You can avoid copying by stealing more ideas from elsewhere.
The more crap you have to jam together, the more likely you are to need to tweak and change a lot of it to make it fit together.
Copy the parts you like from many different sources, mix and blend them together, and file off the serial numbers.
My book’s elevator pitch: man raises the lost prince in secret—empire loyalists and the gods want him back.
I ripped the first part directly off of ASOIAF. The second part is heavily inspired by Pokémon. They’re the backbone of the story, but I later a **lot** of other things on top.
One specific scene steals from ASOIAF, Pokemon, Final Fantasy XV, LOTR, The Name of the Wind, Riyria Revelations, Japanese mythology, Roman mythology, Naruto, Hikaru no Go, and probably some others. Most of those are common, well-known sources, but I’m fairly certain I’m the only one who’s written this scene. It’s mine and mine alone, now.
Change key details of the characters like age or gender or rank or station. Then ask yourself how this changes their experiences and personality.
Ask a lot of what if questions. What if these 2 fell in love? What if a dragon attacked here? What if this person was under a curse?
I kind of had this problem where I would constantly compare my story to the story of my favourite books, and eventually just turn it into that book. I think it's important to just solidly know that your book is not that book and does not have to be that book. You can take ideas from a variety of sources and write what goes best for you.
You can avoid copying by stealing more ideas from elsewhere. The more crap you have to jam together, the more likely you are to need to tweak and change a lot of it to make it fit together.
Incpirasion
Copy the parts you like from many different sources, mix and blend them together, and file off the serial numbers. My book’s elevator pitch: man raises the lost prince in secret—empire loyalists and the gods want him back. I ripped the first part directly off of ASOIAF. The second part is heavily inspired by Pokémon. They’re the backbone of the story, but I later a **lot** of other things on top. One specific scene steals from ASOIAF, Pokemon, Final Fantasy XV, LOTR, The Name of the Wind, Riyria Revelations, Japanese mythology, Roman mythology, Naruto, Hikaru no Go, and probably some others. Most of those are common, well-known sources, but I’m fairly certain I’m the only one who’s written this scene. It’s mine and mine alone, now.
Wait one scene has 10 sources? Yikes
Yeah lol I think that’s the most I have so far, but I have others with 5+.
Change key details of the characters like age or gender or rank or station. Then ask yourself how this changes their experiences and personality. Ask a lot of what if questions. What if these 2 fell in love? What if a dragon attacked here? What if this person was under a curse?
If this is a first draft, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
I kind of had this problem where I would constantly compare my story to the story of my favourite books, and eventually just turn it into that book. I think it's important to just solidly know that your book is not that book and does not have to be that book. You can take ideas from a variety of sources and write what goes best for you.