Grunk had a lot of work to do, picking berries and fighting saber-toothed tigers off with a pointy stick. He and Mrs. Grunk had four Little Grunks, and the Little Grunks needed to sleep. So Grunk told them a bedtime story, about a hero who fought off three lions with only a sling!
Little Grunk 1 was enthralled. He loved the idea of the heroic lion-slayer, and when he went to little Caveperson school the next day he told his friends all about it. He and his friend Vork played heroes-and-lions during cave recess, and the idea stuck in Vork's head.
Vork went home and told his sister the story - but this time, it was three dragons instead. His sister told it to her friends while lounging at the cave mall, only this time, the hero was slaying the dragons alongside his true love, the cave princess.
The story spread all across the network of caves, becoming a thousand different stories about the same hero with the sling. Each story was different, and each hero was different, but they all retain some of the basic elements.
Now, how does Grunk feel about this?
If Grunk were living by today's rules, he'd take a rock and bean everyone who'd ever muttered a new version of the story across the head.
Little Grunk 1 was enthralled. He loved the idea of the heroic lion-slayer, and when he went to little Caveperson school the next day he told his friends all about it. He and his friend Vork played heroes-and-lions during cave recess, and the idea stuck in Vork's head.
Vork went home and told his sister the story - but this time, it was three dragons instead. His sister told it to her friends while lounging at the cave mall, only this time, the hero was slaying the dragons alongside his true love, the cave princess.
The story spread all across the network of caves, becoming a thousand different stories about the same hero with the sling. Each story was different, and each hero was different, but they all retain some of the basic elements.
Now, how does Grunk feel about this?
If Grunk were living by today's rules, he'd take a rock and bean everyone who'd ever muttered a new version of the story across the head.
Fortunately, cave times weren't rife with unfair copyright law, so he just lived to a ripe old age enjoying the popularity of the story he told to all his little Grunks.
For thousands of years before copyright law was even A Thing, people have been telling stories about other people's stories.
Don't ever let someone tell you it's a waste of time.
Don't ever let someone tell you you shouldn't.
Don't ever let someone tell you it doesn't matter.
Stealing the precise order of someone else's words is wrong. Taking an idea and making it your own? That isn't wrong. Filtering a story through your own perspective isn't stealing - it's natural.
So write what you want to write. Tell the internet about a man with a sling fighting off three lions. Make him slay three dragons instead. Give him a love interest. Take her away. Make him a her.
Do whatever you want.
That's how literature grows.
Do whatever you want.
That's how literature grows.
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