: Re: How much is considered plagiarism? I'm aware that some fictional work is loosely based on others, consciously or not. For instance, Lord of the Rings has some common elements with the Saga of

Your best bet is to break down the source into broad mythical elements and rebuild your story from that.

Harry's tale is both a coming-of-age and a Hero's Journey, and you don't get much more archetypal than those. JKRowling admits she modeled Harry-Ron-Ginny after Luke-Han-Leia, and Lucas was working with Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. (An excellent book; I suggest you read that or the easier digest, The Power of Myth.)

So you start with the absolute basic building blocks (hero/ine, helpers, lack of family, villain, hero/ine must learn tools to defeat villain, guides) and create your unique story from those blocks.

Your #3 is a good stepping stone on the way, but I think you should keep pushing it. Why a school? Why not an individual master? What if it's not friends she gathers but rivals assigned to assist her by an overlord, and they have to learn to work together? What if the villain turns out to be a long-lost family member? You get the idea.

As an additional step, when you finish it and hand it off to a beta or editor, make it clear that your story was originally inspired by this other work, and ask that the reader keep watch to make sure no elements are too directly lifted from it.

And do not use "Hogwarts in Japan" as your elevator pitch if you're worried about copying your source material.

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: "Literary criticism" and "editing feedback" are two entirely different beasts. Litcrit is about looking at an existing text and analyzing it. You look at the author's intent, you look at symbolism,

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: Consequences. A strikes B. Even if B provoked A, A still gets arrested, processed, tried, convicted, and serves time. A gets grief from family and friends. A feels mixed anger, resentment,

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: Is breaking the fourth wall to the point of nonexistence appropriate for a comedy book? After considering the style and setting for my first book, I've decided on writing a comedy treasure hunt

: Re: How much is considered plagiarism? I'm aware that some fictional work is loosely based on others, consciously or not. For instance, Lord of the Rings has some common elements with the Saga of

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: In narration, stay in one tense. "She had green eyes" is fine, because your entire story is in the past tense — the "present-past," if that makes sense. If she had green eyes as a

: "Literary criticism" and "editing feedback" are two entirely different beasts. Litcrit is about looking at an existing text and analyzing it. You look at the author's intent, you look at symbolism,

: Consequences. A strikes B. Even if B provoked A, A still gets arrested, processed, tried, convicted, and serves time. A gets grief from family and friends. A feels mixed anger, resentment,

: Is breaking the fourth wall to the point of nonexistence appropriate for a comedy book? After considering the style and setting for my first book, I've decided on writing a comedy treasure hunt

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