Ripping Off Other Writers: A Guide

Stories have to come from somewhere. I know several people that have thought about writing, people with more talent than I have when it comes to putting words on paper, yet they cannot come up with an idea. I don’t really understand this, but I’ve decided to reveal my super-detailed process that I have used to come up with my best ideas.

What Lies In Me:

The concept for my first book began years ago. I suppose it all started when discussing anime with a friend. We joked about a certain power, the ability to use alchemical reactions by applying blood, and how hilarious that could be in action.

Go forward a year. I had a dream, a nightmare. As I woke up, the events of What Lies In Me began to take place. Roughly a third of that book occurred, and then I woke up again.

Go forward another two years. The dreams have stuck with me perfectly this entire time. One night, at one in the morning, I begin to write down the nightmare. After that, I could not stop writing. It became a book. The resultant plot came from Babylonian mythology and an effort to make the dream that I had make sense.

Disbelief Suspended:

It all started with One Punch Man, an anime about a guy who can defeat anything in one punch. The creators do a surprising amount with it, though it is a parody. The tension that the main character feels in fights is just not there, because he outclasses everything infinitely. An idea began to form.

What would the opposite of One Punch Man be? There are many options, but I decided on a man that is powerless, but knows that he will not die, thanks to fate and circumstance. After justifying this with a death date, and creating a ‘lancer’ character for the book (check out TvTropes), I started trying to kill my main character. Nothing worked, of course.

Since this was a parody, I threw realism out of the window. This resulted in ninjas, mermaids, wyrms, warlocks, sprawling cities, monk militias, exploding continents, dark magic, people made of stone, and a small, well-mannered lizard with the ability to spew fire. I threw in whatever I wanted to throw in. Eventually, a throwaway line about a character became a conflicting villain, and the book accidentally got serious and gripping.

Godless:

I played a game called Titan Souls. The atmosphere and feel was brilliant, but I wished there was more story. Combining the ideas of the story with the Christian God that I am familiar with and a Japanese book series called Katanagatari, then sprinkling in a little bit of Chakra, I ended up with Godless. It’s still pretty early in development, but I’ve created a timeless, chaotic version of the apocalypse. It really is quite something and I can’t wait to share it!

Now, you may notice that the ideas here all come from other mediums. That’s what creativity is. There isn’t a single book I can think of with something completely original in it. Creativity is a blend of experiences put together with a unique mind.

Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you?