I found myself recently asking this very question and I was actually a shade concerned when I did. Now, I had known I was on a time-limit to get the PRELUDES of Enoch out and 'live' as it were. I'd known I had to get them uploaded before the events I predicted (not by magical powers, incidentally, by observation, deduction and experience) came to pass, before I could be accused of simply plagarising reality rather than creating it as I'm supposed to. A writer cannot copy stuff that's already happened, right?
I'd like you to stop for a moment and roll that question around in your head a few times; savour it, consider it and taste it well. It's a stupid question isn't it? Not a completely, throw someone out of the window stupid but, perhaps, more of a badly worded one.
Plagarism. It is a word we have all dreaded since we started writing, back at school. It means we didn't do the work or, at least, people think that. It means we stole what someone else created and took a shortcut. It means not only did we do that but we got caught and, as anyone who watches the news these days knows, getting caught is the really important part. If they don't catch you, then it never happened!
Well, perhaps that is true....
A small nugget of interesting here. The Preludes of Enoch have been called, by some, a little prophetic. Well fill me with radon, connect me to a battery and call me a lightbulb! Can it be true? Well it certainly wasn't intentional as such. I may have chosen to satirise, lambast and make light of a certain man who lives, shall we say, in a house of a shade produced by the reflection of almost all colors. That big one in America they make such a big deal about living in for 4-8 year periods! I may have objected to several aspects of him and thought to humourously present them in the PRELUDES. I may also have used certain events related to said fine gentlemen and statesman to illustrate key points Asmodeus was making and provided both examples and contrasts for he and Julian to talk about. Shock. Horror. Fire. Fear. Foes. Awake. I just 'borrowed' from somewhere else right there. Anyone have an idea where? Ten bonus points to the first correct guess.
No I am NOT a prophet of any kind who sees the future. I may look toward the future an awful lot but I tend to not go further than either the coming Friday or my next payday (the one where I get money, not that lovely peanut thing I praise America for inventing). I have written some speculative fiction and wanted to make sure He-Who-Is-Named-After-British-Slang-for-a-fart didn't self-destruct before I got the stories on the internet! Now of course I may gain some enemies from this course of action but who ever said it was a writer's job to be popular with the establishment? I may even gain some nice letters on White House stationary. I may well do. If you ask me, I might even admit to loving the idea of that prospect... How can I write a series of books which have, as one of their background themes, the actual end of everything without at least referencing the real world events which might well bring about such an apocalypse before I am actually able to get the darn series finished? The truth is stranger than fiction, they say and I often feel like I'm playing catch up with the real world!
I'm not actually sure what I'd do in those circumstances. Probably look for a chisel and nice quiet cave to carve in...isn't that something a prophet or at least a hermit would do? They ask. Now, wouldn't a prophet actually deny being a prophet just in case his prophecies go wonky and people blame him for that? Look at that dead French bloke! Someone claiming to be a prophet these days would be considered nuttier than a squirrel banquet. Soooo, a real prophet would pretend not to be one in order to throw people off and have them not call him or her a nutter, right? So he said....ohhhh! Winky, winky, eh? EH?
Now, let's move towards shall we say, the meat (sorry non-carnivores) of the proposal. This is one I see a lot of questions about and also insecurities from many in reference to. People ask me what they should write about for one. They ask me 'I saw a story which was very similar to mine but I didn't copy them', they ask about fan-fic, about conforming to popular genres and tropes. "How to be original, how to be original, how to be original!" Goes the cry. "When it appears to have been done before?". Easy answer to that one. Do it anyway. There are truly no original ideas left, none. There may well be several unique interpretations, combinations and representations though. Every storyline is recycled. Every event, trope or situation already used. Some genres thrive on such predictable repetition, others really don't.
If you put your heart, your soul and, more importantly, your honest commitment into it, you'll create something unique.
How many times has the mousy, overlooked and badly-treated young person shockingly turned out to be the only being capable of supposedly changing the world for the better and saving whatever species that individual belongs to from a variety of terrible things. Four or five allies will dramatically die along the way and many moments of self-discovery will take place but the Evil One will be destroyed and peace/prosperity/a New Order will result. The Chosen One will either fade into the shadows modestly or have an important role in the new government. Sometimes there is even a twist when said Chosen One realises that the Just Change they fought for isn't and the New Boss they trusted is just like the Old Boss; so they unexpectedly rebel against the New Boss in a dramatic finale never meant to be resolved. Don't write the sequel, please, let it hang!
