Why is it so hard for me to come up with an unique/original idea for a story?

Do we all come up with original ideas? I'm not sure - it's ehat you do with the material, I think.

xYinxx said:

Why is it so easy for other writers to come up with original ideas for stories?

Click to expand...

It's not easy, because they don't.

Every idea has been already done; every idea can be split to the point of which the smaller concepts can be compared to any story.

The difference is: Execution.

First off, relax. It seems you have a good understanding of your genre. Nothing wrong with that, you just have to start going against the grain a little. It's nice to think about -- be inspired -- by what you read. Now, look for your own stories and don't be too hard on dressing them up in 'familiar' gear. Anyway, as you start to explore your own stories you might find you're starting to twist things here and there. All for the good!

It's not easy for most writers to come up with interesting, original ideas. The struggle does get easier as you actively pursue the writing life -- any creative life, and usually as you get older (sorry about that). Always start small, because ideas are best left to grow kind of organically. Fine to have big, sweeping ideas, but, ultimately, you have to deal with the details. Look for simple stories and expand.

Maybe think about character. You'd be surprised how often characters can motivate and inspire original stories. They say it's usually best to write what you know. Let your characters in for a while and see what they tell you.

xYinxx said:

All my stories draw influences from other source material. That's not the problem...I wrote something that was 15K in and it turns out it was a "carbon copy" of this manga series. :/

Now, I'm trying to come up with something unique and fresh. The genre is gonna be fantasy. I was thinking about magic-wielding thieves (but that's like Mistborn) and everything, but even that's not original.

Why is it so easy for other writers to come up with original ideas for stories? I struggle to do so.

Click to expand...

I admit that I've never quite understood peoples need for things to be 100% "original" in every way. Tropes exist for a reason and are actually a part of what makes a genre a genre to begin with. It's what is done with the tropes, conventions, character archetypes etc. which makes something unique within a genre. How the writer uses the tropes adding their own little bit and tweaking things. Say there's a princess to be rescued and someone is writing a fairytale, normal conventions say our knight is male, and romance with happen between the princess and the knight after she's saved. But what if the princess isn't straight, or the Knight isn't? What if our brave knight is actually a woman and they fall in love anyway? Maybe the knight is a vampire? I'm sure you're getting the picture.

It's things like that which make something original, not refusing to use a certain type of character or a trope. Take the tropes and twist them, mold them into something you think you'd enjoy writing.

*goes to write down her Knight idea*

You really can't "accidentally" copy something. It might be similar but who cares about that? Write well, let 'original' take care of itself.

Most importantly write things, finish them, and submit them.

Lillith1991 said:

It's things like that which make something original, not refusing to use a certain type of character or a trope. Take the tropes and twist them, mold them into something you think you'd enjoy writing.

Click to expand...

I agree. My friend gave me two books by Austin Kleon, Show Your Work! and Steal Like An Artist. It definitely shined some light on making something that might have been done before but make it your own original piece.

There's a flaw in your definition of the word "original." There's no shame in that. I made the same mistake for years and came to believe that I had nothing worthwhile to offer the world. Like others, it was an essay that cured me of my obsession with finding something that had never been done before (in my case, an essay by Tommy Wonder).

If you try to create a story that's never been written, you'll drive yourself mad. On the off-chance you DO come up with something, it'll probably just be so bizarre that it's not enjoyable. Mutant beavers who are deployed by God to dispense human justice to an alien species that doesn't share human morality, religion, knowledge of God, knowledge of mutations, familiarity with beavers, or definition of justice; leaving the aliens not so much punished as perplexed? ...That MIGHT be original, but it's also stupid (and it's probably not original either).

Original has at its root "origin," as in "the story originates from you." That's all you need. So what if someone else thought of a similar story in the past? Is an idea any less yours because someone else thought of it too?

Harry Potter is an oft-cited example. The idea of a magic school isn't new. One person destined to fight off great evil? Definitely not new. Most of the magical creatures (dragons, werewolves, unicorns) are plucked directly from folklore. Yet Rowling made them her own and the results were entrancing. Would the stories have been better if she forbade herself from using any element that had appeared in stories before hers? What would be left?

veinglory said:

You really can't "accidentally" copy something. It might be similar but who cares about that? Write well, let 'original' take care of itself.

