hey guys Lately I've delving into the fantasy short stories... and I've noticed a thickening layer of monotony in them some are really obscure and abstract but others are darn right plagiarism! I gotta ask before I post... how can you avoid this problem?? and if you can't, how can you Utilize whats available in order to prevent that repetitiveness...
I'm not really sure if you can completely avoid plagiarizing and such. The only advice I can give is read. Read everything. Let other's read your work as well, in order for them to give insight. There's a difference between plagiarism and similarities, the trick is finding that difference.
I do agree with what you've said. it is damn near impossible to avoid it. But can further your suggestion of The trick to finding differences to similarities and plagiarism?
How to find the difference? Well, I think, honestly, the trick is time. Over time you''ll realize what's cliche and what's already been said. Time, experience and continual writing (reading as well). I think those are the only tools we have. If that answered your question?
Mannerism follows Renaissance, It is a period in which the artist is scared witless to move outside of the realm of what has already been successful. The footprint of a Renaissance is the copy cats. I believe there is a certain component of "Author Worship" going on here. That is new writers (generally kids/high school age) who are hooked (in the sense of hard drugs) on a certain author or genre, and have absolutely no experience and nothing to say themselves that the only thing they can write is stuff they have already read (Eregon, Harry Potter, some ninja aname fluff). If you haven't seen the statistics, most school age people cheat quite a bit now. In my generation we were beaten senseless if we even thought about it. They think everyone is so stupid they might not notice that their stories sound exactly the same. I avoid fantasy, but unfortunately there are slim pickings if you know what I mean. Its either fantasy, or "poor me I'm in a bathtub about to destroy myself, boo, hoo, hoo." The way to avoid it is to avoid the same hole everyone else is fishing out of and go find your own fishing hole. Take your pole tackle box and cooler and start a quest. It may take a season or two. Stock up, take your courage and find something new. Write some poetry and short story about the stuff between your toes in the meantime, just to keep your hand in the game. I console myself by knowing that the cycle next will bring true innovators and explorers. You have the choice of joining the copy cats, or the risky choice of forging your own path. It is up to you. Oh... Grasshopper
that was one helluvuh entertainin' view on that matter... Your screen name is write you are a funny bunny... forgive the pun... anyways, thanks for the advice I still got questions though... practicing by Expanding cliche is also a good method yes? I mean enhancing it to be a notch higher than the usual yah?
Of course, expanding a cliche can work very well. A number of fantasy books and sci-fi books have used nearly every cliche in the book and still turned out well. The good authors use the cliches up to a certain point and then make them their own. It's when people use the cliches, but don't try anything new with them, or try to write down their last D&D session that they run into trouble.
There's a quote I once read (though I can't remember it for the life of me) I think the essence of it was: "Copy the style of the greats." As in, copy the style, the way they write, of the ancient greats, and pull from them your own unique style.
