Has everything, meaning plots and conflicts, been said before? Are there still new plot ideas out there, or is there not? Just curious what you guys or gals think!
i think most are taken but there is always someone out there with a spark, a new idea that will spring alive and make people say WOW. jim
Very, very rare. So rare that you are best offpretending they don't exist. Concern yourself instead with simply telling your story the best way you can. Great stories don't generally come from new ideas. They come from borroed ideas wrapped in great characterization, narrative, and dialogue.
I agree with Cogito. But I remember coming up with things that "haven't been written" before and then end have been written up before. There is a very rare chance that someone has a brand new and fresh idea.
I think it all depends on your perspective. Taking a macro point of view, one can say that the invention of computers was just a progression of other communicative and data devices. Doesn't sound much more impressive than a pen and a notebook. However, if you look at it in a different light, that was completely revolutionary and unprecedented. Humanity isn't going to change, thus our plots will always focus around certain aspects with which we are all familiar. But we can gain a better perspective than anything that has been written (or at least published), we can bring together ideas that would have never met without cultural integrations now possible. Ideas will be borrowed, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, lots of people have underwear on... you know?
Of course there are some 'new' ideas out there. They are very, very rare, but they're out there. It's not what's most important, anyway. Good story-telling is what's most important.
I would like to think there are and certainly believed there were plenty of new plots and conflicts to come up with. Now I believe that new plots are not so likely but that unique character personalities and situations are still possible.
I think most plot ideas and concepts have already been tried but that there is something new every now and then. Its far more common to find new takes on old concepts or new twists to the same old formula. Sometimes people take a bunch of old ideas and throw them all together to make a new mutant story thingie XD. I agree with Cog though. Don't over concern yourself with it. Just tell the story and remember HAVE FUN WITH IT .
I've always said that the only original idea in the universe was "Let there be light." Everything since then has been working from prior principles.
It always annoys me when people say everything has been done before. How do they know? Have they experienced every single idea there is to be had, and ever WILL be? No one can ever be 100% certain of such things. Take a look, we're being surprised all the time. And even if all the surprises in writing, for example, that we've seen so far have just been twists on things that have already been done, there's always the slightest chance that someday, somebody will manage to come up with something completely new. We can't see the future. We can speak only from our own limited experience, and in the future, that may very well change. So it's LIKELY that everything has already been said and done regarding plots, but there's always a chance there's something completely original. One really can't say for sure. And even if such an original idea never emerges in all the remainder of human history, that might just mean it never occurred to anybody, not that it doesn't exist. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, as they say.
I remain firm in my belief that innovation in writing comes through rendering ideas that may have been done thousands of times before in ways that make them seem new. The pool of novel ideas may seem depleted, the possibilities for interpretation and perspective are boundless. While everyone has seen a piece of toast, there are infinite ways to etch it.
the three basic plot premises were painted on their authors' walls long ago: man vs man man vs god [which includes 'nature'] man vs self [which could be considered 'man vs god' since man invented gods] everything since has just been 'creative plagiarism' ;-)...
I think there will always be new twists to ideas, but the basic ground work for any type of story has, and will forever, be set.
I think that most things have been done, if you look at the plot in its simplest form, but it is about how you adapt your own work to make it origional and something new. There are millions of crime solving murder case novels out there, and yet I can read yet another one about a male serial killer, and find it new and origional, because it is about how you spin it.
I think my plot is original, but im not 100% sure. I would like to think it is, but im not bothered about it all.
