My jaw dropped when someone told me Lion King is based on Hamlet. Then I considered the storylines:
Both are about an heir apparent who runs away after his uncle kills his father and takes the throne
Okay, I get the similarities. But was the retelling intentional or simply a clever idea that uniquely germinated in two places?
Consider the popular opera La Traviata, about a courtesan who falls in love with a man who might be out of her league. Now consider the movies Moulin Rouge! and Pretty Woman, which are both great stories on their own but did they borrow their plotlines from the opera?
Maybe or maybe not
From 2019 to 2023, I wrote Chrom Y Returns—about a dystopian future where women valiantly try to repopulate the world with men after they all tragically died centuries earlier. When I finished the novel, I started looking for comps—i.e., books with similar story elements that might sit on a bookstore shelf next to my novel.
There are more than a few other sci-fi books with plots grounded in all women societies. Frankly, too many of these novels feature a women-only utopia being invaded by marauding men who want to conquer them (thankfully—my novel has none of those themes). But my point is that authors worldwide are noodling about ideas with similar premises, settings, motivations, or characters.
Some stories are borrowed from famous originals, and others are simply good ideas that coincidently percolate in different corners of the globe.
My advice to other authors:
Write the story you love. Let your characters choose their destinies—and don’t worry about whether the theme or plot has been done before. Your style, voice, and spin will drive a story that is as unique as it needs to be.
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