A tale as old as time...

[StillStunned]

There's no such thing as a new tale. Every story we write can be reduced to a finite number of plotlines, every character is a variation on an archetype.

Or so the scholars would have us believe. It doesn't stop us from writing those stories, of course.

The question here is twofold: which of your stories do you think is the least original in terms of plot and tropes, and which is the most original?

This isn't about how you told the story. It's not about reader response. It's not about how much emotion your characters evoked. It's not about the dialogue or the scenes or your gorgeous prose.

It's about those stories that can be reduced to "boy meets girl and they live happily ever after." Or "you killed my father, prepare to die." Or, more Lit-appropriate, "two people forced into physical proximity that results in sex."

And it's about the twists that you didn't even see coming as the writer. The fresh takes that make the story completely original. The stories that make you think "I hate to boast, but I don't think anyone's done this before."

So let's hear yours. Don't be embarrassed about retreading old paths. An old trope can still be told in a way that readers enjoy. And by the same account a completely original plot might fall flat. This isn't about successes and failures. Just the basic plots and how original they are.

 

[StillStunned]

I'll start.

My least original plot, I think, is "Too Cold Not To Fuck". Brother and sister have to share a sleeping bag. Sex ensues.

My most original plot is probably "The Only Flower On Rose Street". A burglar has to pretend to be a whore when she's caught, and is tricked into revealing her dark past.

 

[EmilyMiller]

If I ignore strokers under 2,000 words, I’m the Queen of overly convoluted plots. WhoreBNB is a prima facie example. It started as me thinking of the silly title. Then it was a sex romp between an older married couple of swingers and two escorts. Then it was about the MMC reliving his first time with his wife and about one of the escort’s career aspirations. And a load of other stuff.

I appear unable to write simple.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

My "Black Ties and Green Dresses" is very Cinderellaesque. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was pointed out in the comments.
My FMC was reluctant to go to the ball, until her "fairy godmother" prodded her a bit, and she didn't run off at midnight. But otherwise it tracks.

 

[dirk2024]

For me and my limited catalog...


Least original is probably my first story about stepsiblings.

Most original (and lowest scoring) story is the Train Ride, a somewhat romantic, somewhat Mind Control story.

 

[Bazzle]

My story Colliding Worlds is boss meets staff member on night out- has sex and regrets it. Simple and been told millions of times.

I'm an innocence thief. I think is the usual coming of age story but with a twist - told from the point of narrator 'addiction'.

 

[THBGato]

None of my plots are in the slightest bit original.

Of my stories, Love is a Place is probably both the least original and most original.

Least, because it's your standard friends-to-lovers with bad communication skills causing problems plot. Most, because I've been told by several commentators - including some authors I admire deeply - that it's the most original story on lit... but what they mean is that the character of Samantha is an original creation.* The use of synesthesia in particular is often picked up on by readers.

*hardly. She's Christopher Boone meets Elinor Oliphant meets Temperance Brennan.

 

[Bamagan]

It amuses me to contemplate originality. It seems to be one of those things that many people claim to desire yet don't know how to handle it or appreciate it if they get it. Perhaps a few of them even mean they crave that feeling of bafflement that occurs when they experience something almost completely outside their frame of reference.

I don't think any of my stories are particularly original. About half are chapters of a very long novel, which is basically a fairy tale about mischievous magic run amok. Many involve 'magical' transformations, which have a very long pedigree, especially in morality tales and mythology. But for me, that was never much of a consideration. Sometimes it's more enjoyable to repeat something you know you appreciate than to seek out novelties.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Hinn is a Hero’s Journey complete with Maguffins. Multiple external parties, mysterious initiation, and assembling a supporting cast of characters.

The rest I’ve released are pretty much strokers, but "I Didn’t Know" is the beginning of a hidden-history exploration, just corporate not the magic basis I used in Hinn.

 

[SkyBubble]

There's no such thing as a new tale. Every story we write can be reduced to a finite number of plotlines

But a much larger number of variations on that plotline. Different ways of executing it.

For example, take the Czech play Parfumerie. It concerns to co-workers who are both in a lonely hearts club and don't get along, not knowing that they're writing to each other.

It gave rise to four adaptations: The movie The Shop Around the Corner, the movie musical The Good Old Summertime, the Broadway musical She Loves Me, which is a fun musical, by the way, and the movie You've Got Mail. The same source, same plot. Each executed differently, so while they share commonalities due to the same source, they're all different, distinct works.

 

[SkyBubble]

It amuses me to contemplate originality. It seems to be one of those things that many people claim to desire yet don't know how to handle it or appreciate it if they get it.

That's why we have franchises.

But as T.S. Eliot said, "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal."

