Druid wrote:

    How many have people out ther come up this wonderful and unique
story or plot point, and later found out that, while for you it's new,
elsewhere it's been done to death?

    Take for example Ranma his female side get split into two. Now for
me this was a totally new idea at the time I thought of it, but since
that time I've seen messages bashing the entire concept as done to
death. How many other people have had such things happen? I would point
out that the stories might have nothing to do with each other except for
only one thing, but it still is put down for using it..

That's kind of what happened to me with Ranma's Curse, only in reverse. 
I read some really great fics that melded into what became Ranma's
Curse.  Rather than bury the idea, I built it, acknowledging those whose
stories inspired me.  The influences are still growing.

As with writing in general, you can't help but put in what you've read
before.  Going over Curse 4, I found similarities between my fight with
Cologne and Dave Eddy's fight from Nekophobia.  I read Nekophobia at
about the time I started my whole series.  Parallels can also be seen
with Marisa Price's A Lesson in Love.  Again, these two stories weren't
related to Curse beyond innocent parallels.

Your idea about two Ranma's may be done to death, but who's to say yours
won't knock everyone over with brilliance.  There are a lot of stroies
dealing with Ranma becoming locked in his girl form.  Usually involving
Herb as the one locking him.  Me, I chose something I could readily use,
the Neko-ken and Phoenix Pill incident.  All it takes is a burning
desire to write your vision and a simple twist of the fates and you have
a new perspective on things.

Good luck in writing your twin Ranmas.  I may do something similar,
someday, but my current directions prevent that.

Bryan Neef
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/3719

--
Bree
bree.duffy@bbs.chemek.cc.or.us
Druid
druid@bbs.chemek.cc.or.us