Overcoming the Idea Originality Blues

For a while I've been rather down about stories I've written that were original at the time they were a wip, but after taking decades to bring them to completion, I suddenly find that those ideas I thought original are everywhere. Just today I discovered an animated movie called Magi Nation: Fighting the Shadows. About thirty years ago I started writing a novel called Magination about an adolescent boy fighting shadow creatures who are really his own personal demons. Along the way to enlightenment, he finds a true friend, Runiah, and another dimensional world, The Autumnland. I borrowed elements from Peter Pan and Celtic mythology for this story, but the rest was original.

However, I've began to realise that perhaps original ideas aren't as important as I once thought. Perhaps what you do with those ideas or elements matter more. In my efforts to find publication for Winter Roses, and when having it assessed, no one has ever commented unfavourably about the similiarity to Twilight. The similiarities (I counted around 16 major story elements that were similiar) were devastating for me when the movie came out last year, as in reviews from 1994 the biggest praise my story garnered was in the 'great original concept' category. But what the critics have focused on lately have been plot holes and stylistic errors. So perhaps ideas that have become classic and even over-used can still be strong and make a statement as long as all the other elements that support them in the story are used with thought for the big picture: the versimilitude and charm of the world you're creating.

The Harry Potter saga borrows heavily from so many other stories that have gone before it. In my own personal library I have a series of children's books called The Worst Witch which is about a young witch girl attending a school for witches. (This was written long before the Happy Potter saga.) However, why Harry Potter succeeds so well, I think, despite the recycling of mythological elements (wizards, witches, broomsticks, magic wands, magic academies, potions and spells, and well-known mythological creatures) is the well-structured nature of the story world and the vast array of ideas that support this huge world. The reader can easily become submerged in the well-structured and believable environment of the story world - especially the more lonely child who can find a home-away-from home where they feel a kind of belonging and an ability to identify with another child (Harry) who is a misfit and yet overcomes his problems and is a good and likeable person. This is positive reinforcement for the reader while experiencing a life-style which is exciting and fun and about developing one's innate gifts and powers - something we all suspect we have but are tantalising just out of reach.


So, in summary, perhaps the writer can't go wrong if they put their effort and focus not into ideas that haven't been done before but on developing the story ideas so that each supports the other in a strong structure that will stand the test of scrutiny and time, and - most importantly - create a story world the reader can confidently enter and explore with wonder and delight. The writer's focus could also be on creating ideas that bring something special to the reading experience, something fun and/or charming and fantastic that is currently beyond the non-reading world, and, also create something the reader can take away with them that will enhance their non-reading world: positive reinforcement (which we all need)and/or concepts that help us to cope with our world and the people we encounter in a way that is a win-win for all.