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TheFireDragon
Nov '18

Warning: Long Paragraph made by a weirdo ahead:

So, I started this book for NaNoWriMo and the storyline is based in the far future where humans live their lives peacefully. A couple things happen and basically, the main character realizes that the human race was wiped out long ago and everyone she has ever known, including herself, was an android the whole time. (Uwu, so "original".) Their souls and memories were put into machines and the futuristic world they once knew was only an illusion created by a larger alien species. They had seemingly put their own species at sake to preserve the human race (or at least the memories left behind from it). The main goal throughout the book is not necessarily to survive, but an unending curiosity as to why someone would do such a thing. What was so important about the human race that someone would go out of their way to save its remnants?

It's come to my attention that the idea of a fake world and androids have been used A LOT. Then again, the main idea of the book is not necessarily technology based, but a more philosophical and "search for meaning" kind of thing. So I was wondering what you guys might have thought about it.
Thief or Nief!?
(I couldn't find anything else that rhymed with Thief...)

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    Nov '18

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spicy_sweets
Nov '18

You can't really steal ideas tho
As long as you're putting your unique story into the plot then you're good

amortelito
Nov '18
1

Well is true that this premise has been done many times before, but that is just the general idea, this is not the story. Is there a main character? Without spoilers, what is the story about? Those questions are what makes your idea different. You are not a thief as long as you make the story different from the existent stories.

Example:
Premise: After a war between man and machine humans become slaves. (this has been done by many)
Story: A human falls in love with a robot and they try to run away together. To do that they need to steal a ship and recruit a crew members.

Same premise: After a war between man and machine humans become slaves.
Story: A renegade human travels back in time to prevent humans from losing the war.

qwerty
Nov '18

Probably the vast majority of ideas people write about have already been done before by someone else. And anyway the idea is original enough that it doesn't seem stale to me (closest thing I can think of is The Matrix but I haven't read or watched much fiction in a pretty long time).

As long as you aren't copying anything too specific like using other people's characters or having a bunch of actual plot points identical to something else, you're good.

dawgofdawgness
Nov '18

It’s fine as long as you put your own unique spin on it. There are plenty of different stories that take place in similar worlds/that have similar concepts. This is how genres are born :slight_smile: take from many, not one

kytri
Nov '18

As long as you're not plagiarizing or directly copying something too closely you're fine.

Premises aren't ever 100% unique, it's what you do with it that matters.

punkarsenic
Nov '18

if you didnt like, read a particular story and think 'oh yeah im using that' you cannot be a thief, or a plagiarist

coincidental similarities exist, a lot of ideas have already been done and i dont think new writers esp should be worried abt being derivative - and certainly not derivative of things theyve never actually read or watched

this idea is popular bc theres a lot of great philosophical content as you mentioned, for a writer theres a lot to mine and for a reader theres a lot to take from it. and youre you - you have your own experiences, opinions, biases, that nobody else has and that will make your story inimitable.

however, i recommend you read / watch those other stories with a similar concept - see what they do, well and wrong, where they take the idea, look for the places where youre going 'but what about x???' zoom in on x, thats your unique take.

OttoGruenwald
Nov '18

Naw you're good. Remember that robots were a trope even before Asimov. It's not what you write, its how you write it.

inkythoughts
Nov '18

I mean I'm not suuuuper into sci-fi but I think you're good to go

That's basically like saying "these two characters hate each other at the start and learn to get along as the story proceeds" has been used a lot. Yes. It's been done. But there's always the characters themselves, the story beyond the summary, atmosphere, the individual message and meanings, ... You will be surprised how different the exact same premise even can turn out! (I think my favourite example for this is ..coffee shop AUs in fanfiction haha)