Creating the full-fledged plot for a novel can be a difficult process.
There are many elements you need to consider before you can be assured of its strength and readability. Maybe you have some great ideas, but you’re having trouble working them into the correct story structure.
An easy way to know you’re on the right track is simply to get sneaky:
Steal someone else’s ideas.
Will they mind? Of course, unless you take their ideas and make them your own. Be assured, you can steal someone else’s plot and easily revamp it into something completely unrecognizable–even to the original story’s author.
Is it immoral? No way. There are only so many basic stories in the world. All the rest are simply variations of each other.
Famous Examples of Fiction Thieves
There are probably thousands upon thousands of examples of books based on other books, but here are 3 I’ve thought up off the top of my head:
- Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre. Narrative style based on The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger.
- Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. Prequel of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
- Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones. Built around the book Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.
Each of these books borrows or builds upon elements from classic literature in some way, and have been all the more successful for it.
How to Steal Fiction
Whether you plan on using this system as a creative writing exercise, or you’re actually going to write an entire novel based on something you’ve read elsewhere, here are 7 key ways to steal fiction and get away with it:
- Try a classic. Take a hint from fairy tales, Bible stories, classic novels and epic poems for inspiration. Because they’re long dead, the authors of these books will hardly mind if you use their ideas.
- Change the setting. Take a story and set it in a different era, a different culture (think of the film Bride and Prejudice), or a different country.
- Combine two or more plots. If you can find two novels that share similar characters, themes or conflicts, try combining them in some way to create something entirely new.
- Choose a different narrator. Tell the same story, but from the point of view of another character. Wide Sargasso Sea is a prequel to Jane Eyre, but Rhys changes the narrator from Jane to Rochester’s wife, so we get a completely different point of view.
- Snatch a conflict. If you find the conflict of a novel particularly compelling, take it for your own. You can change the characters, the setting, the other elements of the plot, but simply keep the main conflict.
- Extend a plot. Take the original story and extend it in some manner. Write what came before the start of the story, or what happened after the ending. Imagine what the characters might be doing outside of the confines of what was original written.
- Take an outsider’s view. There are books based on people reading or studying other books. Perhaps they discover something life-altering about the characters or the author of the book.
Have you ever tried this for yourself, and if so, did you find it helpful? Do you have other suggestions to add to the list?
Please share other examples of books you’ve read which are somehow borrowed from other works of fiction.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is another great example. It's an award winning, inventive and enjoyable book, and the plot is ripped right out of The Jungle Book (Gaiman has more or less said so himself). The plot was recognizable if you looked for it, but it didn't read like plagiarism, rather a respectful homage.
Austin,
I haven't read any Neil Gaiman books, but thanks for this perfect example. I think the key is, as you say, for it not to read like plagiarism. That should be fairly straightforward, anyway.
Thank you!
Maureen,
I'm so glad you found this post helpful. I can't promise you'll love Wide Sargasso Sea–it's written in a very different style and voice to that of Jane Eyre. Even so, it's worth reading. In fact, it's a book that often gets studied at the university level in conjunction with Jane Eyre.
Please let me know what you think of it when you finish! Thanks 🙂
I've always wanted to re-do "Once Upon A Time In the West," a classic spagetti western starring Henry Fonda (and one of my favorite all-time films), as a sci-fi outer space yarn. I'd heard that George Lucas based Star Wars on westerns, look where it got him.
It's been said that there are really only seven plots out there, anyhow. And if you want to know who said that, I just Googled it and got 48,400,000 possible sources. With about that many new novels being written every year, we shouldn't worry about "borrowing" a good plot idea when we see one.
In my Tips ebook I suggest getting unblocked, or simply fishing for a new killer idea, by going to the bookstore with a pad and pen. Read the dust jackets and paperback covers, and the ideas will pop for you — original ones, at least in your view — faster than you can write them down. You're not stealing anything, you're getting INSPIRED.
Another great post, Suzannah. You continue to rock this thing.
Larry,
As always, thanks for your input and examples. That's a great idea to read dust jackets. Similarly, I like to read the review blurbs at Publisher's Weekly.
I'd heard there were only a handful of original plots, but I couldn't remember the exact number. I'd like to find a reliable list of those plots. Think I've seen a few different opinions, but I'd be willing to bet the 'Romeo and Juliet' forbidden-love plot, as well as the revenge tragedy (think Hamlet) plot, would be on the list.
If you ever find said list, please forward it to me! Thanks 🙂
How you ever read Christopher Booker’s dissertation titled The Seven Basic Plots? It took him about 30 years to write and research, and just as long to have published. It basically concludes that all stories fall under seven basic plots; from “overcoming the monster” to “the quest”. He compared many classic works against each other and pointed out similarities. I highly recommend a read as it also highlights popular plot trends and structures.
.-= Read Veronica Purcell´s last article ..Scene 8-03 =-.
Thanks for the book recommendation, Veronica! I’ve been looking for a similar resource, but haven’t come across one yet. I’ll have to look for it 🙂
A prime example of this is the movie Clueless. Amazing, the absolute point-by-point similarity it has to the book that it is shamelessly copied from — but it works.
In my view, a writer doesnt need to think what to write, but should merely write what he/she thinks.
In my view, if a writer needs to find out “ways” to look at other stories as a inspiration for his own writing, it destroys the whole concept of creativity. I am not saying that it is “unethical” or anything cliche like that, but for me the process of creating a story should be yours and yours alone. Yes, you may get a trigger for a story / novel from anywhere and you can then create the storyline as you would like. After you write a novel, it may be compared with something which was written before; but thats ok. Two people who got published may have a same story to tell, but it will still be greatly different. And the story is yours!!! Wouldn’t that be a great internal satisfactory achievement? After all, its what the writer wants to write that is supposed to make an effective novel, isn’t it?
So, I maybe wrong on being so against this, but the idea just doesn’t seem alright to me.
Apologies if this is being too harsh. 🙂
Marcus, I understand what you’re saying, but I disagree with the statement “a writer doesn’t need to think what to write, but should merely write what what he/she thinks.” I believe in the benefits of story planning. If you want to write for the pure pleasure of it, then go ahead and simply write what you feel. But, if you’re looking to get published, I recommend planning your story before jumping in.
I also am not saying in this article that it’s okay to scam someone else’s ideas without making them your own. Intertextuality is a very common technique that’s been used through the ages.
It’s not for everyone, so do what works best for you! Thanks.
Thanks for your response Suzanna. I appreciate your points about being published.
The book that instantly jumped to my mind is Wicked by Gregory Maguire. This book is an extension of The Wizard of Oz, telling the story of the Wicked Witch before and during the original story. Another one I would like to point out is Airman by Eoin Colfer. I have not yet read this, it’s sitting on my shelf, but the gist from the back flap is someone being trapped in a prison on an island who creates a flying machine to escape. Sound a little bit like Daedalus and Icarus?
Great examples, thanks Kyle! I’ve heard of Wicked, but not Airman.
As I glance to my left I see “20 Master Plots (and how to build them)” on a book spine; so the actual number remains in some dispute. Whether one, seven, twenty or a thousand, the goal is to take one and, within its framework, write well. With so few launching points, we are bound to write something that can reasonably be compared to what someone else has written. It is reassuring to know that each of these plot formats have repeatedly found markets.
Avoid intentional plagiarism and enjoy being compared to an earlier, highly respected, work.
Then write some more.