I was recently reading about the German music theorist Johann Kirnberger, who in 1783 published a small book revealing his new method of composing music:
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Take a sonata from the available literature; using the bass, fashion a new melody.
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Create a new bass to the melody you have just invented; now you have a new sonata!
And it occurred to me that some modern popular writers are doing the same thing when writing novels. Novels like Fifty Shades of Grey (which started as Twilight fan-fiction), Cassandra Clare's City of Bones (which began life with Harry Potter characters), and Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis (which started as Rey and Kylo fan-fiction).
We can call it "The Kirnberger Method of Writing Novels":
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Take characters from the available literature; using the characters, fashion a new plot.
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Create new characters for the plot you have just invented; now you have a new novel!
What are some other example novels that use the the Kirnberger Method?
by RunDNA
3 Comments
See also the entire career of Freida McFadden, who is openly recycling the plots of other bestselling novels.
Maybe hunger games/red rising (I’ve only read first book of red rising as of yet though…so I cannot speak to the entirety of the series).
Currently reading Fagin the Thief by Allison Epstein – builds expertly on Oliver Twist by Dickens!