We're talking about bad habits again, because of a particular funny revelation I had this past week. More on that later. Inspiration isn't really just a pen and paper thing. It's everything, really. I'm sure we all have a half-written book or spec script sitting around somewhere. Maybe we've got a pointless ton of pen-and-paper inspired stories out there just because we felt like it. Inspiration is technically the most important anything ever, because without it...well, you can have a PNP game anyway, but it's probably not going to get very far. But, I haven't talked about it.
I haven't talked about it until now because it's kind of tough to talk about. I've heard that the most tragic thing about creative writing courses is that you simply can't teach creativity. Well, since I love trying to ice skate uphill(some motherfuckers are always trying), we're going to take a whack at it. I'm going to try and talk about it all generally, but like I said, we're doing all this because of a particular bad habit.
People argue constantly about what's an homage and what's a ripoff. Where the line between 'homage' and 'ripoff' lies. I didn't really know myself until listening to Chuck's opinion of it over at SF Debris. Here's that video, but I'm going to explain in my own words. Homage vs Ripoff is partially a question of intent, but really it's in what you did with the concept you used. It's okay to take inspiration from something if you, in layman's terms, add something of your own to it. A twist, a comment on the philosophy of the source, or even twisting the meaning of it. Characters are built upon cliches and tropes, and adding or removing a few of them often gives you a wholly new thing. Often a great thing can come from asking something as dumb as "What if it's like ____ but with ____". This doesn't mean you ripped something off. The best sequels often twist something from the original to convey a new meaning. In Pet Sematary, Jud says "Sometimes, dead is better." To try and convey to Louis that it's better to leave well enough alone. In the sequel, the same line is used to exact opposite effect: It's quoted by someone who's returned from the dead trying to justify their meddling decision. Sometimes, that's all it takes.
I sure am beating around the bush. We're going to get to some examples of building via inspiration using my own PCs and NPCs momentarily to help illustrate what I mean. Right now, however, we're going to strike at the heart of the negative habit that I mentioned above. I know a lot of people who deny themselves consumption of an entertainment product solely to keep their own ideas "pure" and free of influence. It's understandable where this comes from: You have an idea and find out there's a book, movie, game, or whatever else which somewhat resembles your idea. You worry that you'll accidentally(or purposefully) create something derivative of it if you allow yourself to consume the product. This has gone so far with some people that I hear of them denying themselves entire genres of movies or books.
I find this absurd for two reasons. The first is the more obvious one: If you deny yourself, you're in more danger of accidentally ripping it off than if you had just enjoyed the product. You can outline the product(NPC, game plot, book, fiction supplement, whatever!) afterward and ensure you either take proper inspiration by making the product your own, or avoid similarities entirely. Really ask yourself why it's okay to be inspired to make something after seeing a movie, but not okay to watch that same movie after you've had the idea similar to it. What if Rob Zombie had the idea to make a "psycho family trap" movie before seeing the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a young kid? What if he'd have completely denied himself watching the movie? Without lil' Zombie watching that movie in the 70s ...there might be no House of 1000 Corpses at all. Part of the fun of the movie is seeing the similarities and homages to the genre. Of course, some of you might be pleased with a universe that didn't have that movie in it, so just bear with me.
The other reason is a more philosophical one. If you see products as a congregated mass of ideas, you start to see individual ideas or concepts as little organisms of their own. They make something bigger sure, but even shuffling around their order and removing a few can make a wildly different product. The point my horrid analogy is getting at is that denying consumption of entertainment in the name of keeping your own ideas pure means, at best, you'll have fewer and fewer of those little guys at a time. At worst your inspiration grows stagnant and inbred due to lack of new exposure...the exact thing you were worried about.
That aside, I'm going to use a character of mine to illustrate exactly how many ideas can come from different "unoriginal" sources without making something completely derivative.
Here's Jackie Paper's whole backstory and the description of her minions, but you don't have to read the whole thing. Jackie is a power-suit wearing villain who's trying to give up the habit. So, right there inspirations include Iron Man, obviously. It also sees super-villainry as a metaphorical drug instead of Tony's literal drug, alcohol. I asked myself what a normal person would do if they had an iron-man suit of armor. Maybe it's cynical of me, but I reasoned that most people would use it for petty revenge or satisfying their anger. Thus, the idea of Jackie being a supervillain solely because she's got anger issues is born. It also partially creates her basic personality of being bitter, cynical and deadpan sarcastic. Her name is taken straight from the song Puff the Magic Dragon, a song essentially about a kid having to put away childish things. She took it as a pseudonym to protect the few family members she's got left, and the inspiration from the song is in-character. Her visual design comes from actress Tilda Swinton, sort of tall and androgynous. The suit of armor itself comes from the simple idea that you just don't see many tech characters who enjoy fantasy aesthetic and pastiche...even though that happens all the time in real life. Just like a "dumb" psychic, it's a combination I never see.
Pride is modeled after an archetypal gremlin, irritating little saboteur. Gluttony is really just a big dumb golem. Et cetera. I could go on but this is a lot like literary masturbation. The point is that, on paper, you could argue that Jackie Paper doesn't have a single unique idea to her. You might even be right, but that's hardly relevant. The collection of inspiration, the unique style I grant to her and how it all interacts makes her a good character, not some idea that something about her has to be completely unique and unheard of.
I kinda liked doing this kind of example. Obviously, since I did it with Terra Prime too. In fact, that's the silly little revelation I was talking about: Terra Prime shares inspiration with a popular, published setting. Yes, Gamma World actually lists Thundarr the Barbarian as a key influence. I even had Gamma World in mind without realizing that when I was creating Terra Prime. In particular, I remembered how all of Gamma World's cities are sort of...slang-warped into their base sounds, like Granrapidz, Nu Ork City and Nashvul. I thought of that and decided against doing anything similar, instead mostly pulling names inspired by their areas but being more honest to their origins. I did even do it a single time with Newark. Sort of. I don't know much about Gamma World, but I know some, and if I refused myself any knowledge of the product, I can tell you I probably would've ended up ripping it off by mistake. Other similarities I might have had were avoided by understanding the tone of various post-apocalyptic settings out there(Like Gamma World, but also like Rift, Apocalypse World, and whatever the heck Deadlands called theirs) and deliberately going in the other direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment