Can you steal a story without anyoone knowing you’ve done it? I read a quote that every story is just the same 26 letters mixed up in different combinations, which suggests to me that there must be a finite number of stories.
So have they all been done? And if they have, is it possible to recycle an old one without anyone knowing?
I want to take a really famous story and completely steal the plot and see if I can tell the story in a different setting, just to see if anyone catches on.
Anyone for my new story that I have devised about an orphan boy called Barry Jotter, who was born for greatness?
Much Love
Rachel xx
Margot Kinberg
Haha! Barry Jotter! I love it, Rachel! In all seriousness, I think there are only so many genuine types of plots. The trick is to make them one’s own, to create one’s own characters, and so on. For instance, if you write about a love triangle, you’re not stealing from other novels with that premise. You’re using that to tell your own story. Does that make sense?
Greg Dennison
I think that has been done in some form for a long time, like all those 90s teen movies whose plots were adapted from classic literature.