at a museum's concession stand that gives visitors memories and experiences of the things they're witnessing as they walk through the museum - the groundwork for a totally different kind of story.



Someone write this story plz. I'd do it myself but I don't have enough time for all the ideas as it is...


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## FifthView (Aug 16, 2016)

Devor said:


> - Be yourself.  Draw on what you like, know, think, believe, feel, whatever, and do your own thing.  Frame the question of what you're looking for in your own way.



I would stress this also.

A common theme on MS, although it's not risen to the top of discussion lately, is to be unafraid of having your own ideas stolen.  For me, this basically comes down to the observation that three writers can be given X, Y, Z as themes, plots, or characters and told to write a story, and those stories will come out _quite_ differently.

A person's own idiosyncratic outlook will greatly warp whatever basic tropes are included in the story. A part of this is simply being true to oneself and feeling comfortable in your own voice.

But simultaneously, I do know the dread of finishing a manuscript only to find out that something someone else published only months ago, a year ago, that's taking off in sales and positive publicity, just happens to be quite like whatever I wrote and have yet to unleash upon the world.  I believe Dan Wells, one of the podcasters on Writing Excuses, mentioned a similar occurrence with his books about a teenage serial killer, that lo! and behold! the show Dexter was all the rage, and people were asking him if he based his character off of Dexter.  But he didn't and there are enough differences, his own particular take on the theme/character of serial killer.

There's nothing you can do about such coincidences—except maybe write faster, lol!

[Edit: Just looked up publication dates.  The book Dexter was base on appeared in 2004, and Dan Wells's book appeared in 2009.  The show Dexter first aired in 2006.  So this is not a case of coincidence based on timing.  Nonetheless, it's a case of unplanned similarities.]


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## Jess (Aug 16, 2016)

I worry about this constantly. So much so that I have almost given up completely on my novel. I had a writing teacher once tell me "Most likely you will come across an idea that has already been done. Technically speaking if you have a hobbit in your book then someone is going to say that it's because you read Tolkien. Don't let it stop you. You can put your own creative spin on anything." I also read something cool in a blog that spoke to this, "When you write fiction, you’re going to mix something old and something new. The “something old” will come from character archetypes and plot ideas that amused your ancestors sitting around the fire five thousand years ago. The “something new” will come from inside you."


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## ThinkerX (Aug 16, 2016)

Jess said:


> I worry about this constantly. So much so that I have almost given up completely on my novel. I had a writing teacher once tell me "Most likely you will come across an idea that has already been done. Technically speaking if you have a hobbit in your book then someone is going to say that it's because you read Tolkien. Don't let it stop you. You can put your own creative spin on anything." I also read something cool in a blog that spoke to this, "When you write fiction, you’re going to mix something old and something new. The “something old” will come from character archetypes and plot ideas that amused your ancestors sitting around the fire five thousand years ago. The “something new” will come from inside you."



Ideas are cheap.  Execution invariably mutates those ideas.  And execution is where the real work is.

As I said in your other thread, I suggest you sign up for the current 'Top Scribe' challenge.  Go back and read the prompts from the previous 'Top Scribe' challenges and see the sheer variety of tales submitted.


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## A.J. (Aug 17, 2016)

That's great advice. Thank you!


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## A.J. (Aug 17, 2016)

Noted. That's great- Thanks!


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## kennyc (Aug 17, 2016)

Ireth said:


> What Peat said. "There is nothing new under the sun," after all.



This. Every story has been told before. The only difference is in the details....


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## Miskatonic (Aug 21, 2016)

Originality of ideas doesn't mean much. Look at TV. How many shows have there been in the past 20-30 years that have revolved around the following: Hospitals, police precincts, courtrooms, crime scene investigators, government special agents, etc.

E.R., Law & Order, NYPD Blue, CSI. How many shows are basically rip-offs of these? Now you have fairy tales and teenage vampires, and a zillion rip-offs of those.


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