As I (and plenty of other people) have mentioned before, theres no such thing as an original idea. Its something I’ve been conscious of for a while, and by no means a bad thing. When I first came across this idea it made me realise that a lot of my ideas were almost exact copies of something i’d seen or read somewhere and for a while I avoided going looking for new ideas or inspiration since I assumed that would lead to me copying, and if I had no knowledge of the original idea I held onto plausible deniability. What I’ve come to realise is its the opposite. Everyone is inspired by someone, and and its easy to trace people influence through similarities, but by combining multiple points of inspiration, using lots of ideas in new ways you can create something that is wholly original. After all, while there may be only seven plots, there is only one Harry Potter, one Kings Speech, one Wizard of Oz.

So I no longer shy away from describing my ideas to myself as ‘a bit like…. but with more of a …… vibe. And this character is a bit similar to…..’. By drawing inspiration from lots of different sources and applying your own creativity you can take unoriginal ideas and create a whole that is unique.