Once again I have neglected my blog but I have spent the last month hopelessly and tirelessly looking for a job and slowly moving back to South Wales with my parents so things have been a bit crazy!
The only thing that has been keeping me marginally sane is my writing (although I think being a bit crazy can only be good for your work) and today I realised that I had written myself in to a corner. Without going in to too much detail I've had to write certain rules for my fantasy world but there was one crucial part of my story that completely broke all of these rules and I didn't even notice it until today when I was redrafting my outline. However, one of my friends (Hi, Molly) gave me a brilliant idea that, although after some serious thinking I can't really use, seemed to solve my problems. I immediately shouted out with joy before joking that she better not sue me for intellectual property if I ever get published. Although this was a joke and I'm pretty sure she would never sue me (please don't sue me, Molly) it did get me thinking about inspiration, ideas and when it's acceptable to use other people's. I know that there are many theories about there are only a handful of stories in the world that we rehash and that some authors use other authors to inspire their work but is it okay to blatantly take another person's idea and put it in your story? I think it can be a very thin line and in my situation it is perfectly acceptable as my friend was genuinely trying to help me get out of this hole I had dug myself in to. Asking people to read your drafts and then give you ideas is only going to improve your work and if they give you the last missing piece of your puzzle then, hopefully, a dedication at the start of the book will be enough for them. Writers may be creative people but that doesn't mean we have everything defined and sorted from the start so I do not see why we should feel guilty about helping each other out. After all, if we're truly committed to our stories why shouldn't we do everything we can to make it the best it can be? Of course, taking one author's idea and just rewriting it something I cannot get on board with. There will always be similarities between books, especially fantasy ones as magic and the supernatural are always going to be prominent features across the board. I think the key is to put your own spin on it and make your own rules and stick to them in order to make your story original. There are plenty of story formulas and it can be difficult to avoid these but stealing key elements of someone else's work is dodgy to say the least. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but it's probably not very interesting and I'm sure you'd end up in loads of trouble. With this in mind I'm beginning to appreciate that writing is not as insular as I once thought. Without sounding too pretentious, I get inspiration from the people around me, the things I do and everything else I see in the world so my ideas can't all just be lazing around in my brain waiting for me to pluck them out. Writing isn't necessarily a team effort but I think that maybe it would be a little arrogant of me to think that everything I write is a simple result of my creativity as there's a lot more going on before the words even hit the page.
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