What are your thoughts on reusing ideas within a series?

Actually, this thought came to mind when I decided to delete and rewrite one of my fanfics. Because it was so far into the plot, I had to kind of change up the plot to bring something new to the table, for both the readers and myself. I, too, think it's alright, as long as there's a certain twist to it to keep it fresh, as you've mentioned above. Otherwise, it just becomes boring and predictable. Plus, there's not really any such thing as an "original" plot anymore. Any plot you can think of has probably already been thought of in the past- it's all about how you're able to take that idea and make it your own.

 

I try to do this. It's impossible to come up with something completely fresh; "All that can be done has been done", but people still come up with ways of presenting said material to keep it fresh, combining different elements and twists on elements. This is why you have tropes, subversions, double-subversions, and the like. Tropes are not bad, in and of themselves; how they are presented are why our interest is either drawn in or averted.

 

I Have The Same Point Of View As You-I Had Been Reusing The Same Idea Within Different Series.
Like Current In Draft 'Dreamworld Universal-The Crystal Of Solar Dream','Dreamworld Universal-The Courageous Dairy of Daily Star' And 'Beyond The Inspiration-The Shining Legacy',I Reusing The Reference On My Favourite Spacecraft Again And Again In The Series.

"(*Talking To My Favourite Spacecraft In Dreamworld*)Really,How Many Time I Told You?-Don't Pop Up In Front Of Myself When I Am Writing,'Cassini'!"
~That Could Be Why My Favourite Spacecraft Keep Appearing In Those Series Of Mine...

 

I agree with this opinion. Reusing ideas is not inherently bad, it's inevitable in most circumstances. But it's the way you go about it that can make or break your series' momentum completely. (LOOKIN' AT YOU KUBO!!)

 

I tend to reuse characters a lot. Like Zephyr and Shade. Both appeared in a Pokémon fanfiction I once wrote called When Heroes Rise, but I scrapped the story later. It needed a rewrite and I couldn't put forth the effort. Then when I wrote Pokémon Resonance, I decided to reuse them. Even Zero and Jack were reused. Zero was to be my character on a Digimon RP Forum I tried to start up while Jackson Powers is one of my characters on Star Force Roleplay Both were going to appear in Pokémon Cyber too, but it just never got off the ground. If I ever do get it off the ground, I'll probably reuse most of their teams too from Resonance.

In my opinion, it's fine to reuse characters because otherwise you have to come up with new characters, which isn't always easy. Same goes for Plot ideas, as said before, as long as it's different takes on the idea. The basic Idea can stay the same, but obviously you should change the details. Kind of like how I changed Atlas from SFRP. There he was Jack's WIzard, but because of his color scheme and lion's head, I made him into a Shinx in Resonance and a Luxio in Cyber. Of course so far his personality is nothing like the Atlas from SFRP.

In the end, it's hard to do everything from scratch as I tend to reuse a lot of concepts from my older projects in my newer ones. Heck, I even reused my username on an MMORPG as one of my character's names. I guess that technically does make him me even though I don't go by that name anymore, though that's mostly because I don't play that game anymore.

 

I have no problem with reusing ideas as long as there handled well. You would though need to entirely rewrite the set up to the point that it wouldn't look like the original work. Or you can reuse inside your story. For example, you main character has a revenge story and you find another character with a revenge story. These two characters can play off their revenge stories and instead of just having them have the same background, they can grow from each other and maybe see the error of their ways through anothers perspective on the same topic.

I don't mind reusing ideas within a story. It just needs to be done well to prevent it from being repetitious.

 

Ideas have multiple ways of being expressed whether it be through the characters, the way the plot unfolds, or something else. Ideas are just starts, not the story itself. There is nothing wrong with reusing an idea. It’s only a problem if the author doesn’t improve it and offer something new. Now whether that something new is better or not is a different question.

 

Reusing is fine, but it needs to be handled well, you can't just copy paste the first idea you had. You have to work on it and try to make it stand out in another way.

 

It depends on the reason for the reuse. If an idea is being recycle just for the sake of it, be it because it was popular before or because there're no other ideas, then it's not going to work out well. It'll be too obviously a rehash because other elements will inevitably have to be moulded around the idea rather than things flowing more naturally.
If an idea is reused meaningfully it'll work much better, giving emphasis to the idea itself as something meaningful to the work. The same idea can be used to explore other ideas too, using the familiarity of the recycled idea as a point of comparison.