I was thinking of a character who my main character with controlling his powers. Is it orginal enough to be considered to be a fresh new idea? Like an immortal being but can still die from normal things. With enough of realism and characterization would this seem like a good addition to my story Blue Phoenix?
No. Original is boring. All our thoughts are borrowed; only the way we arrange them even has the potential of being unique.
I think you should focus more so on making him real, more so than his powers and abilities. Though this is simply my opinion. I think making someone immortal, yet mortal, can lead to more problems then it solves. It essentially doesn't make sense either Though I might be reading in to it too much. What is important, as has been said, is to make the writing original (and great!), and the idea will seem fresh.
It is most definitely not an original idea. Off the top of my head: Macros the Black from Raymond E. Feist's world of Midkemia is essentially immortal and becomes a mentor for the main character, Pug. In the same world, there are the eldar or whatever they're called (I forget the name; the ancient eledhel across the tundra on Tsurannuani) who are immortal and teach Pug a whole load of stuff. Then, of course, there's Dumbledore who is, like, 150-something years old, and that may not be immortality, but it's longevity. There's any vampire who ever made another in the Sookie Stackhouse books. ... Immortal mentors are not original. So, yeah...
Amun and Aro from the Twilight Saga are also that. Although they trained their coven to sharpen their powers for their own ends, they're still considered mentors. (If you're confused about Amun, read the Official Guide. Or just think about Benjamin.)
I like the idea of an immortal person who can die from normal things. Orginal, no but still a good idea. At first when I was writing I felt like if someone else used something it was a bad idea for me to use it. One example is summer solstice. I used it and then started thinking oh what that's in Fablehaven and this and that. I was going to change my story and use something else but then I realized if I avoided everything that's been used before there would be nothing left of my story. Use it and pretend it's your unique idea. When somene mentions that it's like (fill in the blank) act surprised like you never thought of that before.
It been done beforee, even if it isn't recorded in print and we don't see it, someone thought it up long before us. But don't let this discourage you from writing out your idea. In fact, let it inspire you to try and mold it into something new so that when someone reads it instead of going "Oh this is just like such-and-such by what's-their-face" they will go "Oh wow! This is great/brilliant/awesome/cool/etc etc" You create the world you write, just remember, the possibilities are endless to what a simple seed can become.
Yip as others have said, there is nothing truly original. But some ideas are more original than others if you're willing to attach a looser meaning to the word. And an immortal mentor is definitely nothing close to original. The more specific you become with ideas the closer they get to that unattainable originality, so I'm not sure how anybody could think something as vague as "immortal mentor" could be original.
You should look at my blog post on creativity and independence. Don't ask others for validation. Don't ask if something is original enough, or too bold, or worth reading. Doing this makes you an approval-seeker. Writing is not an area in which you should seek approval from an anonymous mass collective (or ANYONE) before writing the idea you want to write about. This actually applies to life in general, but especially writing, because writing is about liberation and creating your own ideas.