 

[StillStunned]

It amuses me to contemplate originality. It seems to be one of those things that many people claim to desire yet don't know how to handle it or appreciate it if they get it. Perhaps a few of them even mean they crave that feeling of bafflement that occurs when they experience something almost completely outside their frame of reference.

The story I mentioned as my least original has nearly 190k views and more than 3k votes. "Unoriginal" definitely doesn't translate to "unpopular".

 

[NuclearFairy]

Ah geeze, I don't know. I could give you a archetype description of each of my stories and let you guys decide, but that wouldn't be keeping it to most and least.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Ah geeze, I don't know. I could give you a archetype description of each of my stories and let you guys decide, but that wouldn't be keeping it to most and least.

You can always do what I did, and pick two you wanna talk about

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

While it was fun, my least original was probably Shannon's Match, where Chris' wife sets up his brother with his nemesis, the HOA lady, on a blind date for the end of summer pool party. It was a hastily-assembled, last-minute Summer Lovin' entry a few years ago and had some fun elements, but wasn't a contender in the contest, barely getting a red H. It's fallen since then and I haven't written another Shannon and Chris tale since then.

One of my three or four most original stories is Hard Way Home, the story of a young girl taken by Americans Indians on the American frontier in the 1770s. She is raised as an Indian, falls in love, and seems headed for a sweet, idyllic life when tribal rivalries really mess things up. It's set against a historic backdrop and doesn't focus as much on sex as on the depth of the story itself, so it was in N&N and is still one of my higher-rated, lesser-read stories.

 

[Carnevil9]

My most original story is probably my least popular one: "A Very Dear Friend." A second person monolog about someone who is deluding themselves about how they feel about their friend, their romantic partner, and themself.

 

[NuclearFairy]

You can always do what I did, and pick two you wanna talk about

I'll have to think on it a bit.

 

[NotWise]

Plot hasn't been a big part of my stories for a while.

Least original is probably any of my "Pixie" stories They're cookie-cutter stories, all with the same plot: cougar sees boy, cougar fucks boy, cougar moves on.

Most original might be Oscar's Place: a man and woman meet at a run down hotel haunted by (among others) three people who died in a love triangle murder-suicide and were buried under the hotel bar. The woman in the ghostly trio acts as a matchmaker for the couple while she tells her story, which she knows is about to end. The couple inadvertently triggers the destruction of the hotel then helps identify the remains when they're found under the floor and has them laid to rest.

Ghost stories are such fertile ground.

 

[iwatchus]

I guess my most original is Fantasia. Simplest description is MMC wife dies, he falls in love with new woman, but, magic makes things happen out of order weirdly.
Probably also the greatest density of sex act per word of any story of mine. It's published as four very short chapters, so my most bite size reading.

My least original is it All Adds Up, a romance (shockingly). Woman meets handsome, artsy man, doesn't trust him, then falls in love and they get married.

Both meh ratings for me. Until the recent sweeps, It All Adds Up was my second lowest rated story, just above my lone LW entry.

 

[iwatchus]

I'll have to think on it a bit.

Let me take a shot at yours. None of them quite straight forward.

My suggestion for least original The Party: shy woman meets shy man at party and they hit it off. It does have a significant twist or should I say he has six significant twists and an interesting heritage.

Most original: Neptune's Blessings: Female rapes MMC, gets pregnant, he has to raise the offspring while being abused, until she abuses a child as well and he flees.

 

[AG31]

None of my stories have much plot. They'd all fall into the category of un-original. Just tapping into the archetype. But I like 'em.

 

[SkyBubble]

Ghost stories are such fertile ground.

One of the profs I had the privilege of knowing and studying with in college is the 1977 Lovecraft Award winner for ghost stories. Check out The Old House of Fear.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Least original - obviously my café or street meeting stories, which are man meets woman and they talk, sex eventually happens.

Most original - probably Songs of Seduction - Water, where the male and female of the human species are forever separated by the evolutionary shift of one being a land creature, the other dwelling in water. How does the species survive?

 

[Trionyx]

Most original story:
Eddie’s Christmas Gift
Won’t give the reason why as it would spoil the very unusual ending.
Least original story: I strive to come up with new plots and/or ideas for each story. Not always successful, but I don’t have a least original plot that I can list here.

 

[Jorunn]

Most original - The Zebrafish - by far. A scientific team re-animates a frozen Viking. Rather than introduce the modern world, they place him and a volunteer lass (who pretends to be married) in a replica longhouse in a private fjord. A female anthropologist from the scientific team has sex with the Viking and turns over the child to be raised in the fjord. Not original enough? I put it into LW, and used the POV of the anthropologist, who fills the role of the dreaded ‘other woman’.