It gets on my nerves always when people claim this as it's a fallacious statement in my opinion. It's even worse than 'Every idea been done before' yet many others agree with me that this isn't case. In fact the case I think the problem is innovation is stagnant, originality is alive and well, but due to fact people love tropes and cliche they get used constantly and we get in creatively bankrupt trend.

Thoughts?

I'd say that's on target.
People when they can't find a reason something isn't working seem to be very fond of putting the blame on something like the "death of originality" or even on someone else.
I'm of the opinion if originality is in fact dead it's not the fault of anyone but the artists.
In other words the greatest culprit in the death of creativity, originality, etc etc. sits in the mirror staring at those talking about it every morning

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. Everything has been done -- sure, there might be new ways to present your ideas, or maybe put a twist on them, but originality doesn't really exist. I think that's besides the point, though. It doesn't matter whether your work of art is "original", it matters whether it's good. And you say "people love tropes" as if tropes are bad; trust me, EVERYTHING is a trope, so if tropes are bad, then every story every made is bad, apparently.

I'm just gonna shamefully mention Tea Wars here for a moment.

Tea Wars: Warring Cafes with combat waiters fight each other to gain 'reputation points' to advertise on television and billboards. The combat waters can drink certain teas that give them supernatural capabilities like starting fire.

Or let's say... A roleplay about cockroaches living inside the dollhouse of a 5 yr old girl that plays with them and has tea parties.

Or another one: A roleplay about voice actors trying out for the voice role of a little girl in a new animation show. Twist? Only men older than 20 are allowed to try out for the role.

There are things that haven't done before. For me it just seems people just continually say that they all have so it's less shameful and scary when they fall back on familiar ground like '6 heroes join together to defeat the emperor ruining the country.' Originality still exists. It's just easier on those that lack the drive to think of so.

And just to add, a trope is just a literary device. Nothing can exist without some explanation of it all, but it doesn't make them bad.

In my opinion, I do fall under the line of saying that just about every idea has been done. Mind you, just about. A lot of people are under the impression that everything has been done. Take a look at the movie industry. A large chunk of movies are based off old cartoons, novels, or remakes. Nowadays, I can watch a movie and just about predict everything that's going to happen because they use the same antics repeatedly.

However, I could also agree to say that it is this state of mind that causes all of this. People today are getting lazier; with that said, why create a fresh new idea when you could just base something off what was already done (but just tweak a few minor details). I still have hope that there are people out there with originality. But, you could say some ideas are still similar to others in a lot of ways. I suppose it just depends on how you would define originality. Personally, I despise critics and etc because a lot of them are also comparing one idea to another. Essentially, it's just the society we live in, not its ideas!

As you can tell, I'm a bit two-faced on originality. ;( To me, originality is a rare breed.

~ Maestro ~

What Maestro said.

Definitely not every idea has been done, but you can't deny that many, many have been. Ideas become cliche after being overused, but they were overused for a reason -- they seemed brilliant to a large number of people. It's hard to come up with a unique idea that would still appeal to people. It's not that difficult to come up with something that hasn't been done before, but the same cannot be said about an idea that hasn't been done and is good. And sometimes, cliche situations are appreciated. I have seen very unique events and storylines just from tweaking cliche ideas a bit. People are definitely brainstorming day and night for new ideas; it's just that not every novel idea is good or appealing. So don't worry, originality is alive and well.

There hasn't been an original story since the Greek tragedians invented the character arc. It's all just variations on that common theme. Enough already, I get it: stuff happens so someone does something.

I wouldn't say it's completely dead, but yes a lot of media tends to be derivative. It's comforting to me on some level, since I can rest assured knowing that my favorite intellectual properties and franchises will never actually die and will inevitably be brought back in some form...remake or sequel, etc.

RedRaine wrote:Or let's say... A roleplay about cockroaches living inside the dollhouse of a 5 yr old girl that plays with them and has tea parties.

Or another one: A roleplay about voice actors trying out for the voice role of a little girl in a new animation show.

Both of these are hilarious enough that if you chose to run them as games, I would apply.


About the opening post...

I feel that the best way to answer a dogma like, "There is nothing original," is to answer it with the implication of that dogma. A question such as, "Does that mean that you believe that there is someone out there exactly like you whose very existence is to prove that you are not unique and special?"

So, yes, originality is alive and well as is variety. Perhaps it is more adroit to conclude that there are some individuals that do not allow fresh winds to blow them good. Individuals, let's say, that own or operate the major media franchises? It is not my intent to offend anyone, but I honestly believe that a saying like, "There is nothing original," comes from a...cognition challenged mind.

---

And, yes, I made this post before reading all of the responses in the thread.

Creativity is discouraged in media. it's a risky proposition. Why spend $200 million chasing a completely new idea and see if it does well or flops and you lose everything, OR spend that money on something that already sold well for a guaranteed return?

It's gunna keep working like that until people stop buying tickets to see "blah blah blah 7" or "death shooter 4". But you know why people keep getting these? Because they liked the first one and they're hoping that this derivative will be just like the first one, only better.

As for "everything being done" I'm gunna say... rephrase that to "everything that has been done, has been done to death" still, nothing wrong with reusing the old stand-by plot of 6 adventurers go kill the bad guy. It's only a bad idea if the stories substance is bad.

Gotta agree with Lukisod for his first paragraph.

I believe we put too much stock in a limited vocabulary and employ the word original too loosely and literary.

