Copying others' ideas—like a winner author
Yes, the title is a reference to none other than Oscar Piastri. Stuff it.
People fear the viewers seeing through veil of your writing and accuse of a copycat. The truth may be that you did take that idea to begin with. Now how do you actually do this heinous crime and get away with it?
Deconstruct, Amalgamate, Rebuild
There's something in specific you like about the story. Find it, and take it apart even more. Often you find out you like Enemies to Lovers and make it your entire personality without knowing it's already been etched into your personality without you knowing. People can love the same trope for different reasons and different aspects.
After all, not every person thinks the same. It makes the deconstructing part even more unique to each author. Here's some scenarios and deconstructing it properly
OG: Harry Potter is the chosen one
GENERALIZE: The character is given a fate before they were even born
DECONSTRUCTED: There is the inevitability of a path, the character has a choice whether or not to continue that or not—how will they get to the end goal if they continue?
Yes, that's one of multiple interpretations of chosen one tropes. If you disagree on that, then that's your first exercise on how to deconstruct something. Once you deconstruct it, not only do you give the reasoning, but the path and the patterns that make this trope work. With your unique interpretation of your own behaviour as to why you like a trope, it's one step to make your idea even more original.
The plan that once you have a tried and true trope and running with it is comfortable. It doesn't let you experiment. One of my favourite books, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, is a showcase of taking two different tropes into a mix.
The mundane life of offices (though technically not a trope, but a stereotype) and the nitty-gritty of an underground illegal boxing ring made combined with a fight club for boring men with rules they must follow strictly. This idea is done by directly contrasting tropes and finding ways to compliment each other. Something like that can be done with this step.
DECONSTRUCTED: Inevitability of a path. The character has a choice whether or not to continue
COMPLIMENTARY: The villain. It heightens tension and struggles for a supposed prophecy
CONTRASTING: Time loop. The character has all the times to make a choice and nothing moves forward
These two ideas can shape your story in different ways. It can even change the genre. Concepts can work together when you keep trying to mix them; find where they can meet, find where characters struggle to balance it, find the resolve. Your book can change genres depending on how you even execute these events.
This step is the aftermath of your floating concepts, either contradicting or complimenting. Finally, you create your story here. Whether you use a three act structure, a six, a simple outline of "Introduction, crisis(es), conclusion(s)", you finally start the journey of the original idea.
Authors can find the comfort into sticking into one genre, one trope (or multiple tropes that complimentary) that will then rely on world building and characters to make them stand out. Yet, they can find ways to be unique when they originally took this one idea from someone else. Deconstruct, amalgamate, rebuild. Is D.A.R an ugly acronym?
