: Re: How do I break away from imitating published works? I don't know if other people wanting to be writers experience this, but I get driven by my obsession. It used to be Hunger Games, then

@Tiffany377

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From a practical standpoint, I think the solution is much the same as the solution to idea-generation in many other contexts. I'd recommend you brainstorm like crazy, and the real issue is what prompts you use for your brainstorming.

So you like The Hunger Games, but you don't want to imitate it too blatantly? Start brainstorming key differences you could use. In The Hunger Games, the characters are forced to compete as retaliation for past rebellion. So start listing alternate motivations--e.g., scarcity of resources pits tribes against one another for access. In THG, the participants are drawn at random, and the protagonist volunteered to take her sister's place. Now list other ideas for how participants could be chosen. But wait, who says the combat has to be physical? List other possible contests. Do the losers have to die? List some alternate consequences of losing.

Once you have listed enough of these alternatives to various plot elements, start looking for ways to combine them. Perhaps you end up with a scenario in which participants work their rumps off through years of secondary school in order to be chosen to represent their families at the university. In this world resources were nearly depleted years ago, and only those students who show the most promise for scientific prowess that might save humanity will be granted privileged status. This status earns them access to the scarce medicines that let their families live beyond their thirties or forties.

This scenario was the result of brainstorming possible deviations from THG one plot element at a time. But does it sound like a THG rip-off? Not at all.

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