McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Originality--How important is it?

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arianne:
I've tried to make the hero seem unique (aka different), but everytime I talk about my "vampire slayer" story someone says, "Buffy?"

Well, there was that one person who said, "Van Helsing?".

Starbeam:
I would say that plot ideas tend to be relatively unoriginal, but the originality comes in the execution of the story.  And in how the characters are written.  There will always be comparisons to other books/movies, but a lot of people will do that just to get some sort of idea of what to expect.  Or to see if something is the same/different than what they think.  Like someone being reluctant to read Dresden because it's a wizard named Harry.  In other words, don't worry about it too much and just write what you want.

BobForPresident:

--- Quote from: Shecky on June 06, 2010, 12:36:02 PM ---Honestly? Protagonist sounds like a Mary Sue. A bit too perfect.

--- End quote ---
I personally don't like the whole "Mary Sue" thing. I think it's a really easy way write off characters without offering a good critique. If you don't know the author, you can't judge if the character's based on them, and when characters are too "perfect", they're often also called archetypes (the wizard, the hero, etc), and they're the basis of modern fiction.

The best advice I ever got from an author was from Elaine Cunningham - if you want to write, study religion. Often times, religious texts are the first widely-distributed texts a culture creates, and they're almost always a good basis for good v. evil themes.


--- Quote from: arianne on June 06, 2010, 04:42:10 PM --- everytime I talk about my "vampire slayer" story someone says, "Buffy?" Well, there was that one person who said, "Van Helsing?".

--- End quote ---

This is another good point. Joss Whedon's leads are almost always female, highly damaged, and incredibly powerful (Capt Mal notwithstanding). But who was the original? Van Helsing? Possibly. Orignality, then, is more a point of perspective. If YOU haven't encountered a story about a young boy who defies his background and conquers the bad guy, then Star Wars is a total new premise for you. Unless you like Kurusawa and the old pulp fiction space operas. Then you go, "been there, done that." :)

Vash the white:
i think orginality ia a hard thing to come by these days, i mean we have been around for awhile, so chances are someone had the same idea at one point, even if it was a thousand years ago. its how we twist a most likely used idea into something un-used

Shecky:

--- Quote from: BobForPresident on June 06, 2010, 10:19:51 PM ---I personally don't like the whole "Mary Sue" thing. I think it's a really easy way write off characters without offering a good critique. If you don't know the author, you can't judge if the character's based on them, and when characters are too "perfect", they're often also called archetypes (the wizard, the hero, etc), and they're the basis of modern fiction.
--- End quote ---

The perfect protagonist, in my view, is never perfect. Sorry, but someone who's so brilliant and so powerful that they always end up winning emphatically and the Good Guys live happily ever after... there's no struggle. No adversity. No wrestling with horrible decisions that take more wisdom and self-examination than simple knowledge and talent. Standing on principle in the face of overwhelming odds, that's different. This is why, while there's a part of me that really likes Superman for being such a good guy, the rest of me is uninterested in stories about him unless his victory is FAR from a foregone conclusion. In other words, being an archetype does not mean the easy way out or the IWinForeverAgain button. Again, this is purely my own personal take on it; YMM obviously V.


--- Quote from: BobForPresident on June 06, 2010, 10:19:51 PM ---The best advice I ever got from an author was from Elaine Cunningham - if you want to write, study religion. Often times, religious texts are the first widely-distributed texts a culture creates, and they're almost always a good basis for good v. evil themes.
--- End quote ---

Well, sure. Much of the Bible, for example, reads like a primordial adventure story. But the "wins" are all accomplished with divine help (which is sort of the point of the Bible, no? :) ). Granted, the good guys in it may suffer a bit (or, well, a lot), but everything always comes out all right in the end, happily ever after.

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