Awhile ago I stumbled upon a cute and funny little quiz for writers/artist’s and their original characters. As a fantasy writer I found the quiz to be extremely humorous, but at the same time in the very back of my mind I was thinking, there really can’t be a quiz or a measure on how original your character is. The originality is based on how well you write your character and how well developed or believable their qualities are, not on whether someone has used their qualities before.

Following that line of thought I wanted to write a news article about story/plot/character originality

Story and Plot originality:
Contrary to what many writers think, Story and Plot are not the same thing.
Plot is the things that occur which the characters must either act upon or work around.
Story is the breadth of the novel or book, its how the characters act upon or work around the plot.
(and even though I’ve just made a distinction between the two, I will undoubtedly use them interchangeably throughout this article)

EXAMPLE:
Plot a mountain suddenly rises up and separates two villages
Story a boy must climb the mountain, to retrieve medicine for his sick mother, his father would have done it, but the mountain killed him when it sprung up unwanted like a cold during summer vacation. As he’s climbing the deadly mountain he meets strange creatures like, his heroine who will give him headaches throughout the journey as they come to terms with their feelings for one another, his trusty sidekick that comes at the EXACT moment they need him and is likely a smaller and/or more clever character when it comes to the ways of the mountain.

They reach the top of the mountain where we meet our heroines (likely-long-lost) father, a great wizard who made the mountain in the first place for no discernable reason. He takes his daughter and the trusty sidekick so that the hero must learn to fend for himself, which he does, probably learning magic on his way down the mountain (and if he’s lucky he’ll see a vision of his dead father that gives him the strength to go on), to the village below.

He defeats the evil wizard and saves his girl, and his sidekick, and gets rid of the mountain with his new magic so that he doesn’t have to climb the dumb thing again.
Oh’ and he gets the medicine for his mom.

F.Y.I. the medicine is a plot device called a McGuffen. A McGuffen is something that propels the story foreword. Think of it like the ring in Lord of the Rings, the whole story is moved by this need to destroy or find the ring. Basically, it your story’s personal search for the Holy Grail. Not all books have this, but any book where the point of the story is to find something has a McGuffen. Sometimes in the end of the book the McGuffen is completely forgotten, like with the medicine.

So there’s your explanation on what plot/story is, now let’s talk about the pros and cons of being original.

Don’t get me wrong, I think having an original story is extremely important, it’s just to what lengths must a writer go to be original without weakening their story.

Now this plot quiz that I did wanted to say that a story with too many qualities that have been used before, is weak and automatically clichéd, and though this is understandable in some cases, it can never be taken as an absolute.

One of the questions was something like, ‘is your character an orphan?’ Now, this might be a feature that is often used but it shouldn’t weaken your story if your character is. Only your use of this quality can weaken the story.

That was my main problem with this quiz, it can only judge “originality” in a superficial manner, be it the physicality of the character or the bare surface qualities of what makes up the plot.
Take for example, the Harry Potter series. Was J.K. Rowling, the first person to write about a school of magic? No. was she the first person to write about a hero that was orphaned and must now avenge and protect those he loved? Hells No! However, she was the first to write about it in such a way that it was utterly believable. The reader is there with Harry as he battles with Voldemort , and the reader is pulled into a world that is so cleverly created, with secret societies and cities, rules and terminology that never get too confusing. I mean, c’mon, chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts every flavor beans? Original, but more importantly, believable within the context of the book.

Are you following me? Good.
How ‘bout we play a game now?

A beautiful princess is captured by a dragon. She's imprisoned in a tower. A young knight is sent to the tower to rescue her. What comes next?

That's right! The princess falls in love with the dragon and tells the knight to shove off.

Silly, maybe, but you weren't expecting it, were you? The curse of writing a book is that there are precedents for many plotlines, and the many plotlines have become predictable. So predictable that you wouldn’t even have to read the books to know what would happen. It’s the story and not the plot that keeps the reader reading, take Harry Potter again, you knew he was going to defeat voldemort…but you kept reading because they claimed your attention.
Some predictable plots.

• An orphaned boy will always seek revenge or the truth.
• An amnesiac will always be royalty or someone important.
• An unusual alignment of the planets will always bring a chance for the end of the world or the birth of someone special.
• An army or fortress facing impossible odds will always triumph.

You can either deviate from these completely - try writing a story about a family of heroes one day: Mum, Dad and the kids! (Oh’ wait, that’s been done too – The Incredibles) - or use them to trick your readers by twisting the formula; who'd ever expect the boy with the special-magical birthmark to die, or a prophecy to be wrong, or the usurper of a throne to be a good man? In the same way, it’s not always best to be compelled to have a completely happy ending. Fantasy and many other genre’s are intrinsically about good versus evil, but that doesn't mean it has to be an unmixed or total victory...
Consider writing a story that doesn't have implications for the entire world; a kingdom, a town, or even a modest group of individuals is usually enough. Consider having no royalty involved in your story (fun though royalty are). And always think about the road less travelled - you're bound to strike on an interesting, original plot eventually if you sit and think to yourself, 'What if? What if? ...'

HINTS!!!
Romance - Don't feel compelled to pair off all your characters. Maybe some never find 'the one', or permanently nurse a doomed love. Maybe some just aren't romantically inclined!
Death - Don't necessarily give a character time to gasp out their noble last words. Don't kill them off at random, either. The faithful servant doesn't ALWAYS have to die, and the noble prince doesn't ALWAYS have to live.
Gender - Ever considered a female dragon slayer? Or a male captive of a dragon?
Age - Ever considered a hero over forty? (Though if you’re doing teen fiction…keep it under twenty)
World History - 'In the beginning, the gods created ...' is fine, but why not try making a world that was created by accident?
Languages - If you have no envisioned grammatical reason for having apostrophes in your fantasy language, DON'T PUT THEM THERE.



Character Originality:
let’s say I wrote up a character, girl or boy, and in theory they were an amazing character, original, interesting, and well drawn with no influences from anyone else….that doesn’t ever mean it’ll be a good character/book

let me say now, it doesn’t matter how AMAZING the character is if the story is horribly written. The story has to be believable, if not, no one will ever like your story, no matter if your character is amazing our not.

It would be like writing up a heroine who is extremely independent, strong, and capable, but you only say she’s independent and all those other things. In the story she is actually constantly whining and being saved by others, and really has no personality to call her own, but the writer still says she’s independent.

Those of us in the know would call her a Mary Sue. Back away and delete the story then.

A lot of people fret and agonize over clichés. My advice? Forget them and write.

It’s understandable for people to say that a character with pink hair is clichéd, however if you write about an amazing punk rock heroine with pink hair, and painted nails with daisies done with a highlighter, an awesome attitude, who goes out and sings to crowds with this beautiful throaty voice, plays with the boys, and can cuss like a sailor and still seem cute…then no one is going to say cliché as long as it’s well written.

I wrote this article as a prequel to another article. The sequel will include posts and thumbs that were done in a forum i started almost a month ago. I recieved almost one hundred and fifty posts, and well over five hundred original characters and thier stories. Please watch out for it.