At 02:59 PM 1/5/98 -0800, you 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..

If you feel that you can write a good story using that concept, then go 
ahead and do it. It is the quality of the story that should be judged, not
the concepts it was based on. It would be a good idea if you could find some
works that already have this basic plot so you don't end up doing EXACTLY 
the same thing as another author. Any number of variations on an idea can be 
written and depending on the authors skill, creativeness, and inspiration the 
results can vary widely.
So don't let anyone stop you by saying that it has been done too much.

My 2yen,

After 6 years we still don't know anything about Yotsuya. _       _
 __    _       _______        ___     Yusaku Godai      _| |_  _ | |
 \ \__| |_    |____   |_ _   /  /      Kyoko Godai     |_  __|| || |
 /  __    \   ___/  _/|_|_| |  |___  __   ___________   / // \| || |
/  _\/ /\  | |___  _____|   |   _  \|  | |___________| /__  /_| || |
| |/ _/_/  |   /  /____     |  | |  |  |                / _/ /|_|| |
\___/  \__/    \_______|   /__/   \___/                /_/  / ___| |
Chris Hall           Maison Ikkoku Forever!!!          \_/\_\ \____|