Ideas getting prestolen

[Click Clack]

I was just talking to my editor about the fic we're working on, and I mentioned that my protagonist doesn't swear. Then my editor said "Just like Murky." So apparently that character trait is already taken. I responded in a way that made it very clear that I don't have the same hang ups about bad words. I'm still gonna have my character be generally clean mouthed (except for Precision F Strikes), but I still kinda feel unoriginal for it. This isn't the only time its happened either. I even had to majorly change a character because it's starting to look like

Spoiler: show

the dealer

from PH was going to be really similar to him.

There's not much I can really do about it except complain to nopony in particular and try to finish my fic faster though. Besides, its not like a few similarities here and there will be the end of the world, right? Still, does anypony else have this problem? Wanna talk about it?

[otherunicorn]

Anne is usually very clean mouthed. She doesn't drink, or "roll in the hay". That is just her. There may be other ponies in the wasteland that behave in a similar fashion.That doesn't mean anyone copied anyone else, stole ideas or anything. If anything, it is sad that a clean mouthed pony is considered rare!

[No One]

Blackjack lost an Eye before I got to the part where silver lost hers. It still bugs me D:

[Adder1]

I started The Last Sentinel right before Lionheart was introduced. That... complicated things a little. XD

I also have a character who refuses to curse, replacing it with "cuss" instead. So, son of a cuss!

[sargecadet]

I think that this is just kind of a problem with a sub-fandom that has developed such a big expanded universe around it. When I'm writing (and planning. Lots of friggin planning...) my story I have to consciously remind myself that some characters may share similar traits, but that definitely doesn't make them rip-offs or stolen characters. If I worried to much about that I could never make any characters at all. In addition to that, the nature of this fandom is one where what each author accepts as cannon is slightly different. But whatever. What do you guys think?

[Damhoof]

The strange thing happens when everypony even remotely invested in FO:E wants to have the same kind of story. The authors as it were, all fall into the same kind of tropes. I believe in therms of sues / reality-benders it is called SSCS (Strikingly Similar Character Syndrome).

Personally, i see no problem with it. You tell a story, and if you tell it well then the other people do not matter. If you tell it badly, hamfist your exposition, spend too much time writing purple prose or stare into your sue mirror with opalescent eyes then don`t worry. You can still go to church and confess.

What I don`t enjoy is miss-representing factions or throwing the idiot-ball around for the sake of protecting your own character. Heres a hint. If your protagonist needs obvious Author aid to get by then he is by my own absurd standards a failure. Either by virtue of the setting, the plot, the challenge, or the characters. Every story I`ve read so far does this to some or more degree and i remain displeased to some or more degree depending on who and what. Mostly it depends on the outset and scope of the author.

If you write it well, you can get away with the strangest things. When one author flounders in the dark, another may grab the same setting, and the same characters and run with it for massive gain. Either trough a twist, or a different theme in the story itself. At the end of the day good characters matter immensely. Story hardly matters in the face of characters interacting with each others. GAME OF THROOONES!

[Nyerguds]

I find it odd that everyone wants to be so original they end up producing the weirdest characters, while there's so many 'unoriginal' ideas left to be explored. I mean, I made a story about a Canterlot ghoul. There are lots of Canterlot ghouls. But no one had made a story just looking at life through their eyes. The only thing close is the Ditzy Doo Chronicles, but personally I prefer saying the hell away from canon characters.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's plenty more ideas like that. You don't need totally original characters, you just need an idea that hasn't been done before.

[sargecadet]

I tried to get around the "bizarre character syndrome" issue by making my main character very plain. Not a very special talent, no fighting skills that completely overpower his enemies, etc. What I'm trying to focus on is building a big, overarching plot and an engaging and dangerous world. So, yeah, that's all I've got.

[Pinkie Pie!]

I've had a couple of times that, after writing a scene, I would read something very similar happening to another character from another story. It's a bit frustrating, but I just attempt to give it another approach when I do.

[Mister_Clacky]

I put Homecoming on hold for months because of similarities between a PH party member and my "Super Original Big Bad." Although the Baddie in question has yet to show up, and he has changed as the story itself has evolved, I still plan to use him. There are going to be similarities. Pretty much any idea you can throw out there has some close correlation to some other work. Write your story, if there are similarities, well, great minds think alike.

Of course there is a limit to that mentality. I wouldn't have Security Chief Heads Up from Homecoming start going by Security once he is out in the Wasteland and start going on about how it's his job to "protect ponies" but I wouldn't balk at giving him a drinking problem just because another famous ex-security pony also has a drinking problem.

So, yeah. Write it out, if in editing you get a lot of "this is really similar to X" consider revising, but don't let little things keep you from writing. That's my shave and a haircut anyway.