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Imagine you decide to create a sprawling series that spans multiple novels or games or another medium. The trouble of doing so is you have a lot to keep track of. What’s important in the first part might not be relevant later or something occurs in the fourth part that changes how you see a particular scene that occurred long beforehand. One question that arises, notably for fantasy creators, is it okay to reuse story ideas?
Just as with everything, there are pros to taking this approach. For instance, you can showcase how it affects different characters, especially those from different eras. It could be an ancient evil that periodically surfaces to wreak havoc upon the world and people have no way to destroy it permanently so they just re-seal it and hope for the day someone finds the secret to vanquishing it for good.
Unfortunately, there are cons with going with the same story ideas. It can give your audience the feeling that they’ve seen it before and they know how it’ll end because they saw how it ended the first time. This can give rise to a perception that the creator is lazy and recycling content just to drag the plot out.
Smart fantasy creators don’t just do the same storyline over and over again. They modify each iteration to make it feel different than the one from before. Essentially the underlying foundation is the same but your audience is seeing something that, while it feels oddly familiar, there is something markedly different about it which piques their curiosity.
This is article number seven in The Sunlit Hearth series. For more, check out our blog page where there’s a scintilla of fantastic articles you can peruse!
It is true that every story has been done; there is no such thing as a wholly new story. This doesn’t deter creators from wanting to develop their own plot lines and many take inspiration from their favorites. The trouble is, especially when it comes to constructing an sprawling universe is that you’re bound to wind up using the same story ideas.
Reusing story ideas isn’t inherently bad. If you play your cards right, they can serve as a vehicle in which to connect two different parts of the world or two different eras of time. Take The Legend of Zelda series for example. All the games in that series essentially are the same but each iteration of Link goes on his own adventure and each one feels different than the other. Sometimes a later incarnation of Link sees echoes of the past or deals with a crisis that a previous version was unable to solve.
Stories like love triangles or those that show how people fall in love are constantly used and for good reason. People enjoy the drama that unfold in these plot lines and how two people wind up together which is why you see them so often on soap operas. This works superbly in fantasy because even the bravest warrior who has no fear when battling a vicious dragon might be afraid to make a move on the most beautiful woman he’s ever laid eyes on which makes the audience root for him to gain some courage to finally do so.
An excellent aspect of featuring the same story ideas is it gives you an opportunity to see how they affect different characters and how they deal with it. Suppose there’s a mythical kraken that appears only during strong storms and sailors and pirates have perished trying to rid the world of this scourge over decades and even centuries. You can showcase all the different things they’ve tried, only to end up in abject failure until one day, someone comes up with the idea that finally ends the threat the kraken poses on the seas.
Even though there are plenty of advantages, there are several downsides of using the same story ideas repeatedly. Relying too much on them can ultimately harm your creativity since you’re going back to familiar ground instead of going in another direction. You could wind up missing a golden opportunity to truly make some meaningful changes for both your characters and the world itself.
A common concern of re-using story ideas is that it can make creators feel lazy, at least in their audience’s view. Additionally, it can also feel as if they’re merely recycling content and just swapping out the characters involved just to generate artificial drama instead of just letting it unfold organically. Your audience can easily distinguish the difference between the two so strive to have it come naturally and not be shoehorned in just for the sake of the plot.
Another downside of focusing on the same story ideas is that there is little ground you can explore that you haven’t already looked at beforehand. An example could be someone who explores tombs for a living. While this seems exciting at first glance, by the time the explorer’s been to his tenth tomb, the audience has long tuned out by then since there’s nothing new for them to discover. This can make it feel redundant and alienate your viewers since they feel like the plot is going nowhere or has no end in sight.
Unfortunately, overusing the same story ideas will generate a strong sense of deja vu for your audience. They will get the feeling they’ve seen it before, either with the same character or someone else. They’ll eventually put the pieces together and wonder why this particular plot line has come back even though they know how the first one ended. It won’t be long before they wonder if it’s worth it to keep going just to see if it leads to a different outcome or the same one.
While reusing story ideas isn’t necessarily a bad thing, where creators run into trouble is how they execute it. People don’t generally want to re-read the same thing over and over again, even if different characters are involved this time around. It’s why it’s a good idea to make it similar, not the same.
Making it similar to a previous plot line helps distinguish the two. This enables you to personalize it to the situation at hand instead of merely copying it and just changing a few things around to make it feel different. For instance, a hero character, instead if just traveling from land to land and helping people out on his quest, could join forces with a wizard or two to deal with a minor villain terrorizing the local townsfolk. This helps break up the tedium of having him constantly traveling and aiding people in their time of need by having him stay put for a while and interact with people who could very well prove useful when the time comes for him to face the big bad of the story.
Incorporating plot lines that seem the same but are different can make your audience more curious than before. Yes, the feeling that they’ve seen this before might creep in their mind but if you make the differences more apparent, they’ll perceive that what they’re seeing isn’t the same one as before. Consider the hero character from the previous paragraph. Suppose during his time in a town, he receives an ominous message from someone that forces him to deal with it before he can proceed further. He has no idea who sent it or who knew he was there. Instead of helping people, they will be the ones helping him, thereby turning the plot on its head.
Sometimes even similar story ideas can lead to wildly different outcomes. For instance, in a love triangle, someone winds up being picked and another person is left out. Suppose the person who wasn’t picked winds up in another love triangle down the road. What if, instead of selecting someone to be with, he chooses neither, remembering what it felt like when his former lover went with someone else besides him? Such a choice will certainly take the other characters — and the audience, by extension — by surprise.
Only you can come up with fantastic story ideas that work well with the world you’re building and the characters who will populate it. Should you deign to repurpose them for later, take great pain as to make them markedly different than merely being just a copy. You want your viewers to come back for more!
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