Young Writers Society

Okay, I'm writing this story but I'm worried if it's going to be too much like Harry Potter. Tell me what you think.

Similarities:
-boarding school for magic users
-magical people who can cast spells and make potions
-was a war against dark magic
-young savior
-European country

differences
-no wands
-magical people each have there own 'trait magic' such as Telepathy, telekinesis, etc.
-Three magic classes, Spell casting, potions and one where they learn to use their 'trait magic' otherwise just basic classes
-Main character is a girl
-Takes place after the war
-a romance
-mostly takes place in France, but also partly in the US

Seriously, you guys- is it just too much like Harry Potter? If it would help a lot I might make it into just a school instead of a boarding school. The school is a necessary part though... I might be able to work aroung it though... Just give me your input please and I'll keep on thinking.

There are things that do make it similar to Harry Potter (boarding school which I voted) but Harry Potter isn't the only book of magical content. But your 'differences' are similar to a story I'm writing because the magicians have their own powers and no wands.

You could try and call them something instead or witches/wizards and give them a name so readers can identify them as not being normal human beings, am I confusing you?

I don't know if I helped or not but if I get any other ideas I'll add them.

P.S. You could post this in the new 'Fiction Discussion' thread.

No, that was helpful I'm definately not going to call them witches and wizards either. I haven't gotten that part down yet, but I'll think of something. Thanks

It'll probably be compared to Harry Potter (even though Worst Witch did the whole magic boarding school thing first).

I have all of those books.

Supermal, are you going to post the story or are you just putting it together?

I think that as long as it's going to have those listed similarities to Harry Potter, you're definitely going to have people comparing it to HP no matter what. The issue is not whether the idea necessarily sounds similar, it's whether when you implement it the narrative resembles HP. So I wouldn't worry so much about what people necessarily think (like Sureal pointed out, there are other fantasy stories with kids and boarding schools — Tamora Pierce is one of the writers that come to mind there) at this early stage of the story planning and actually start writing it. At the risk of sounding overly trite, worry instead about developing your own storytelling style. Make sure the characters are distinctive from the Harry Potter chars. Try not to use the same plot techniques.

There's that old cliché, "No ideas are original," which isn't necessarily true, but very very close. When you're writing the actual story, make sure the things that really count — the characters, the storytelling style, etc. — are very different from Rowling's, and hopefully most people won't care about the parallels

Right now I'm just trying to get all my ideas down on paper so I probably won't post anything for a while. The creators of the Worst Witch (loved that show) and Tamora Peirce and JK had a great idea when it came to magical boarding school- it's sort of the perfect setting for certain plots. I'll see if I can come up with something a little more original though. If not then I'll just follow through with it. My characters and overall plot is very different, and I think I write a lot differently in general than JK so I think that will help.

It's okay. It will be compared to Harry Potter anyways.

What you shouldn't have is closely resembled characters. If I see a scar or jet-black hair on our witch, I'm going to call foul.

Unique characters people, unique characters.

Otherwise, it should be fine.

If you add enough unHP things it will be fine, i think. There are many books on magic, maybe you should take out a few similarities but if u make sure its unique, it could be a good idea.

i agree it is too much like harry potter i mean nobody wants 2 harry potters .........JOKE!

It's deffinately worth keeping an eye on as your sotry progresses. I'd keep an extra eye on your plot, those things have a habit of going subconsious on you and when you're thinking "can't be like HP, can't be like HP, can't be like HP" really hard, guess what happens.

Don't give your main character two best friends, one of which is smart. There seem to be basic friend combinations people use in stories, and if you ask me that's one that's likely to be repeated by lots of people. And I'd think up new lesson names. I wouldn't have a lesson reffered to as "potions". That's way to similar (at least when coupled with a few other things).

Something you could do is have the magic different. I know you said there are no wands, which is a good difference to make, but there are other things like would they use incantations and spells and do forth, or would it be more of a struggle with your own mind.

Watch the magical animals you use, if you use any that is. They'd be something I'd try to do completely differently. To me they make up a lot of the feel of Harry Potter, even if it's not obvious, so that'd be something I'd keep an eye on. I would not put a heavy focus on owls if I could help it.

The magical boarding school is deffinately the big one. If it's a castle I'd start rethinking things. Maybe it could be in town, but has a boarding school attached for kids who come from the country or different cities or something? Depends on how important that element is to your plot really. If the students need to reach it in a train, that's too similar. The train is a pretty strong image of HP, because of the platform 9 and 3/4 thing. I would not have school houses, not that you said you would. That's a really REALLY big part of Harry Potter, and you would not get away with it.

That's all just rambling really. Most of it is pretty obvious, and I'm sure you'd have already thought of it all. I think that while maybe an idea on it's own is never really new, ideas as a collection can be something very original indeed. Make a great collection!

I think if you are fighting dark magic/ forces you can't have one base leader live Voldermort in HP as it will make it too similar this might also be true if you have a small group of leading dark wizards. If you make your story so the dark side is an army or something similar then there are very few connections you can make to HP.

Also HP is very dependent on past events espectially what happened to Harry as a baby, if you don't have this for your main character then as before few connections can be made.

Keep checking your work as well, if you think it is getting too similar to HP add a twist in to change the line of the plot.

In all I think it's a great idea, Rowling needs a bit of competion anyway.

I think I have found a solution to my problem. I have flushed nearly all of the plot I previously had down the toilet. I am basing my new story on a completely different world which is sort of medieval in style but with modern technology such as electricity and some other inventions I have floating around in my mind. I will still be using nearly the exact same characters and some of the basic plot I had previously, but there will not be a major school in the main storyline and the school won't have anything to do with magic. There will still be 'trait magic' but it will only contribute a small amount.
It's sort of a mixed genre. Mostly romance, but also fantasy, sci-fi and action.
Anyways, what I was wondering was how I could make this world? Keep it very medieval but with modern technology. I've come up with a few ideas, such as some of this technology being run with magic and not actually being that technical, but I'd appreciate any advice anyone might have, thanks

A different world is a good idea, for it to be easier you can try to base it on a planet rather like Earth.

Does everyone have magic or is it limited to a few people? Are there only humans who can have 'trait magic'?