some ideas die a'borningsome are terminated others still get terminated With Extreme Prejudice
had an idea a few weeks back
a mash-up of a couple of different genres & tropes
nothing wrong with that
lotsa folks do it
there ain't an original idea out there [1]
but as I was turning the parts around seeing how this one fit with that one suddenly the proverbial nickel dropped
I realized this was The Exact Same Story as a favorite episode of a popular TV show
now, lemme 'splain the difference betwixt
"idea"
"situation"
"story"
an idea is the basic concept
f'r instance, I find myself returning again and again to the idea of The Innocent Falsely Accused
I've done several stories based on that
but I have not done The Pompous Martinet Naval Captain Who Is Falsely Accused By His Crew
that's a situation, not just an idea
it's possible to turn that basic idea into two different stories [2]
it's possible to take the exact same situation with the exact same characters and turn out not one, not two but three or more fresh interpretations [3]
but a paranoid ball-bearing rattlin' strawberry obsessed naval captain who gets set up by a wannabee novelist cum pop psychologist who manipulates other less well trained officers into mutiny?
Gotta be The Caine Mutiny
you can change the war, change the ship even change the broad strokes of the characters but you can't hide the original
back to my now terminated idea
as I said, it wasn't fresh, it was a mash-up but as I was mulling it over what finally leapt out at me was how it did not significantly differ from this other idea on this TV show
oh, the characters were mine
didn't have the same job titles as the show
but still, what I was writing was the equivalent of the obsessive compulsive worry-bead carrying lemon-fixated general who is lured into a compromising position by a philosopher-poet who turned his illiterate troops against him
now that story might be fun if every element sprang organically from the core idea
but that's not how this now DOA idea presented itself
it came about as a very deliberate cobbling together
one from Column A one from Column B
and while it might be fun to do a story using the broadstrokes of the basic idea
this one is so much like its template I can no longer see my story but rather only the original story underneath
so it's gone
sayonara adios cuta chogi hasta la bye-bye
don't let the screendoor hit you on your way out
other writers might muscle through and complete the story and put it out on the market [4] but I can't
I won't
I'm not wired that way
.
.
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[1] Is there, Big Steve King?
[2] Mutiny On The Bounty vs. The Caine Mutiny
[3] Mutinies On The Bounty 1935, 1962, & 1984
[4] Hello again, Big Steve King!