Does originality exist anymore?

[usef nahg]

in a class of 30+ students, a teacher can the students a prompt and yet none of the student will have the same exact story.
nothing is "original" an author gets his ideas from mutliple things, and while reading a story you might never realize that a scenes idea may have had come from a movie or from a poem.
so this quesiton really depends on how you define originality

[Kammeuchechukwu Mark Okereke]

The saying, "nothing is new under the sun" is the purest saying out there. While originality is a variable of context,
(i.e. a unicorn is a new concept until you recognize it is a horse with a rhinoceros tusk.) you realize true originality does not exist and all you, as a creator should strive for, is an independent statement while emulating or adapting an original concept.

[human reader]

The way I see it is that the more an author develops a story the more unique it becomes. It's like children, we all start out pretty similar, then become individualized as we grow up. I think it's fun to play with audience expectation. Start somewhere familiar then keep surprising people with twists and turns. But the trick is to make that feel authentic rather than random.

[Jason Tooke]

Producing a story free from any semblance of previous works might be challenging, but genuine originality can still be found in modern writing. Experimental authors like Yara Rodrigues Fowler and Susan Choi have been pushing the boundaries of conventional storytelling by utilizing unconventional narrative structures, perspectives, and language. Also, fanfiction and collaborative writing communities have created unique derivative works where existing characters and settings are sometimes ingeniously reimagined and expanded upon. Recently, I have seen some exciting creativity in blending genres as writers combine elements from multiple literary traditions to craft fresh and captivating stories.

[Nimra Kiran]

Plato in his book The Republic says that all art is just an imitation of Reality. By reality he meant to say that an original product that was created by God, is then copied and created in other various forms. According to him it is copy of a copy that is thrice removed from reality For instance, he considers a chair that is created by a carpenter. This chair doesn't has originality, rather that carpenter created it from the reality that was put in his mind by God himself.

So, considering it from this point of view, everything, every idea is taken from any small experience based on thoughts and if one considers these thoughts and ideas as an imitation, as something thats not actually original, in my opinion it doesn't matter. Even if its imitation, it still consists of individuality and every piece of art, poetry and fiction have a different style depending upon the "imitator".

[Sameeha Ismail]

I faced this problem just the previous month during a family gathering. I have been working on a novel idea and decided to check if it will interest my cousins. Every one of them sited a story or film they know and told me what a creative mind you have, I read something similar here... Devastating.

[Lizzie Mustard]

Our imagination is influenced by the world around us, so you could say that nothing is completely original. However, we are all unique human beings with an individual take on life, so I would argue that originality still exists.

[Aroona Kashif]

That’s a question that’s really gotten me thinking. Majority of the books that are popular on Booktok for example have a similar vibe, if you get what I mean. But there are many rarities I sometimes stumble across, and they’re amazing. Recently I read my first cowboy romance novel by Elsie Silver and that was different