Most importantly write things, finish them, and submit them.

Click to expand...

So much this. I've been writing "seriously" for five years but cannot seem to finish anything apart from pornographic fan-fics, and so, I remain a sordid amateur. But I swear I'm getting better! I have heard that if two different writers write a book with the same premise, they'll turn out two very different books, or something like that, because writers are individuals, etcetera.

Also I'd personally advise against taking some popular trope and "just adding vampires/werewolves/zombies," because I personally hate that practice and see it with increasing frequency. It's a personal thing.

Kayiin said:

So much this. I've been writing "seriously" for five years but cannot seem to finish anything apart from pornographic fan-fics, and so, I remain a sordid amateur. But I swear I'm getting better! I have heard that if two different writers write a book with the same premise, they'll turn out two very different books, or something like that, because writers are individuals, etcetera.

Also I'd personally advise against taking some popular trope and "just adding vampires/werewolves/zombies," because I personally hate that practice and see it with increasing frequency. It's a personal thing.

Click to expand...

And I see no reason to not use a supernatural being in place of a human in certain tropes. But I understand it's a pet hate of yours. What if the chosen one is a vampire in a society that views vampires soldiers as a kind of specialized and looked up to fighting force? I certainly don't see that as just taking a vampire on to a trope, because in that case it fits with the story and society being portrayed. But random vampire as chosen one for no reason other than wanting to add a vampire to the story? Yup. I'm with you on that and I love supernatural creatures. I'm a firm believe in all elements human and non-human being fully ingrained into a story, a vampire shouldn't be doing a job your average human farmboy farmgirl chosen one could but one only a vampire could do.

xYinxx said:

Right. What I have so far is the protagonist's gender...and the fact that I want to use the idea of thieves, but not in the traditional sense of a thief. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the replies.

Click to expand...

Okay, you have a female protagonist (or let's imagine she is) -- good start. You want to use the idea of thieves, better still. Is she the thief? If so, what does she want? If it's a fantasy story you could twist the idea of thievery to include unusual things -- let your imagination go. Anything, really.

Let's say she's the thief. Like any worthwhile character she needs to want something. For a story this should be both difficult and amazing (transformative). Think about her obstacles and the story should start writing itself. You may have to help push the keys or pen just a little.

I don't know if you do much planning before you write, but it might be worth at least brainstorming a few key ideas like 'who is she, really?' and 'what could be so valuable to her?'

xYinxx said:

Right. What I have so far is the protagonist's gender...and the fact that I want to use the idea of thieves, but not in the traditional sense of a thief. If that makes sense.

Thanks for the replies.

Click to expand...

What non-traditional aspect of 'thieves' interests you?
Stealing something unusual? Some sort of thievery your world hasn't had yet? (Like when cyber-crime was new? They're still working out the laws about that.)
In a society that's just moved from barter to actual money, that change alone would be huge: "See, we're not going to rustle cattle any more. We're going to wait 'til they trade the cattle for the little metal things that are worth the same as cattle, then steal the little metal things. Light, easy to carry, and no more of being kicked, bitten, and stampeded over by the ill-gotten gains. And, the little metal things all look the same: no brands, no ear-marks. We're laughing, boys!"

Or, stealing in some unusual way? Some sort of a complicated caper, done by a bunch of magic-users, or fantasy beings would be interesting. On TV 'Nova' did an episode about Egyptian tomb-robbers, depicted as an Egyptian version of 'Ocean's Eleven' more or less.

Think about what interests you about the idea of 'thieves' and work out from there.

General ideas are rarely original. You have to set your story apart with the specific stuff. You mentioned magical thieves. Obviously, you have Mistborn. Another story with a magical thief is the Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron. They both feature magical thieves, but they're nothing alike.

Jack Oskar Larm said:

Okay, you have a female protagonist (or let's imagine she is) -- good start. You want to use the idea of thieves, better still. Is she the thief?

Click to expand...

Or is she the one they steal from?

