I have a story idea in mind about a serial killer. He is very much like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (OCD, controlling, handsome, wealthy), but he also has a thing for BDSM. I only have one thousand words in, but I really like my idea. I don't want people to think I am copying, even though Patrick Bateman's character inspired me to write a story. My story is also in first person as well, but it will delve deeper into the sexual, power-hungry side of my character. What are your thoughts? Is there anything you would change? Should I make my character poor and unattractive? What would you change?
A story concept means nothing. What matters is how you write it: the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's absolutely no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Don't waste even a second worrying whether it has been done before. It has, and it hasn't. Every story has been told in one form or another, but every writer will interpret and render it uniquely. So your question is meaningless, because everything - EVERYTHING - depends on what you do with the idea. Please read What is Plot Creation and Development?
What Cogito said is correct. Vampires are a common story theme, and so are most of their powers, yet that is not copying when people write about those types of characters. It becomes copying when you try to emulate the events, the actions and reactions, and the overall themes. Werewolves, zombies, or other supernatural characters will always have common characteristics. Its how you write the story, not some characteristics of a main character.
One of my biggest problems is trying to stay original. I was writing a "Vampire" story which in itself isn't very original but when I told a friend about a side plot line I had come up with, the first thing she said was, "Do you mean like in so and so?" and I said, "Don't tell me anything!" I did not want to be accused of ripping off someone else's ideas and using them for myself. I know in the world of story telling there are only a few true plot lines out there so making your story unique and read worthy is hard. My friend who is a theater major told me that the only real story is the story of the journey. Sounds over simplified, but it makes sense. So how to stay creative and not be so out of the box that everyone ignores my work? I suppose a story about talking telephone poles would be interesting for a chapter or two, but since you don't see many movies about talking telephone poles the story might not garner an audience. If I keep writing vampire stories then I am riding a wave of popularity in order to get my art out to the public. I actually think vampires are over done and only used a few concepts in the book so I could use the word vampire in the title. Probably false advertising, but what can I do? Breaking into the writing world seems about as hard as breaking into the pop music world. If you don't go with the flow and the fad, you will be left behind, but if you do go with the flow and the fad you are accused of having no imagination and no originality. Help.
This topic comes up a lot. Every story has been done, if you look at it in terms of an overall sequence of events and theme. An obsession with "originality" will only drive you to gibbering madness, and you will never write anything. Originality is in the details.
Don't worry about "going with the flow and the fad." Write the story that is in you -- the one that you want to tell.
I doubt there's a subject or a trope that you could think of that hasn't been done before. What has never been done however, is: 1. Your characters. 2. Your writing. 3. Your voice in your writing. 4. The way you put your characters through the conflict. Let's take a look at some of the more popular books: 50 Shades of Grey = Fanfiction of Twilight rewritten and edited to be more original. Twilight series = Book 1, a rewrite/inspired by Pride and Prejudice, Book 2 same with Romeo and Juliet, Book 3 Wuthering Heights, Book 4 The Merchant of Venice/A Midsummers Night Dream; not to mention elements of Genesis 15ff. Harry Potter = a number of places: The Illiad, Bible, Aeschylus, Canterbury Tales, Macbeth, Jane Austen (Emma - the twisted endings), Chronicles of Narnia, etc. etc. There's a whole lot of them here. Lord of the Rings = A number of them: Sauron/ Gilles de Retz in The Black Douglas, tones of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon literature and mythology, and also King Arthur legends. Don't forget the Ring of Gyges in Plato's Republic. Just the ones I picked now. You can go on forever doing this. Now think about each of these books/series and ask yourself if they sound like the books they were taken from. That's the key. The story is retold in such a way that it becomes fresh due to the voice and as Cognito says, the sequence of time and events or, as I believed you said, the journey. So don't worry about if it "sounds like" something else. Matter of fact, go and read it, then read a few others. Find out what the common tropes are, and then see if you can come up with a way to do what you originally wanted, but in a way that is fresh to the use of that trope. A person dies for someone and that death brings about safety for the person being protected. From Jesus to war stories, it's been seen a million times. However, when was the last time you saw a wicked magician bent on killing a child because of a prophecy, and the mother steps in and dies, unwittingly protecting the child through love, only to then have the child do the same thing, and then resurrect to bring about the death of the bad wizard after the bad wizard had resurrected - by the same blood of the child he tried to kill? That circles-within-circles twisting of a very common story line made Harry Potter a very unique story.
With writing, if you go with the flow and the fad, your book will most likely be outdated before it hits the shelves. Write your story, in your way, with your characters.
I am also writing a book where the main people could be referred to as Vampires. However, the story isn't about them being "vampires" it is about who they are as people. I'm sure your story is the same way. If your story concentrates on who the characters are instead of what they are it is going to be original, because it will be yours. However, don't jam the vampire thing in just to sell a book. It seem like it will get in the way of the honesty of the story if you don't feel like your people are actually vampires.
Awesome replies... I had a review of my book where a critic accused me of not following the "vampire" code and sticking to all the rules. The cover of my book shows a vampire smiling in a mirror for gosh darn sake. Think I care? He gave me a bad review because I didn't stick to the code and now I think my audience may be too trained to look for certain things that can be changed or made different. I'm not rewriting "Dracula" so if he didn't like it, he can get a refund. The book is a free download.
