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Oct 24, 2017 at 7:27am
#3140630
Dear, InkSpout  When Suzane Collins wrote The Hunger Games, lots of people noted how incredibly similar it was to the Japanese novel Battle Royale. However, that didn't stop The Hunger Games becoming one of the best selling books of this century so far. Many authors today reuse old plots and inject new ideas. While it's obvious where the inspiration for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes from, it's less obvious that Bridget Jones' Diary comes from exactly the same classic source. Literature is full of tropes, like the Hero's Journey, and it's so easy to see how many plots are actually variations on the same theme. The similarities are glaring once you look for them. for example, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hunger Games are all classic Hero's Journey stories that tick off all the major plot points of the hero's journey, with the hero being a peasant from a land on the fringe and travelling to confront an evil emperor and save the world, accompanied by a mentor who gets killed off/removed at the end of act i. So, what I'm saying is, don't worry if your story sounds similar to others. It probably is. But if you've got new characters and a variation on the setting, you'll be fine. Once you actually start writing, it probably won't sound like the same story at all. Best wishes, Bob    |
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by InkSpout
by Shaye
Re: Genuinely inspired idea vs plagerizing anothers idea · 10-24-17 7:27am by Christopher Roy Denton
