Originality--How important is it?

[Noey]

I think the key, for me, is not to get hung up on originality, but concentrate on saying what I want to say. What is my voice? What's the message that I want to get across? What's the story that I want to tell? Originality comes from you, and only you. So, dig deep. Decide what your main character's goals are, and stay true to those goals. Decide what the tone of your story should be, and stick to that tone. In a sense, I find sometimes that it's best to ignore all the other things that have come before and put my energy into the story itself. Find your voice, and originality will follow.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

a male human who falls in love with both a vampire girl and a werewolf girl, and (guess what?) the werewolf girl and the vampire girl are old enemies...that might really be too much of a Twilight rip-off, don't you think? How much "copying" is too much?

Depends what you're doing with it.

If, for example, you developed the notion you have above because you had cogent points to make about gender roles in Twilight and what's wrong with them, you might well get something worth saying out of it. (Though critiquing gender ideation in Twilight is like shooting fish in a barrel. With no water in it. Composed entirely out of fish.)

[svb1972]

Depends what you're doing with it.

If, for example, you developed the notion you have above because you had cogent points to make about gender roles in Twilight and what's wrong with them, you might well get something worth saying out of it. (Though critiquing gender ideation in Twilight is like shooting fish in a barrel. With no water in it. Composed entirely out of fish.)

With a Bazooka loaded with high explosive shells.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I think the key, for me, is not to get hung up on originality, but concentrate on saying what I want to say. What is my voice? What's the message that I want to get across? What's the story that I want to tell? Originality comes from you, and only you. So, dig deep. Decide what your main character's goals are, and stay true to those goals. Decide what the tone of your story should be, and stick to that tone.

Agreed absolutely.

In a sense, I find sometimes that it's best to ignore all the other things that have come before and put my energy into the story itself. Find your voice, and originality will follow.

Well, yes and no. Ignoring everything that's gone before has the failure mode of thinking you are doing something original when you're unknowingly covering ground that's already been done; I'd say, at very least, be familiar with the classics of the genre you are writing in,  because if readers or publishers are going to end up thinking of it "as if you liked the Chronicles of Qestfizz you'll love this" it would be no bad idea to be clear in your head how what you are doing is and is not similar to the Chronicles of Qestfizz, which does kind of entail reading the darn things. So that you can then respond to anyone who says "You're just ripping off the Chronicles of Qestfizz" with "of course not, don't be silly, in my book the cyborg shark is on a quest for the Holy Grail because her mother was tragically kidnapped by aliens at an early age, it's completely different... "

(I am making the example up. Thankfully.)

[svb1972]

You sure?  The book sounds familiar

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

You sure?  The book sounds familiar

In neurovore's brain, the (cyborg) shark jumps YOU.

[Noey]

Good point, Neuro. Okay, I'll amend that to be, be familiar with the classics like Neuro suggests, but don't entirely define your work by what's already been done. Otherwise, you'll mostly talk yourself out of it, I think. Take it into consideration, but don't let it overwhelm you.

[arianne]

Whatever idea you come up with, someone has totally gotten to it first. I was working on another vampire slayer-esque novel, and I had (what I considered) a very original idea, so I put that in and made it a plot point. Turns out the same thing had already been used in the Vampire Academy series, which at the time I had not yet read...and did not even know the existence of. (No wonder famous authors are always getting sued for "copying" other people's work.)

[kyoryu]

Anyone ever see The Aristocrats?

Penn Jillette did a movie which was two hours of comedians telling the same joke.  Over and over and over again.

Watching it, you quickly realized that it wasn't the joke that made it interesting, it was how the individual comedians used that raw piece of - well, filth - to create something of their own.  Sarah Silverman and Bob Saget, for instance, went in two entirely different directions.

[meg_evonne]

Anyone ever see The Aristocrats?

Penn Jillette did a movie which was two hours of comedians telling the same joke.  Over and over and over again.

Watching it, you quickly realized that it wasn't the joke that made it interesting, it was how the individual comedians used that raw piece of - well, filth - to create something of their own.  Sarah Silverman and Bob Saget, for instance, went in two entirely different directions.

  excellent point