I believe every idea has already existed, more or less, is some form or another.
The concept, design, and actual existence of the idea is a whole different matter.

The point is, something may have been thought in whole, in part, or in metaphor in the mind of someone, somewhere, out there (6 billion humans and counting over at least 20,000 years).
Originality is more less a chronological fact but an environmental, modern, and social effect.

So, something could have been invented five thousands years ago. Let's say... a song and today, this very day, someone recreates it and people all over will acclaim that it's original and the best thing they have ever heard.
I'm saying that originality is not a fixed point, but a variable in it's direct vicinity.

Well, I wouldn't say it is totally dead, cause nowadays people can have ideas that were invented a lot of time ago without knowing it, so in a certain way it's original.

Originality, by definition of the word, hasn't really happened in a very long time. It's not a recent trend. Most 'original' ideas have an origin themselves, and are based on something, but that does not mean they can't be innovative.

Professionally, yes, "everything's been done". It's not entirely true, obviously, but it's a relevant enough statement to hold weight. There's no real point in striving for some kind of 'pure' uniqueness, because it's not really possible in a format that will still have any relevance to its audience. It's also not really worth the pursuit, either. Just being original won't make an idea good. However, that said, it's not the idea that counts, it's what you do with it. Creativity is not just being able to shape things from scratch, but being able to take an idea and make it fresh. Take something like James Cameron's Avatar for example. It's basically just a modern retelling of the Pocahontas story, but you add some cool tech, an alien world, and some amazing visual themes and it becomes it's own thing. Is it 'original'? No, but it's not a stagnant copy of the original story, either.

Another example; The generally-very-popular House TV series is directly based on Sherlock Holmes. Original idea? No. Good use of the idea? Absolutely. They took an old story and gave it a modern context.

No one is really expected to totally invent an idea completely from scratch, these days. Even if they did, it might just be so alien and so unusual that people don't understand it. If anything, the over-saturation of 'done' ideas is more a matter of how the internet makes every single idea travel around the globe rather quickly. That's my theory, anyways.

As for the notion of discouraged creativity in media, this isn't really the case. We're in an economic decline right now, so yes, investors want some reliability in their investments. This doesn't necessarily mean that there's no creativity or originality, so much as it means that what does happen needs to have enough in common with existing media to draw a comparison and predict how well-received it will be. This typically means that most new ideas are "It's like X, with some of Y, and some characters like Z", and the investors all go "Ooooh, I get it" and nod their heads. In mainstream media, there is a very tight leash because, honestly, too steep a stumble could bankrupt a company in the current economic climate. Well for video games, anyways.

If you wish to find free-roaming uniqueness and creativity, my recommendation is to look outside of the mainstream, into independent films/games/etc. There's all sorts of neat things floating around that kind of environment. Really though, that's sort of what this kind of site is. I would imagine that nearly everyone here is effectively an 'indy writer' and thus not bound by needing to meet a certain status quo with their ideas. Is this within everyone's capacity? To make a totally unique idea? Probably not. But if it matters to you, you certainly can try.

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein

Originality never did exist. Creativity did, and does. As does innovation, thought, and human brilliance. But nothing is ever original. We are impacted daily by little things, things that don't even pierce our consciousness, but that stay hidden in our subconscious, tucked away. Oftentimes, people look for sources of inspiration, or resources, with which they can build their ideas. Nothing is ever original. Never has, never was, never will be. The human race is a beautiful conglomeration of random ideas that meshed well and piggybacked off of one another. It is so rare to get an "eureka" moment, and even when it happens, it is never truly out of the blue

But let's assume originality did exist. I don't think it's dead. I think it's underadvertised and underappreciated, but never will it die. There are plenty of design sites that focus on creating new ideas and original ways to solve problems. You have to look because it's crushed sometimes under the structures that we've created, but it exists and it's thriving. People are sometimes afraid to share ideas because it breaks norms and can sometimes be dangerous, even revealing the newest little idea. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

People use other ideas as a crutch oftentimes. I refer mostly to official structures, like the government and its love for Keynesian Economics and the rabid adherence to doctrines laid down hundreds of years ago. But when people use ideas as a foundation, not a crutch, that's when creativity - and originality - flourish.

Ok when it comes to things like hollywood movies just remaking movies over and over again. Well you see hollywood is just interested in money and they choose what we are gonna watch. Well we decide that the movies we are most interested in are the same movies that we know we will like.
So obviously they are gonna remake them so we can pay for it.

Every story is original in a way. It doesn't appear that way to some because whatever they are watching or playing is similar to something else. It's kind of the same as saying every racing game is the same because they look so very alike, though they have differences most people don't recognize.

It's dead in my eyes. Because I haven`t seen anything original lately it`s like everybody takes what someone else did/said and add or subtracts a few things here and there and throw it back into the universe. now all of a sudden everybody's a rapper , poet, next actress, or model and it`s like please...STOP!

You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Just put new rims on it.

I would have to say watching what people have done with tattoos in the last five to ten years has put an entire spin of originality back out into the system. There are many tattooists who have gotten themselves notoriety in a few square inches of skin, to entire sleeves or back pieces. But their style, even in the most over done symbols or figures, shines through brilliantly.

It's boss. It's legitimately special.

I think what people do with technique, especially depending on their circumstances, can count as originality. I also think originality is probably subtle, to each individual too. That's just my opinion of people, I find each one I get to know to be different.