“There’s nothing new under the sun.” It’s a saying you’ve almost certainly heard before. Anything that has been done has likely been done before in some form. The details might be different, but the broad strokes? Especially in stories? Oh, you can bet there’s a wide range of similar tales spanning back to the dawn of human civilization. This is something that transcends media, and trying to untangle what came first can be a herculean task that, while increasing our understanding of history, doesn’t really do much for placing value on the works themselves.
So why is so much emphasis placed on originality if one is never going to make something truly unique? Why is it that so many creative works are called derivative if they’ve clearly taken inspiration from another piece of art?
This isn’t to say that we should just reiterate on the same things again and again, remaking them ad infinitum. There’s a difference between drawing inspiration from already existing art and simply copying it with enough changes made to avoid a lawsuit. What I’m getting at is broad trends, story beats that have come again and again throughout the ages, aren’t inherently bad. There’s a reason they tend to endure, and it’s usually because they speak to something in our collective psyche that we find worthwhile.
In truth, I think we’ve been using the wrong term to describe what we’re looking for, because all too often when I see a work of fiction described as “original” what is really meant is “novel.” To be novel is taking old ideas and putting a fresh spin on them, to be inspired by what has come before to create a new interpretation that can lead to stories at once familiar and unfamiliar. Novelty means not being afraid to take what you need from the past to forge the future.
So don’t agonize that your ideas are not “original” or anything like that. If you’ve got a new twist on an old story archetype, a different way to utilize well-worn tropes, then by all means pursue it! After all, the sun shines on the new and old alike.