A big part of writing is being originality. No one will want to read your story, if it sounds just like every other story they've read. So please, no more versions of High School Musical, or stories about the little sister who gets it while the older sister doesn't. There are so many ideas out there waiting to be explored, why don't you go for them?

When I write a story, I try to search for ideas that no one else has used, ideas that are all my own. Why would I want a moldy idea? Gross! It's like digging through the garbage for a pair of worn out shoes, nasty. One thing I like to do is take little ideas from separate books or stories, a character trait, an object, or even a small theme, and mix them together with other ideas. This way you can end up with something totally new.

Another way to be original is to take ideas from real life, things you have experienced, stories you see on the news, etc. Roald Dahl, award winning author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and The BFG, used to look through the phone book for names, and look at pictures of eyes for character ideas. The Dear America series has many different authors, who take real events in history, and mix them with their own ideas, their own characters and lives, and true things as well.

You don't want to sound like a copy cat, so don't go making different versions of other books, or waste you time trying to turn a movie script to a book or vice versa. Messing with other people's stories is liable to get them mad, and it doesn't help you any. If you're looking to write a story, then do something no one else has ever thought of before, and make something completely your own. That's the real way to do things.