Creativity or Plagiarism?

I read something interesting about Stephen King once, probably in the "introduction" section of The Dark Tower novels (most likely the first book), or perhaps in his On Writing book.  He said that after he'd read The Lord of the Rings, he wanted to write his own Americanized version of it.  But, he didn't start writing it immediately then and there, because he knew that if he did, he'd simply write the same story over again.

That always stuck with me, because I can totally relate.  I've found myself in that same exact position quite a number of times, and mostly all the stories that I've written were inspired by something I've read or watched.  Chiitsu's story was loosely based on the anime Hellsing.  What I took from that was simply the idea of a "good" vampire.  The rest of the story is all my own.  Same thing with Kobal.  That was inspired by Naruto, and it's more painfully obvious in that case.

This is one of the main reasons that I will never consider myself to be a good writer -- I've never had a generally unique idea.  (I'm also going to conveniently ignore the fact that my boss re-writes every document he asks me to write, and file that into the "he's a picky bitch" file folder.)  This is also the major reason that, while I do provide a link to my writing over there on the right-hand side of this screen, I don't often talk about it in posts here.  This is because I'm always worried that someone will read my stuff and be compelled to send me a "Hey, you copied _________!" message.  One day, I actually received a message through FictionPress from someone pointing out that the title of one of my stories was the same as the name of a planet in the Battlestar Galactica universe.  I'm still trying to figure out how that's relevant, but it's a good way of pointing out why I never share that creative side of myself with other people.

But, despite all of that, it doesn't change the fact that I'm often inspired to write after I see a new TV show or read a new book that I actually like.  The reason for this is that I wish the story would go differently that it really had, or that the subject material gave me an idea for something similar, or I just wish the story would -end-.  The latter was true for Naruto.  I wrote Kobal in 2005.  This is 2011, and the Naruto story still isn't over.  I just wanted some damned closure, as if that's too much to ask.  So I basically wrote my own.  (I like anime shows that are 26 episodes and that's IT.  Like Cowboy Bebop.)

A similar thing is happening to me right now, this time in the form of getting a similar idea from the subject matter.  I've been watching a lot of Supernatural lately, and the idea of there being an underground band of hunters who track down and kill evil demons and such is a really appealing idea.  There's a lot you can do with it.

What I want to do is take that idea -- that there are hunters on Earth, they keep a low profile, and their communication with one another isn't the best -- and give it a different spin.  The main character is a hunter from another world.  An alien, if you prefer that term.  Think of the Doctor, actually.  Just without the time travel.  He travels the universe hunting things -- the same things that these humans are hunting on Earth.  Only he knows more about them than we (humans) do, and shows us that a lot of our ideas about ghosts and demons are misconceptions.  For example, Hell is actually a planet where demons come from, not a mythological place where bad people go when they die.  The stories and lore we have on Hell, demons, God, ghosts, vampires, etc all exist because people made them up to help explain the unexplained, etc.

And no, this is not my attempt to incur the wrath of the religious fanatics that I so despise.  Though I will happily vent my thoughts of them with you given the opportunity:  Hey Fred Phelps, you're a fucking asshat.

But anyway, that's my idea for the story.  I actually started writing it a few nights ago, and I have....a few paragraphs done.  And some dialogue.  And a little outline.  What I'm finding most enjoyable to creating my own scientific methods that are related to supernatural lore but put a different spin on them.  For example, it's common lore that demons leave behind a residue of sulfur, and most religions state that Hell is all fire and brimstone with sulfur in the air.  And, holy water is used to ward off demons, right?  Well, what I'm going to make up in the story is that the planet Hell is mostly sulfur, and that's what the demons are mostly made out of and breathe.  Holy water hurts them because most water contains chlorine, which neutralizes sulfur.  It's fun making stuff up about stuff that's made up.