My story has a main character that starts out in their regular world, the USA, and suddenly finds out that they're not human. They're part of this fantastical race that uses magic(but not spells). So, they attend a school that teaches students how to use that magic and control it so they don't have "outbursts" that could make the regular humans discover who they are. They're also an orphan, and the particular type of magic they can use is special and nobody else can use the same magic they do. Later on in the story, they have to defeat an evil Sorceress that wants world domination. I decided to read the first few Harry Potter books, and I realized that there are more similarities in my story and J K Rowling's that had originally thought. How can I make my story sound less Harry Potter and more me? The main character goes on a quest to save the Headmaster who's magic will be taken away by the evil Sorceress before too long, which is different, but I still feel as if it is too similar. There are no Wizarding Games, but there is a final exam where they go to see who's magic is the most powerful through different tests and competition. There are different types of magic, like Fire and Healing, and there are no Wizards. There are Witches but they're different and mostly recluses. I don't know if I made that clear earlier.
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Ever heard of "the hero's journey"? It's the core of many myths, going back thousands of years. LOTS of stories follow it. – Zeiss Ikon Oct 14 '21 at 18:53
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Welcome to Writing.SE! This is a question we receive quite frequently, so I've closed this as a duplicate of a question about the general case (i.e. whether any story with a magic school will be compared to Harry Potter, and how to lessen those comparisons). Hopefully this helps you. If not, feel free to edit the question to explain any specific queries that the duplicate doesn't answer. – F1Krazy Oct 14 '21 at 19:37
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As @ZeissIkon pointed out, the Hero's Journey is a story architype that developed multiple iterations in multiple independent cultures, so some beats (the ordinary person learning of extraordinary adventures) but different variations. Your description could easily be Luke Skywalker. A magic school is not unique to Harry Potter, but boarding school is (American education doesn't have a lot of Boarding Schools). The Disney Show Owl House depicts a more American style magic school, and manages to keep the "house system" by substituting it for focused study of schools of magic.+ – hszmv Oct 15 '21 at 15:38
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- They also have more than one school in the regional setting (3 total) so sports are intramural rather than between the student groupings. And of course, being the nature of the show as a horror comedy, they take digs at Harry Potter's setting a couple of times. Student's tract of study used to be determined by the "Choosey Hat" until it developed a taste for flesh and had to be discontinued, and the hero has a huge monolog about the favorite sport's game's inclusion of a "Golden Snitch" mechanic (which all games have, apparently).
– hszmv Oct 15 '21 at 15:44 -
@hszmv Your sentence: "The Disney Show Owl House depicts a more American style magic school, and manages to keep the "house system" by substituting it for focused study of schools of magic." seems ungrammatical. Shouldn't you have written: ""The Disney Show Owl House depicts a more American style magic school, and replaces the "house system" with focused study of schools of magic."? – M. A. Golding Oct 15 '21 at 16:13