The Breakdown: Mimics vs Copycats

When taking creative liberties is appropriate and when it's not.

Reader Question: How do you stay in your lane with writing? What I mean by that is, you started plotting and working on your story and you realized there is a similar idea or plot in a book or movie and didn’t know. How do you make things your own and take creative liberties without stepping on someone else?

This is a BIG topic and I could go on for days about it, but I’ll try to keep it concise.

And I’ll start with this: I am not a copyright lawyer and should not be giving any legal advice. What I can share with you is my process, practices, and thoughts about “copycatting” in the book world.

First, I get the apprehension when it comes to “stealing” ideas. And yes, you can plagiarize someone else’s work by copying and pasting their story word for word (or damn near close). But I know that’s not what you’re referring to. Unfortunately, there is no rulebook I can point you towards with all the answers. Rather, in the book world, it seems to be a question of moral code and ethics in most situations.

Generally speaking, story ideas aren’t owned. In fact, how many stories do you know with the same structure, tropes, and action sequences? Only the MC’s name or gender is altered, the relic they’re searching for is swapped for something else, and the setting is different? Indiana Jones, meet Lara Croft. There are more similarities than there are differences between the two stories lines, in my opinion. But there is nothing wrong with that.