I hate it when my "original" idea turns out to be generic as hell.

JayMark

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Have you suffered boredom, dejavu, malaise, melancholy, or ephenephrine overdose when reading, watching or writing fiction? Are you experiencing, staleness, tranquility, or predictablity? Have you used the word 'cliche' more than ten times in one week? Did three hundred other people steal your brilliant premise before you even thought about it? Are you resorting to writing or reading about sentient bakery goods?

You may have been exposed to overused conventions. If you've been injured or suffered disorders due to exposure to overused conventions, you may be entitled to legal compensation. Call the law offices of Muffin, Cupcake, and Bagel at 1 - 800 - 555 - 5535 to learn your rights.
 

Nolff

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Have you suffered boredom, dejavu, malaise, melancholy, or ephenephrine overdose when reading, watching or writing fiction? Are you experiencing, staleness, tranquility, or predictablity? Have you used the word 'cliche' more than ten times in one week? Did three hundred other people steal your brilliant premise before you even thought about it? Are you resorting to writing or reading about sentient bakery goods?

You may have been exposed to overused conventions. If you've been injured or suffered disorders due to exposure to overused conventions, you may be entitled to legal compensation. Call the law offices of Muffin, Cupcake, and Bagel at 1 - 800 - 555 - 5535 to learn your rights.
Is this saul goodman?
 

JayMark

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Is this saul goodman?
It's all good man. But no, it's completely original Muffin, Cupcake, and Bagel. But our firm is being bought out by Bovine, Porcine, and Equine. You may have been exposed to depleted conventions. You may want to get that diagnosed and then consult with our firm.
 

CharlesEBrown

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I was thinking about writing a story about a healer in a fantasy medieval world, thinking there aren't too many of these being written right now (by "these," I mean fantasy stories without isekai nor dungeon elements, lol). After working on some character sheets and possible plot points, I realized. "Fuck, this is just a fantasy version of Dr. House."

Feel free to copy my idea. I lost interest once I realized I'm not original at all.
Heh - and House, MD was literally "Sherlock Holmes but a modern doctor solving medical mysteries" per the guy who created the series... (as an aside, I played a healer in a fantasy RPG based heavily on Dr. Gregory House - even down to the attitude and needing a cane to walk, but with the painkiller addiction toned down - it was a blast but he didn't last long).
 
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CheertheSecond

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I am writing a story about characters whose purposes are to be used by the other characters then discarded.
 

Nolff

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It's all good man. But no, it's completely original Muffin, Cupcake, and Bagel. But our firm is being bought out by Bovine, Porcine, and Equine. You may have been exposed to depleted conventions. You may want to get that diagnosed and then consult with our firm.
What.
I am writing a story about characters whose purposes are to be used by the other characters then discarded.
Every single writer ever:
 

Scaletalon

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as was said by @RepresentingEnvy, there is no more originality. The best you can do is steal ideas from different sources and genres, creating a unique twist. Your idea is "original" because Dr.House wasn't in a fantasy setting.
She's right. I remember an author talking about that too. Lion King is basically Hamlet but with animals and 3/4 of the first Star Wars movie is basically a damsel in distress story but in space.The best way to make an 'original' story is to get inspiration / take different ideas from other stories and mold them into one. Lion King was unique because it was set in a world full of animals in the African Savanna, and Star Wars : A New Hope was unique because of how it combined space opera with a war about a rebellion against an empire that eliminated a Sci fi version of the Knights Templar (The Jedi.)
 

Clo

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Lion King was unique because it was set in a world full of animals in the African Savanna
Well, The Lion King is most likely a ripoff of Kimba the Lion, a Japanese Anime and Manga.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace's pod-racing scene is a rip-off of one of my favourite movie of all time: Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, a Norwegian stop-motion movie by the Caprino Brothers.

Original ideas are pretty hard to find!

Batman is a rip-off of Zorro, who is a rip-off of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Batman
is fun regardless. Zorro is great. Ideas being recylced doesn't make them lame, boring, or not worth writing.
 

CharlesEBrown

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Well, The Lion King is most likely a ripoff of Kimba the Lion, a Japanese Anime and Manga.
Kimba the White Lion - that and Speed Racer were my introduction to Japanese animation back before I knew what Japan - or animation, for that matter, was... The Manga may have just been "Kimba the Lion" - I never saw it - but the cartoon was "Kimba the White Lion."
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace's pod-racing scene is a rip-off of one of my favourite movie of all time: Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, a Norwegian stop-motion movie by the Caprino Brothers.
Really? Wish I still had contact with her; I had a friend whose son designed the track for the pod race scene. Would be interesting to find out if he was familiar with that film.

Star Wars: A New Hope borrowed shamelessly from The Hidden Fortress, every wuxia film that made it to the US before 1970, all of the classic sci-fi film serials (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, etc.)... really the only thing "original" to it was the music (and Williams was frequently asked where he 'swiped' the Cantina Band music from because a lot of jazz fans were absolutely certain they had heard that piece before but could not place it... but he wrote that piece on his own, after deciding it should have a "jazz sound")
Original ideas are pretty hard to find!

Batman is a rip-off of Zorro, who is a rip-off of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Batman was a synthesis of pulp hero Zorro, radio teleplay hero The Lone Ranger and the opera Der Fledermaus. At least according to the guys who allegedly created him (one of them was probably not really in the room when it happened, but was the line editor and National Periodical's policy at the time was 'any character who could be attributed to two or more sources was automatically attributed to the line editor, who could share credit with any or all of the other sources at his discretion'
 

Clo

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Really? Wish I still had contact with her; I had a friend whose son designed the track for the pod race scene. Would be interesting to find out if he was familiar with that film.
I mean, I immediately recognised it, because I adore Pinchcliffe, but...


This video does a good job of showing it in action
 

abu_nur

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1737052467388.png


literally first thing that came to mind
 

Seaspecter

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Just because you have an original idea doesn't mean anyone will want to read your story, trust me on this one.
 

Valmond

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Just because you have an original idea doesn't mean anyone will want to read your story, trust me on this one.
You clearly did it wrong, you didn’t add microtransactions to it. :blobtaco:
 
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