Take a moment to make a list of just how many books, book series and movies I have just described the basic storylines of. Take ten, go for a snack, smoke, whatever you fancy but make sure you can write while you're doing it ok? Now go over your list and count the entries. Multiply it by your birth year, add the number of times you were scared by the neighbour's dog as a child (be honest) and divide the result by the sum of your list minus your birthday. I know what your answer is going to be, I know it exactly. More of my secret hidden prophet abilities coming into play...
Your answer was an awful lot, quite a few or lots. Maybe even loads and loads if you're ambitious or old
I am truly amazing, right? Thank you, thank you, I know! Thank you.
Joking aside, almost every popular fantasy, YA, Sci-Fi and possibly romance book ever written, right? All those popular movies that start with a weak, ugly, overlooked or maltreated fellow/fellowess who develops godlike powers and ...all that other stuff happens. Most food is made of the same basic ingredients but the number of dishes which can be made from it are truly many! Same with writing.
Look at the one with that young bespecktacled fellow who finds out he can do magic and even go to school for it and compare it to the young blonde fellow who harvested dew on a desert planet with two suns. One fights a snake faced fellow with an insecurity complex and the other an asthmatic bloke in a robot suit. Both win (oh crap! Spoiler alert, sorry!) and make their respective lands better places for almost everyone who lives there. Except most of the ones who fought with or agreed with the bad guy...but we don't talk about them really, do we?
Oh, right, that was supposed to be 'underdog' I searched for wasn't it?
The point is this; people watched the movies, bought the books, became nerds for the story and mythology and so on. Nobody crossed their arms and harumphed about how like that other movie they'd seen the other occasion it was. Well, maybe there was one. There's always one isn't there? Are you ready? Here he is;
You can just feel that aura of the easily impressed one, can't you? That is, indeed, the face of a man well-pleased with his entertainment choices! Or maybe not. How would you guys describe his expression?
He's probably upset because that thing he automatically hates because young people like it made more money than he can even imagine how to fantasise about while being sure to be accurately representing it in the correct denominations and the right amounts thereof. We just broke the poor fellow's brain! He'll be alright, he's just gone for a quick lie down, after which he'll find his box of blue biros, yellow legal pad and the contents of his wallet; currently some old receipts, an expired voucher or two and exactly $17 and 45 cents in mixed currency. Fifty bonus points for telling me what this fellow, let's call him Earl, has in his wallet. What is the most likely or best combination of bills and coins for a man of Earl's age and demeanour? What else is hiding in there that he forgot about?
See what we've just done? We made Earl a person. We invented a character! He is a stereotype but people like those, especially if you make them funny enough. Think about all the angry old man characters you have read about and seen in movies for a few minutes...they all turned out to be big softies in the end don't they? Not Earl; Earl is an asshole and will never change. Only kidding, Earl is decent enough really.
Your story might have been done before, in it's essence. It may have been done more times that Earl has itemised the contents of his wallet since he retired, twelve years ago. More times than he has saluted the flag in his eighty-five years of life. More times even than he has complained about his left leg in winter. He nearly lost it to shrapnel and actually counts his blessings often. Same as he counts his shoes when he puts them on as well as the fact that he still possesses a foot to place inside each. Motivations and backstory right there, see?
If you wish to develop this budding Earl, I gift him to you. Treat him nicely and please don't kill him off thoughtlessly, he served and was wounded for his country with honour. He's actually not a bad old sort when you get to know him. He loves pistachio nuts and if you bring him some of those or, better yet ice-cream in that flavour, he will regail you with many a stirring tale of his own! Brew him coffee with a pinch of salt in it and he will bless you as a brother.
OK, let's allow Earl his rest for now, we could pass all day learning about him. Best to leave him with his calculations and his list. He's going to spend a good few hours on this one! Quite the perfectionist, this fellow. Funny how that happens, right? We don't so much invent as discover some characters. I have been surprised at least once by how some of them turned out!
Someone wrote a story very like yours before. A lot of someones in fact. Did they have your characters, your setting, your skills and your humour though? Take Earl, I described him one way, you might detail other traits he has that I missed. He'll still be the same man, only described from different points of view.
Just like that man whose skin-tone is often compared to both a fruit and a colour at the same time. Some see him as a hero and great man, the unifier of their land and saviour of their way of life. To sensible and intelligent people, though, he is an idiot. Ok, joking again, I can't help it! Every writer tells their own story, I can't get upset because it's not the same as mine.
In fact, in retrospect, I should be grateful that it is not, right?
See how it works now? That's right, you already knew, you just hadn't realised it yet.
Off you go, I look forward to seeing you on the shelves. Well, your book at least. If I see you on some shelves I might consider you a little strange, perhaps.
Go and write it, I challenge you. Just be nice and respectful to Earl, OK?
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