The Derivative Outlet

Dragon Age? Dragon Quest? Drag-on-Dragoon?
Dragon on forever? Difficult to tell the difference sometimes.
(Image credit; BioWare)

It's easy for a writer to become derivative. Which is derivative for a start. You just have to look at the numerous games inspired directly by the lore and structure of Dungeons & Dragons, which in turn borrows heavily from the established sword-and-sorcery and pulp fiction, and the work of Tolkien and similar writers.

I took fall to that temptation. Derivative works require less thought than anything else I might work on. I don't say any author's work today can't trace back to something written or conceived years or centuries earlier, but being wholly derivative of some tropes is something I want to avoid except when they serve the characters and narrative. But sometimes writing things like that as an exercise. And sometimes the things that emerged from that become more original ideas.

Take The Leviathan Chronicle. That emerged from me having a deep liking for the Drakengard series, which dealt openly with taboo character traits and religious themes in a way few stories are willing to do. It's the purest form of genre deconstruction, taking a dark fantasy world to its logical end when characters and events are presented in such a distorted way. After all, wouldn't someone who slaughters thousands on a battlefield be called mad today? The Leviathan Chronicle's first chapter emerged from me beginning something in the vein of Drakengard's opening, and then it shifted and changed into something more.

Recently I wrote something that I consider highly derivative. Tentatively titled "Warped City", it emerged in my head for a screwy combination of a certain physical stereotype, Devil Survivor, and Mozart's famous aria "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen". A modern metropolis where a group of close friends are meeting up in a new metropolis. The goal of the narrative was to have them becoming chosen people who would be pitted against divine fragments emerging in the city in the form of people, altering the city physically or culturally around their twisted worldviews. It's slightly embarrassing putting this down, but it shows how I can have very derivative flights of fancy. But now that it's out of my head, it's not getting in the way.

Whether it's annoying derivative ideas, fan fiction your brain is boiling up out of frustration at another piece of media, or just a standalone scene that doesn't seem to fit in, don't let it fester. Put it down somewhere. It if becomes something interesting, remember it. If not, leave and forget it. It's amazing how many ideas and proposals I've put down over the years have either led to new concepts for current work, or just been a good outlet to stop those terrible ideas cluttering up my work life.