[Asraloth]

i have found that, given the immense size of the world of the wot, jordan has used too many ideas. i have only read tEotW, but i've read synopses of the rest, and it seems to me that his world is getting so huge, that many ideas that i had thought of (without reading his books) were actually employed by him.

i suppose this isn't really a jordan post, but i just find that his world is so big that it will take all the best ideas floating around our collective unconsciousness.

however, i can see a plus side to this; perhaps it will motivate us into creating much more original worlds.


i am sure there are other fat fantasies that must have done this to my fellow writer's.
you know, you have this great idea for a race or a talisman or something, then you realised that it's already been used.
one particular instance was when i thought up a race like the Aiel, which, after reading some info on the Aiel later, i scrapped because they were almost identical.

so, has it happened to you?

[Erebus]

Has it happned to me? You betcha! Years ago, I had this great idea for a series of novels based upon the adventures of a boy wizard! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif

[KATS]

Actually, I would argue that no idea is genuinely original. Most ideas are spawned by either real life (ie history) or someone else’s ideas. Many of the well known races and stories can be traced to mythology. Dragons, unicorns, bigfoot, etc. are all creatures that are very old and very much based on actual animals.

People’s perceptions aren’t always that accurate. A few years ago several residents of a subdivision in England reported sights of a lion. Turns out it was a neighbor’s yellow cat, a pet. Somehow this small feline was seen as a lion.

Applying this to these mythological creatures, imagine a farmer back 3000 odd years finds a complete and intact fossilized dinosaur, what would his reaction be? Could be that this is how the dragon was born.

Now, you just have to apply this to your stories and there can be infinite variety.

Even Jordan did this. He has a group of people, Traveler’s or something. They are pacifists that wear bright cloths and travel around in wagons. Anyway, these people were based on a real life group of people who live primarily in South Carolina. Jordan simple exaggerated a few characteristics and minimized other characteristics.

[Bardos]

Don't get me started on Jordan again! http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

Btw, lately no, that (seeing some1 else having used an idea very similar to mine) has not hapened to me. It has hapened when I was younger and used to write about elves and stuff.

[EnderW]

I have no original thought.

[Alai]

I had an idea too. Just that all my ideas ended up being either in Ender's Game or Dark Angel http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/frown.gif

[Feacus Fidelle]

I've begun reading "The Golden Compass", and my idea of a svalnix--a little pit creature that accompanies the wizards in my stories--sounds striking similar to the daemons in that book ~_~

[Alucard]

It's happened to me before. The first book I wrote takes place under a theocracy, where the governing church forced the world into a regression to easier control the population. I found out recently, that a book was published last year that had a similar theme. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was close enough to be, well, a little annoying. But I've already finished writing this book (though, haven't edited it yet), so I'm not going to change it. As Kats said, genuinely original ideas are few and far between. Unless your ideas just seem like carbon copies of others (and you aren't actually nabbing from other authors intentionally), then I see no reason to fret.

[enazwo]

Creativity does not take place in a vacuum and so it is with little concern that some ideas,even character's names pop up in successfully published works when in fact I have thought of the idea years before.

Example: This one time I had this idea for a story about this boy, Bob, who finds a magical sword, called Sharpy, The Bob is befriended by a wise wizard, Fred, when he finds out there are mean people, Killers, who want to kill Bob and Fred, then use the Sharpy to take over the world and turn humans into a food supply, Ravioli, for their dragons, goblins and robots. And the most evil thing is they will use the magical sword, Sharpy, to destroy the worlds only beer supplier then ultimatly rule the galaxy as father and son.

So you can see we have all had ideas stolen by famous people.

[This message has been edited by enazwo (edited March 10, 2002).]

[estranghero]

Damn, enazwo, you too?!? http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/biggrin.gif