not a copy

[zex95966]

I was wondering if authors when you are inspired by a particular movie/scene/show and want to implement it into a story of your own, How you end up writing it without it coming across as a worse copy of the same thing?

 

[TxRad]

I was wondering if authors when you are inspired by a particular movie/scene/show and want to implement it into a story of your own, How you end up writing it without it coming across as a worse copy of the same thing?

That's where using your own ideas and not copying from someone else, comes into play. That or have a better idea than the original. You incorporate Ideas, not copy them.

 

[oggbashan]

I was wondering if authors when you are inspired by a particular movie/scene/show and want to implement it into a story of your own, How you end up writing it without it coming across as a worse copy of the same thing?

You should use it as an inspiration for your own story and not as something to copy.

Most of Shakespeare's plays were based on someone else's original, but once Shakespeare got his hands in it, he turned it into something very different and better.

You may not be Shakespeare, but you can be original even when using an existing plot.

Og

Edited for PS: I used a Piers Anthony short story The Bridge as inspiration for my Christmas Fairy story (with an acknowledgement, of course).

 

[bronzeage]

You should use it as an inspiration for your own story and not as something to copy.

Most of Shakespeare's plays were based on someone else's original, but once Shakespeare got his hands in it, he turned it into something very different and better.

You may not be Shakespeare, but you can be original even when using an existing plot.

Og

Edited for PS: I used a Piers Anthony short story The Bridge as inspiration for my Christmas Fairy story (with an acknowledgement, of course).

Then Leonard Bernstein comes along and turns the Montaques and Capulets into dancers.

This is the hard truth of writing, which many people never grasp. Ideas are easy to come by. The execution is difficult.

 

[sr71plt]

As Ogg says, you take it as inspiration. You don't try to recreate it; you stand it on its head as Bernstein did with Romeo and Juliet (West Side Story) or Tom Stoppard did with Hamlet (Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead).

 

[Stella_Omega]

Or, not even stand on its head-- you just might have interpreted that scene differently, or expected it to go in a different direction, and want to show it that way.

 

[ExoMani]

I was wondering if authors when you are inspired by a particular movie/scene/show and want to implement it into a story of your own, How you end up writing it without it coming across as a worse copy of the same thing?

I don’t want to come off sound condescending, but I think it’s really pretty simple. Put your own spin on the idea that inspired you and some real effort into your writing.

 

[laurafairlie]

Plots are recycled constantly in every genre from plays to novels to films. There are a few incredibly original takes on these plots though. When they are "unique," it is because the person who wrote them has what is called artistic ability.

 

[Carnevil9]

If I'm inspired by something I read or watch, and want to incorporate the idea into my own work, I try to distill it down to its essence rather than its obvious superficial structure. That way, you get a more powerful story, and there is little chance that it will look anything like the original work.

For example, don't copy the plot, the characters, the setting; copy the emotions, the conflicts, the ambiguities. But copy them into your own characters, plots and settings.

 

[sr71plt]

Either, or--and several other ways as well.

(I've just come from a Virginia Festival of the Book program where an author has written a couple of "Becky Thatcher" books--the later life of the young girl in Tom Sawyer.)