The bad news:<\/strong> There\u2019s no such thing as an original idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I came across this post on social media (cropped for the privacy of the poster), and I thought it fit this subject. Don\u2019t worry, your ideas are safe! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most writers, or creatives in general, have so many ideas for future projects. Whether they\u2019re novel-length ideas or flash fiction scenes, we don\u2019t need to take someone else\u2019s idea. Sometimes we need help pushing through on our own ideas\u2014curses to writer\u2019s block\u2014but we have enough of our ideas in the backlog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I personally have too many ideas. I\u2019ve accepted that I’ll never get to all of them. I have a whole spreadsheet of my future works. Never have I needed to steal an idea from someone else, because I have too many <\/strong>ideas on my own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t the whole list, just what I could fit in a single screenshot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know I\u2019m not alone in this. So many creatives commiserate about having new ideas while they\u2019re working on a long-term project. Ideas come easily to a lot of us. Whether it\u2019s a new world for your fantasy story, a character concept for your contemporary romance, or a scene of what happens in the middle of your project, we\u2019re inundated with ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As mean as it is: ideas are cheap. They\u2019re the easy <\/em>part of creating something. The Idea Guy\u2122<\/strong> brings nothing to the table that other creatives can\u2019t do themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What matters is the execution of the idea. Only you <\/strong>can bring your idea to life in your own style. You add life to the idea in a way no one else could. Even if someone took your idea (I promise they won\u2019t), they still won\u2019t tell the story in the same way as you. Your characters, your story, your prose\u2014all of it is exclusive to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This might seem contradictory to what I\u2019ve been saying, but: your ideas are taken from elsewhere. You\u2019re inspired by the media you\u2019ve consumed and the experiences you\u2019ve had. This means your idea isn\u2019t original, even if you\u2019ve tried hard to make it. It\u2019s inspired by something<\/em> no matter how hard you\u2019ve tried to make it original. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of stories can be broken down into:<\/p>\n\n\n\n > PROTAGONIST wants GOAL because MOTIVATION, but first they must OBSTACLE before STAKES.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord of the Rings<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A hobbit wants to travel to Mount Doom to destroy The One Ring because a dark lord wants to reclaim it, but first the hobbit must journey across a dangerous land before the dark lord plunges the world into darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Martian<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An astronaut wants to leave Mars because he\u2019s stranded there, but first he must outsmart the planet before it kills him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chances are, your story fits this template, too. That\u2019s not a bad thing! It should<\/em> be simple to understand at a glance, so your readers know what they\u2019re getting into and you know what your stakes are. Humans associate things with other things; it\u2019s how we function. Don\u2019t stress about your idea being original and instead worry about making it yours<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The original idea is a myth. Every idea is built upon ideas before it. Most people who want to create something have enough ideas and have no interest in stealing yours. What\u2019s original is what you bring to the table and how you execute your idea. That\u2019s what should matter, and that\u2019s where your focus should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you worried about sharing your ideas because someone might steal them? What if someone writes the book you\u2019ve been wanting to write? Your idea is the most original idea you\u2019ve come up with. You\u2019ve avoided media, tropes, and have made sure your characters are all their own people. Even so, I have good news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,113,46],"tags":[143,115,96],"class_list":["post-1558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-pep-talks","category-writing","tag-cartel-heist","tag-pep-talks","tag-writing-advice"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-150x150.png",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-1200x640.png",1200,640,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x400.png",600,400,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x640.png",600,640,true],"post_slider_layout_square":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner-600x600.png",600,600,true],"full":["http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner.png",1600,640,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/event-banner.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMost of us have enough ideas already<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/izzyking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1-1024x731.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIdeas are only part of the execution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Everything is inspired by something else<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n