There Are No New Ideas
It's true, there aren't. There are only new takes or spins on ideas. I went to go see Red Riding Hood last week (me at a movie, there's a shocker). Some friends and family had seen the trailer and immediately thought of my novel Scarlet Moon. In mine Ruth (aka RRH) falls in love with the werewolf that attacked her as a child. Her cousin Peter also plays a huge role in the story. From the movie trailer/synopsis we gleaned that there was a werewolf with a deep connection to RRH and that one of the main characters of the story was named Peter. The words "Blood Red Moon" made people chuckle and caused one to inquire "You mean a SCARLET Moon?" Well, I've seen the movie and I can say for certain that it is NOT my story. In fact it is very, very different than my story. Funny thing is when I was writing my book a met a fellow writer also working on the retelling of RRH where she was in love with the werewolf. We even pitched to the exact same publisher it turned out. Ultimately, though, our stories were very different even though the underlying concept was the same.
So, yeah, it's just about putting a fresh twist on something. There are types of stories that appeal to people and those are the stories we tend to tell. One popular one is the hero's journey broken down and immortalized by Joseph Campbell. There are several beats that most hero's journey stories contain. And as readers or viewers we respond well to these types of stories. They strike a chord within us. I won't take the time here to discuss the points of the journey in depth. I do, however, want to provide you with another illustration of what I'm talking about.
Quick, who am I describing?
- Orphaned boy
- Raised by his Aunt and Uncle in relative isolation
- His Uncle is harder on him than seems necessary
- Boy finally is told by a stranger with magic like abilities that his father was murdered by the villain (the one he must ultimately face and defeat)
- Boy learns he has special powers which he has to learn to control and use through study and practice
- Boy is befriended by and trained by an old, wise wizard
- Boy makes new friends: a boy, a girl, and a hairy giant (the other boy and the girl eventually end up together after much fighting and frustration between the two of them)
- Boy has a trusted sidekick who is not human who often acts as a messenger
- Boy discovers he has an uncommon talent for piloting a flying apparatus
- Boy acquires one of the tools of his trade, a cylindrical object to be held in the hand and used as a weapon; boy uses the weapon in a number of duels
- Boy comes out on top after first confrontation with the villain
- Boy is honored publically in front of all his peers
- As the fight between the forces of good and the forces of dark continue to rage boy finds himself continuously in the center of things
- As the fight wears on the boy becomes more mopey
- Boy finally discovers that he has a very intense personal connection to the villain
- Boy also learns that his old wizard mentor also helped teach the villain when he was a boy
- Boy's mentor is killed in battle, actually, he allows himself to be killed to serve the greater good
- Another of boy's mentors dies leaving him feeling alone
- One of boy's other allies who has always been slightly more timid than him and living in his shadow wins one of the key victories in the final battle
- Boy gives himself up to his enemies during the final battle in order to ultimately win
Think you know? If you said Harry Potter, okay. If you said Luke Skywalker, okay. If you said both, congratulations!
