: I'm afraid of [accidental] plagiarism I've recently written a screenplay about an alien invasion. A friend immediately commented that he found similarities (some general ideas, plot devices) with

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Basically ideas are not "copyrightable," on the expression of ideas is. Even if an idea is repeated, you're not guilty of plagiarism if your presentation is different.

At a tender age, I started constructing a "Sound of Music" knockoff set in France, featuring a prominent family, and a governess for the "six" children in the shadow of World War II. (Prominent families, governesses, and children are recurring themes in literature.) I was afraid of plagiarizing, but needn't have been, because the "dialog" I produced was neither French nor Sound of Music-like but just "American." In the end, I had the governess marry "Uncle Charles" (not the father), not exactly an original twist, after spending World War II with the Maquis guerrillas (this might actually represent a contribution to literature).

So to answer your question, you won't get sued for following a cut and dried "pattern" that "everyone" has seen before. Just make sure that you are writing with your own "voice," (which, like fingerprints, are distinctive). You probably won't even get sued for inadvertent "copying" if it is limited, accidental, and not a pattern. Real plagiarists fall into a certain "mold." Just make sure that you don't.

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There is nothing new under the sun, my friend.

If you read TV Tropes you might be forgiven for thinking that all plots are like all other plots. However it is not the plots (there are considered to be only seven or so actual plots anyway) but the characterisations, details, names etc that make your world unique to you.

If you are worried that you have by chance become exactly like something else I would finish writing as if this was the first time anyone had had this idea. Don't worry because you will spend your entire time second guessing yourself. Then in the later revision and editing sessions you could check out the plots you are fearful of having replicated and look for ways to maximise what is different.

If all else fails you could hang a lampshade on the problem and have a witty character bitch about this being the plot to Half Life. If you time this for a point in the plot when some comic relief is needed then you can play this for laughs as well as cultural references especially if another character has never played the game and thinks they are in a some other SciFi movie.

The chances are that by the time you have finished your work that you will ave found plenty of ways in which your story is different. It is always easier to fix a finished draft than try and improve something that you've not written yet.

The chances are that if the editor sees value in your work then they will give you feedback on how you can maximise that value and avoid being derivative. Also if a station picks up your script for production the legal team would double check this as part of their job.

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