: Re: Any Technique to See if Your Idea is Original? I usually get quite a lot of ideas for stories, but every time I want to develop them into a full fledged story, I get paranoid about how

"It isn't just you." +1!

Issac Asimov's collection "Gold" has an essay called "Originality." In the essay, Asimov says that his most original story was probably nightfall ... at least he thought it was, until 20-odd years later he read an old magazine he had read as a child ... and noticed the same plot line!

It happens.

On the other hand, the classic "rip off" of fantasy is Lord of the Rings was ripped off by the Sword of Shannara - consider this Wikipedia article.
So if I were worried about something like that, the first thing I would do is to find two peers who were deep into the genre, maybe a third who was into "general" literature. Then I would ask /them/ to read the plot outline and express any concerns.

So why did Asimov get away with it and Terry Brooks got hammered?

One, Terry Brooks ripped off a /recent best seller/. Two, Terry Brooks ripped off the world /AND/ the plot. Three, Terry Brooks didn't really include any character development -- his characters were wooden. Four, Terry Brooks did not include any twists or real changes, whereas Asmimov did.

So you might borrow some elements from various stories. The problem is if you don't contribute anything original. To borrow one of my favorite lines from a co-worker about fantasy "Look, it's a fantasy novel man. You're going to have an enemy that needs to be defeated, so you have to find an object - a sword or something - to defeat him. But to find the sword you need to find the map, or find the old lady with the clue, or whatever. It's your classic 'quest', it's been done a million times. So why do you read it? CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, man, that's the difference between a terrible fantasy novel and a good one. (I believe was talking about R.A. Salvatore, probably the icewind dale trilogy.)

For a lot more about originality, I'd highly recommend the essay "originality" from Asimov in his anthology "Gold." You can probably get it free from inter-library loan or on Amazon.

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