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I'm sure other people have faced this issue: They see a movie or TV show or play a video game or read a book and immediately think of taking said source material's plot and turning it into their own. I don't know how many people have had this issue, but I'm certain someone else besides me has.

Anyway, on to my issue . . .

I recently watched the Disney version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" after having not seen it since I was little. Certain parts of the movie instantly gripped me. But one plot line in the film really grabbed my attention, and I see that if I was to take that plot and just change location, time period, and characters that it would make quite an interesting story idea.

So here is the plot in the Disney film I'm talking about: Judge Claude Frollo feels it's his duty to eliminate Paris of the people who he believes are the source of all the wickedness in the city, specifically the Gypsies. He sees them as below himself and everything else, and will be ruthless about their elimination if need be. Then the Gypsy dancer Esmeralda comes in. He finds her repulsive yet, at the same time, lusts after her. However, he believes his feelings for her to be the work of witchcraft and wishes Esmeralda dead just so he can be freed from the dangerous moral position he is in (especially with him being a self-proclaimed man of God). Esmeralda already has a price on her head, but afterwards the search for her becomes more frantic and ruthless. As everyone knows, she is finally captured, and is given the choice of being with Frollo or burning at the stake.

What I feel I can do with this plot: When I watched this film a few days ago, I felt the obvious racism towards the Gypsies by Frollo was all too similar to what was directed towards the Jews during the rule of Hitler. The Jews were seen as evil and a stain upon humanity and society and that mass genocide was the only way to clear the world of them. That was the first connection I made. So then I got to thinking: What would it be like if I took said plot from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and translated it into a World War II setting? Instead of Gypsies it's Jews, and instead of a religious judge it's a member of the German army (or maybe, dare I say it, the SS). The stakes of the story would be very high. I guess one idea for adding more characters would be to take from the Disney film the character Captain Phoebes and how his disobeyance of orders made him a traitor and turncoat, and he ends up helping Esmeralda. That plot line could also be used, if I wanted, but with it being a German soldier who goes turncoat.

Yes, yes, this would not be an original story at all, but who says it has to be a long story, or even one that is to be published?

So, here are my questions to you guys:

1) Have you ever been in a situation like this, where you found a plotline from something else so compelling that you wanted to use it in your own way? If so, what?
2) Do you think this would be a doable idea for me, or even a good one? Other thoughts?

Of course people have. It's called "inspiration." No, seriously, you never know what will make you want to write. A movie, a conversation with a friend, that annoying bird who wakes you up every morning: anything can be incorporated into a story.

About the Holocaust idea though- if you want to keep it as a Gypsy woman being the target of the man's lust, you could. I know that most people are aware that the Jews were targeted the most during the Holocaust (ending in a death toll of 6 million), but there were also about 3 million gypsies, homosexuals, captured Russians, dissenters, and others who were put to death because of one man's crazed ideals. There were some people who were captured and survived because they were sent to work in the guards' houses... and sometimes beds, instead of the more common hard labor and gas chambers. You could probably look up an anecdote or two online if you wanted to try and gather facts about that situation.

If you want to know about some of the brutality of the Nazis, I'd suggest reading Exodus. I think that had some good examples, and was a good book besides. I remember one survivor telling us about when she first got to the camps, and they saw chimneys and smoke pouring out of them. She asked a female Nazi guard what they were cooking, guessing and hoping that it was bread to feed them (they had just gotten off the train). The Nazi turned to her and told her, "Those are your families burning."

I have trouble imagining what that must have been like. I think it's because some part of me really doesn't want to, and that part is reeling from shock and horror at what atrocities a human can perform on another. It's just frightening. We don't even need a Devil, we can create Hell just fine ourselves.

They taught us a lot about it in Hebrew School, if you want to hear more feel free to PM me. It would sort of turn into a long...er post if I went through every one.

On to less depressing subjects! As for the "taking ideas from other things" part, I sometimes make fanfictions of fanfictions iin my head. Or just fanfictions. I wrote a story recently about a girl who was kidnapped and sold into prostitution after seeing Taken, and while the plot sounds similar the stories were completely different. Actually, if you look into the contest called In the Shadows, it's there if you want to take a look or enter it yourself. Most recently though, was me getting an idea from your story. sweatdrop

I got this mental image of the judge person trying to tattoo his own name into "Esmerelda's" skin instead of a number. I'm... I'm just going to stop rambling now. redface

I'm not sure whether or not I want my story (if I ever work on it, that is) to take place in a concentration camp. Just because it's the WWII Holocaust doesn't mean every story has to be in a camp. (No, it's not because I want to avoid writing about that) And, yeah, I do know that Gypsies were persecuted just as much as the Jews during WWII. In fact, last night when I watched the Disney movie on last time (we were renting it from Netflix) my mom told the two kids who were watching it about how the Gypsies were a people who were much like the Jews in that they have been persecuted for forever, and they, like the Jews, keep their cultural beliefs and ways throughout generations. So, yeah, if I want the story to be more inspired by the movie, then I simply need to change from Jews to Gypsies. Besides, it almost seems as if it would be easier to write about Gypsies than Jews, based on what I've read.

I saw a commercial the other day for some new movie coming out where this girl is unlucky in love or something and she pulls coins from a fountain in Italy that make all the guys who wished on those coins fall in love with her. I went neutral because really, that's the best they could do with that idea? People don't just wish for love when they throw coins into fountains. They wish for a multitude of things. They're really under utilizing a fairly decent concept. It could be an awesome fantasy type movie instead of another crappy romantic comedy. I'd love to see what I could do with that idea myself. I feel sort of bad using things that aren't my own so I try to limit it to small things.

I've certainly run into this issue, but I think as author's it's sort of our prerogative to take plots, ideas and concepts we see other places and twist, bend and break them to suit our needs.

As long as it's not blatant plagiarism I don't see anything really wrong with it. Then there's the matter of Open Source.

The original Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victory Hugo is incredibly tragic, and the Disney film follows the plot line in a general sort of way. It was published in 1831, and may be considered open source at this point ( I don't know for certain) which means re-writes, versions, etc, can be written. But if you completely exclude the hunchback aspect it becomes one of the classic plot lines in literature. Bad man wants girl, blackmails girl, girl refuses him, girl dies. (Yes, Esmerelda dies in the book. Can't recall the film's ending)

Seriously, lots of Romantic era novels have this set-up. You're fine if you want to use it yourself.

I agree with Scipio. I've taken to saying "originality is dead" recently, because I really think it is. As long as you're not TOTALLY obvious (I'd come up with a witty example, but I iz tired at the moment biggrin ), then you'll be ok. It's a very sophisticated subject you've got there and I'm sure you could turn it into something amazing!!