Academic Writing

As I try to unjumble the convoluted mess of a thesis chapter that I have created, I have come to an idea of what it really takes to write academically: we borrow key phrases from our predecessors in order to substantially back up our own claims. What if, though, our claims, as profound as they are, have not yet been previously spoken of? What if we have elucidating ideas about certain things, yet no pre-written documentation of said things to back ourselves up? Do we not, then, acquire the same level of merit? Do we only surmount to what our predecessors have left for us? Cannot we be something greater? Who were the predecessors of our predecessors? And if there were none, what then is legitimacy?