Being inspired doesn’t make your work the same
As most of you know I’ve been consuming a potentially unhealthy amount of anime as of late, and one thing I’ve noticed is that the shows have similarities in design and theme which makes me think the creators were inspired by each other’s content. However, because something inspires someone doesn’t mean they’re stealing ideas or copying material.I’ve heard many people say because something is similar in concept or a character has a backstory like another “so they’re basically the same?” To which I answer in all Christian love and patience: NO!
So take heart if you’re writing a story that it’s okay to watch and learn from other works of art that resemble your craft and not feel guilty.
They ARE NOT the same:
What do I mean by this? Let’s get into some concrete examples: if you’re writing a YA urban fantasy with a female heroine who’s the chosen one and a forbidden romance, people say “it’s basically Mortal Instruments.” If you’re writing a high fantasy with a powerful sought after item and fantastical creatures with kings and magic, you’re writing Lord of the Rings. If you write a story about a child hero in a world where magic is taught and practiced, it’s Harry Potter. I only mention these points because I’ve heard lots of people say things like this whenever new story ideas are pitched. And yet two things can be very similar but completely different.
Marvel’s Punisher and DC comics Jason Todd are both vigilante’s that have no qualms about killing criminals. However in detail, backstory, and personality they’re completely different characters.
Twilight and Vampire Diaries are both dramas that center around a teenage girl in a small sleepy town in a love triangle with vampires. But Vampire Diaries was written first, and in character as well as plot they’re nothing alike.
My Hero Academia was inspired off of Naruto and many American superhero comics, but in detail it’s nothing like any of them. The main character Dekku is a completely unique hero with his own journey and the entire world is different from any other superhero universe I’ve watched. The powers, villains, motives and plots are unique as well as the characters.
It’s completely fine for writers to watch good material and learn from it. That’s how we know what quality is, we have to watch it, take it in, and model our work off it. Patty Jenkins has cited the 1978 Superman film and Casablanca as inspiration for the first Wonder Woman movie. Obviously Wonder Woman is not a rip off or copy of those things but simply learned from the tactics they employed and strove to do it in their movie.
How else do writers learn if not to study the craft from those who came first?
Is there still such a thing as an original story in today's world despite social media? Yes and no. I’ve seen certain things come to the surface in entertainment that is pretty original and I find it difficult to link it to any prior entertainment. However, for the most part–we learn off what came before us. We think so many of our ideas today are original and yet low and behold, there’s almost always an inspiration subconscious or otherwise. We think the YA bad boy is unique? Before him there was James Dean, and Marlon Brando–in books there was Anne Rice’s Lestat. We think the horror scene is modern but Mary Shelly was writing scary stories back in 1818 that have since been changed to modern adaption.
We learn by what came first. There can always be a new way of telling a great story, as long as our approach and characters are original we can be inspired by a theme that's already been done.
The Hunger Games is not an original concept. A totalitarian government in a future North America where they keep the common people in line by forcing some to fight to the death. The messages in that book, freedom, one person being the difference between a system's rising and falling, and a single spark starting a flame–all great concepts but not unique to that story. What’s unique is how the story tells it.
The Matrix is basically Plato’s (the Greek Philosopher) theory of forms and allegory of the cave intertwined with leather, martial arts, and sci-fi. The movie basically exposes a world asleep to the cruel reality set before them. To become aware of that reality sets individuals apart and forces them into a harsh isolated form of living because they possess true knowledge. The movie presents people with a choice–live in a peaceful delusion like the rest of the world, or gain knowledge and with that suffering. Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 “With much wisdom comes much sorrow, the more knowledge the more grief.”
There are a million ways to tell the same story, and to stress the same themes. Important themes of the pain of knowledge, the necessity of justice, love, freedom, forgiveness, are timeless. As a writer you just need to find the best way to use those themes in your story and do it your own way. A story being old or a theme being used recurring doesn’t mean it’s bad and that you shouldn’t learn lessons from it and employ similar things in your own work. Consider prior books, films and shows like a master class (if they’re the quality ones) for how to do things in your story. Don’t copy them, just learn from their methods.
