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?

*chuckle* For me, it's where some of my best fics (IMO) have come from.

Just because an idea has been "done to death", it doesn't mean your take on
it can't be a good story that's worth reading.

Take a look at the sex-reversal Ranma fics out there.  There's what, 3 in
current development?  However, I feel they're all good fics, and are
exploring them in different and entertaining ways.

Sadly, the only way to avoid this is to write in universes that are
not "over-trafficked".  I've never written a RANMA fiction for this
reason.  I had an idea for one, but I felt there couldn't possibly be
any RANMA ideas I could think of that hadn't been written by
*someone*, and I was right.

Well... that's not the ONLY way to avoid it, though it certainly works
and I wouldn't fault anyone for doing it that way.

Another way is to pay enough attention to what's out there that you more
or less know what's being done. I find that doing a lot of C&C helps in
this regard. Many times I've read people's stories and thought, "I
would've done this differently," because of some difference in artistic
vision or character conception or whatever with the author. Thus is a
new idea born -- or at least a new spin on an old idea, which is just as
good.

Another was is to try a trick I've found useful - try applying your "done to
death" idea to other universes.  I found myself wanting to do an Eva
alternate history, but some excellent advice told me to abandon my original
idea.  I still wanted to re-write Eva with a different twist, and I was
re-reading Ranma, thinking how different it would have been if Akane was a
guy, when it occured to me to try the sex-reversal idea on Eva.

Amazingly, this has only been applied to Ranma, but I think it could work
for many other fictions as well...Gack, sinister ideas coming on...

Imagine Bishounen Senshi Sailor Moon (shaddup Lurker, you haven't even
started it yet, and this is different.)  Five guys fight demons, constantly
saved by an older woman...*snicker*...although I wouldn't want to do the
yaoi elements of the Outer Senshi...

What if the Knight Sabers were guys?  (OK that's one's easy, a lot more
collateral damage...)

Tenchi Muyo with a reversed cast? Nahh...too Fushigi Yuugi-ish...hey, now
THERE's an idea...

Personally, I'm not about to run out of Ranma ideas anytime soon -- in
fact, I've got a backlog of 'em -- whereas I have zero ideas right now
for Urusei Yatsura fics (for example). So, to each their own. We all
have to write the stories that we feel deep down ought to be told -- and
to choose whatever anime/manga series or other venue works for it.

Actually, I'm finding Sailor Moon ideas lately...and MKR...and
Escaflowne...and Eva...and El-Hazard...everything BUT Ranma.  Maybe it's a
function of the anime I've been watching lately. ^_^

[Chris bangs his head against the desk]

Argh, must resist evil...starting another project...wrong...

--
Christopher "God-boy" Angel
cja124@mail.usask.ca
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Pagoda/7040/
"PERSONA!"