Writer's Guide 101 (Wattpad Edition)

LXXXV. Why Originality Doesn't Exist? (HOT TAKE)

I remember back in college when one of my professors once said "There is no such thing as original." Every idea that you could think of is already derived from other existing ideas and transformed into something unique. It's a pastiche.
You think Dragonball was original? Nah! That anime took inspiration from "Journey to the West." The difference is he was able to add his own humor and characters to create his series.
It completely baffles me why there's such a huge discourse over having similar ideas especially on the Internet.
Many artists get accused of ripping off somebody due to having similar color schemes, visual style and elements. If you're a writer, it would be over having similar premises especially when both works fall under the same genre. The best way to do that is to see how each person executes those same ideas and the context behind them.
To be honest, you can't exactly read people's minds and tell who's already done it. You can't just go around asking every single person on the planet what they're gonna do.
Not everybody is gonna know who you are due to one's limited resources and cultural barriers. It is possible we could be inspired by the same thing. Listen! You can't own or copyright a specific art style/color/trope.
If anything, it's like having a silly argument and demanding your friend can't make their character red 'coz you already used that color. Life would be boring and restrictive if you're gonna police whatever others are only allowed to do. It's only a problem if someone were to look at your work and try copying it entirely.
Remember the time when people thought Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" ripped off Kōshun Takami's "Battle Royale"?
For context, "Battle Royale" came out in the 1990's and Suzanne Collins only come to hear about its existence right after publishing her book. The main difference though is "Hunger Games" has a much broader world building and set of characters in terms of how it takes place in a fictional continent rather than a single island. Another thing is BR supposedly reflects the political climate of Japan around the era it was published.
In addition, authors should also not take offense if people start comparing their works to other IPs (like "Oh! This reminded me of a show or movie except the opposite!").
As long as they're not bringing you down and accusing you of ripping somebody of, it's fine!
It shows how we're going to be influenced by the stuff we see in one way or another. You think you can invent something straight out of your imagination alone? Absolutely not!
You also need to realize that people are bound to compare stuff. If you want more eyes to that work, you should at least be able to pitch it like "It's like Breaking Bad meets Naruto" or "What if Arcane was a Broadway musical?"
    Even if someone else were to write the same story inspired by Sherlock Holmes, I doubt it's gonna be the exact same thing due to each person's different thought process.
   It pisses me off when people claim to be "100% original" and that nobody is allowed to ever discuss others' works with them in any way at all when a lot of stuff they write about are basically derivative works.
You can't actually come up with a 100% original idea out nothing. I remember someone on Tumblr once said it best and let me reiterate, "If you can't handle people comparing your work to others, then it shows how immature you are. Maybe you need to consider whether your writing is too predictable."
I agree because in my opinion, you're not gonna be the first and only one to come up with that idea. This is why it pays to make your stories as weird as possible, but not too weird that it scares people from ever checking it out and confuses them too much.
Now, I am not trying to be cocky and insisting my advice is gospel, but I would suggest making something that only you could think of and worth exploring. If you have a great idea, then go ahead and show the world what you got before someone else could.