See, just cuz you have an idea doesn't mean you have to keep looking at it from that perspective. In this case all I did was invert it, and perhaps now we have a society where thieves abound, and magic is used to prevent theft. But her spells fail to protect her own property. Now what? I dunno, it's your story.

Stop getting ideas from other fiction. Use the real world.. Use the news, and use real people.You can turn even thee things into fantasy, or anything else, with very little effort.

Characters, not plot are where most new writers flunk the originality test, Create good, original characters that readers really want to spend time with, and few care much at all about an unoriginal plot.

Read history books. Unusual things have happened throughout history, and you can apply any meaning to these things you like. When everything you write, and when every idea you get, comes from reading the same kind of fiction you write, it's very close to incest. It's just isn't likely to produce offspring you're going to want to brag about.

To be original, you have to first go read outside your genre. Widely outside. As widely as possible. This way, you bring in new blood, new DNA. I think you also have to read nonfiction, and pull your nose out of books and look at what's happening in the world on a daily basis.

Few things are completely original, and that's fine, but there is a lot of incest going on out there, and a sameness to manuscript after manuscript after manuscript in the slush, and, too often, even in the lower tier of published novels.

Having said this, in a real way, the most original thing in the world is simply a good story, well-told, and filled with characters we all want to spend time with.

Don't try to force it & learn to expand your imagination by compounding as much as possible. There are a lot of people who, when they start writing, their imagination just keeps spitting out things they've already seen- I was like that up until just a handful of years ago.

What you do is train your imagination to start from scratch by trying to see how many things you've seen before you can combine flawlessly. Keep cutting them up into smaller & smaller pieces, learn how to separate aspects & themes & reforming them any way you want.

Eventually, your mind will begin doing it automatically when it wanders.

One way to inject some originality would be to take your cues from real life rather than other stories. "Thief" may be a valid occupation in RPGs, but in the real world criminals have always been more specialized than that. In the old days every outlaw had his "lay", his criminal specialty, and he rarely deviated from it. "Thief" could cover lots of lays--pickpockets, house thieves, shoplifters, bank robbers, highwaymen, etc. Making your thieves more specialized might open up some new doors idea-wise. How does the underworld work in your world? You might want to develop that idea.

xYinxx said:

You're right though, I should probably brainstorm ideas. One idea I'm tossing around is having thieves be an occupation. Instead of being something that's feared, in my world, being a thief can be a goal of the society's children. Basically, "thieves" isn't really a bad thing. They can range from being bodyguards of precious artifacts, protectors of famous people, or simply gatherers of special materials. Some can even be soldiers and killers assigned to get rid of evil organizations.

Click to expand...

An economy based on theft rather than commerce would be interesting to work with. Likewise an ethical system based on lies rather than truth. All sorts of story opportunity.

If you find it hard to be original and keep unintentionally copying what you've seen or read too closely, maybe try to go about it a different way.

One idea, if you key in "story generator," you can get a random character, setting, and story problem. The thing I don't like about those kind of prompts is sometimes I just have zero interest in what comes up. But you could always just keep starting over until you get something you like.

Travel more, live your life and ideas will automatically come into your head. Let life be your source of inspiration.

Reziac said:

An economy based on theft rather than commerce would be interesting to work with. Likewise an ethical system based on lies rather than truth. All sorts of story opportunity.

Click to expand...

What do politicians have to do with it?

xYinxx said:

Well, yeah, but the definition of a "thief" is someone who steals. So it can't really stray too far away from that...since they wouldn't be thieves then. Though the thieving funding the economy thing sounds good.

Click to expand...

Notions that come to mind:

-- the value of something depends on how many times it's been stolen
-- once something has been stolen, the original owner can no longer own it even if it's recovered, but they can sell it to someone else
-- your personal worth depends on how much has been stolen from you (rather than how much you've stolen) but your status depends on how much you can prevent from being stolen from you (so there's a balance and people don't just toss stuff out to be stolen by any passerby)

Stuff like that. Just throwing out whatever nonsense comes into my head. If you like any of it, feel free to steal it.

Jamesaritchie said:

What do politicians have to do with it?

Click to expand...

Hmm. You're right...