I guess truly original story is impossible to write. I gave up on being original long ago - I mean I gave up on creating an original story. There's been so much written that one can't come up with something entirely new. If the story is good, entertaining, if the characters are flesh and bones and all that seems credible, that's one hell of a goal. Actually, there's a story that's been haunting me for quite a long time and it could be seen as a combination of three or four themes found in books or films. In spite of this, I take these as a mere inspiration and let the story take its own course. Sometimes you built up on clishes or stereotyped templates, but you can fancy them in your own style...
People definitely had experiences similar or event almost identical to mine before, but nobody has ever been ME before. Nobody else could write what I write cause they aren't me. Theirs would be different. Unless I am setting out to copy somebody, I feel my writing is plenty original.
"Going with the fad? Then everyone would be doing like the fashionista's and chasing everything instead of just writing. As Maia told me before: "How about just telling a story?" It might be surprising how it's received.
Most of my material comes from my experiences and the process of writing itself. I like to think that I operate off of "original thoughts and ideas" but it's hard to tell if I have picked something up over the years from another source and just don't realize it. As a result I am very leery of claiming something as "mine". In a post on my blog recently I referred to "spiritual atrophy" to describe a condition of not using aspects of the psyche and thereby loosing the ability to access those attributes... or something like that. I was pretty proud of myself as the term came up as part of the creative process as I was writing. I also got some really good feedback from the piece and the phrase. Still, I am hesitant to TM the term and take credit. Just because it came up "organically" in my process doesn't mean its mine - or does it? I'm sure someone had the same thought at some point. I guess for me its a matter of weather my own process is pure or not.
Picasso said good artists copy, great artists steal. The history of art and literature is crusted with the repetition of the same basic ideas. One of my favorite lectures in an aesthetics class was one in which we compared a few painting by different artists that had all painted Judith beheading Holofernes. They were all basically the same painting, same characters, same scene, same atmosphere, but everyone in the class liked each painting for different reasons. So write about vampires, or hobbits, or the fiscal cliff. I agree that the originality is in the details, also I hear that's where the devil is.
Last week I saw a girl published a story similar to mine. I didn't give it much thought, because I believed my approach of the idea was better and a bit less formulaic. Seek all the relevant stuff on your genre, but don't immediately feel guilty if you find out you're copying something. It might not be a case of lack of originality, but instead following a trope.
NO! A truly original story is NOT impossible to write! May be all of the original IDEAS have been done before, yes. But that's because there are only so many ways for conflict to be presented. And conflict, as we all know, is the root of any story. Have you ever been involved in a writing class where everyone in the group is given the same story idea? Everyone takes that same germ of an idea and writes it their way. And every writer creates something uniquely different, though they are all, ostensibly, writing the same story. Writer's Digest does it every month and all you have to do is look at some of the stories produced to realize that, just because the idea has been done before, there is still plenty of room for originality! So don't think just because "all of the good ideas have been taken" there are no more good, original stories to be told. Your life experiences are completely different from everyone else's, even a sibling unless that sibling is an identical twin (and there is even room for debate on that). The way you have learned to see the world is the same thing that is going to let you see YOUR story. And that is what is going to make yours different from anyone else's. ORIGINAL.
The devil is in the details, not the plot; there are only so many possible scenarios to use, so it's the little things that matter. The story may have vampires, but tell us about your vampires. Even Twilight (for all its faults) had SOME originality. Yes, sparkling vampires are weird and go against the very mythos that spawned them, but it worked for the story it was telling. If the story is good or bad is up to the reader to decide for themselves. Just focus on writing and don't let every critic get you down!
It is definitely soul crushing finding out your so called "original idea" has been done before. However, the basics like conflict and theme have all been done before. Becoming obsessed with originality is an artificial speed bump created by those who fear criticism. When I think of original idea I think of something like a lightsaber.......but even that was done before.
Did you know that on September 13, 1916 the citizens of Erwin, Tennessee hung an elephant? It's true. Mary the elephant was part of a traveling circus and had killed her handler on September 12th. When the circus pulled into the next town the decision had been made to destroy the elephant and the only method the citizens and circus manager came up with was to hang it from a rail yard crane. The citizens of Erwin came out in droves to witness the event which quickly turned gruesome and horrifying. How incredible is that story? Who could even conjure such a tale, let alone discover it actually happened? Point being, elements of unique and original storytelling are literally boundless. Others have very eloquently pointed out that even when you have a story idea that seems "unoriginal" the writer will ultimately create something unique with the writer's own flair and perspective. Very true, and to add to this, there are dozens of ways to create unique settings, plot lines, characters and themes. The key I've found is to never edit anything when you are brainstorming and try a variety of approaches. Free write, mix (themes, characters, objects and settings), cluster, use personal and historical events, flip, rhyme, journal, exaggerate, transport, time travel, ask "what if?" and "why" constantly, google specific or random stuff, pull ideas out of song lyrics, mash different movie plots or characters together. When I get seriously jammed, I'll combine some of these methods to take me into all kinds of tangents. For example, time travel a character from a well known movie, mix personal experiences with some historical event, free write or cluster off a song title I like, whatever.