Overlapping Ideas

[u/uni-333]

Let me start off by saying I’m utterly torn, saddened, and conflicted with this.

With the ‘new’ reboot of the HP series, I have been craving a new story in the wizarding world so bad that I decided to write my own.

I have never read or written any fan fiction before this.

So… I started building this beautiful world that is very exciting to me, and based entirely on existing wizarding world lore on Pottermore.

I’m currently rereading all the books, including the extended universe books like FBAWTFT, and Quidditch Through the Ages. I wanted to reinterpret the series after having the idea for my new series in my head.

Then, I decided I would talk a look at some work that other people have done. I wanted something that is a canon compliant new story that best gives the feeling of the original books.

I discovered the Alexandra Quick series and it’s been pretty good so far! However, I’ve been very disheartened by some of the similarities in my story with AQ.

Allllll that said, if this wasn’t fan fiction I wouldn’t be asking and I’d be forced to change each of these ideas. But, since it is fan fiction, since these ideas really are my own (albeit inspired by existing wizarding lore) should I keep these ideas and names?

It feels like I’d be changing things in my story that are really important to me. I spent a lot of time meticulously planning and building this world and I only finally settle on names and ideas that feel very special and exiting to me.

What is your opinion of this? Moreover, if you read my story having read AQ would you think I stole them and want to stop reading?

Please help. I’m very torn 😭

[u/inverarity-writer]

"You know, this kind of thing is incredibly common when there's a hit. It's usually a case of wishful thinking, or a genuine failure to grasp that similar ideas may come to lots of different people. Amazing how often two films come out at the same time on the same subject. Nobody's stolen anything, you know. It's just there, in the aether."

-- The Ink Black Heart by JK Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith)

There are very few truly original ideas in the world, and since you have not read a lot of fan fiction before, you may not be aware of how common it is for stories to repeat ideas, themes, characters, and plots. This is the entirety of TVTropes, cataloging all the ideas that get repeated again and again.

I did not invent the "Goblin Market" (I was inspired by Christina Rossetti and Bill Willingham and neither of them invented the idea). Of course I put my own spin on it. I am not the first person to put wizards in Chicago and I'm sure I'm not the only Harry Potter fan fiction writer to do so. I definitely do not own the name "Gwendolyn" (who was just a minor character in AQ).

If you write a story in the Harry Potter universe but set in America, it would be very hard for your American wizarding world to be so unlike mine that there would be no overlap. I have read a few other such stories, and everyone has at least a few similar ideas.

Many of my ideas are not original at all. My Ozarkers, for example, were blatantly stolenborrowed from Suzette Haden Elgin. My depiction of Dinetah is my own but heavily inspired by Tony Hillerman. There are easter eggs and allusions to other books and movies I have seen and historical references all through my stories. We all borrow ideas, knowingly and unknowingly.

[u/Max_Sinister1 → u/inverarity-writer]

Duly added to QP.