Advice about writing? ><

[Red_Dazes]

I've come up upon a conundrum...

I recently came across a story guide I wrote up freshmen year of high school. It was a for a short story some of my friends asked me to write about a character I mentioned in another story... they really liked her and wanted a story about her. She was originally meant to just be a small tribute to my father after he passed away, since he would have wanted me to take over the family body shop...and I couldn't at that point... so I made a character who could.... and I had never intended to write a story about her until my friends asked me to. She was just going to be a few pages worth of minor character in a few stories.

But when I found the outline for the story I really wanted to write it again.

Her name is Missy Smith. She's a spit fire, angry MEAN S.O.B... She is an ani-magus who takes the form of a bobcat. Lives in a little back woods town...owns a body shop she inherited from her father, and prefers to work on American model cars... foreign costs extra. Has to deal with a pack of werewolves who hate her and want her dead... but "She was there first" and one lone wolf who is just an ass.

There is alot more too the story... but those are my main points. Because you see, I just found this outline about a month ago in a box of old papers...and ever since then I have been wanting to write it.

But over the last two years I was introduced to Patricia Briggs "Moon Called" series... and now... I'm like "FUCK" Because this story I wrote more than six years ago...before I even knew Briggs existed... sounds SO damn similar...I mean

Mercedes Thompson, the VW mechanic... who is a Coyote walker... who was raised by werewolves... who has to deal with several packs of were wolves, most of whom do not like her. etc.

And now I am sad... because I was pumped when I created this character... thinking how wonderful and fun she would be.... and now I am worried that if I do write her story...and put it out there... everyone is going to accuse me of stealing Patricia Briggs idea.....

*le Sigh* just wanted to get it off my chest.... still planning to write it... just not sure if I'm gonna let anyone read it...

[TheSHAD0W]

I don't remember who it was that came up with the new idea of werebeings living within human society, fighting and planning around their curses to hide their natures, but Briggs is in no way the only author who has written stories similar to your idea. Her books copied others, to at least some extent. Go ahead and write. You'll be in good company.

[Kheldarson]

Didn't Stephen King boil all stories down to Snow White or Cinderella? Or something like that.

Point is, unless you were writing back when writing was first discovered (actually unless you were part of the first tribes of man), there's no way for you to have an actually original idea. Only thing original is how you put it together and the personality of your characters. So don't worry about it.

[Rapscallion]

There are two pieces of advice I have to give.

The first has already been touched on - there are stories (what actually happens) and themes (what the author is conveying). Themes are things that the reader shouldn't see, but should be influenced by - things like how adherence to a true reality/principle will win through, or how adherence to a true reality/principle will bring ruin as the person's unable to bend and adapt. I delieberately chose similar themes there, and both can work - the first would be an action/drama, the second would be a Shakespearean tragedy.

The second is that you have to have human elements in there. I've read stories with alien/fantasy creatures as the protagonists, and they just don't work. There's nothing for the reader to latch on to.

I wouldn't worry about the story being fairly similar unless you start to make money from it.

Rapscallion

[LewisLegion]

Happens to me all the time. I'll write a story and sure enough, a book or movie will come out that is just similar enough that it now looks like my story is a copy...even though I came up with the idea before that book or movie was made.

I wrote a story called the Scrym about a little boy who's sent to live in a big house with a creepy man and finds a magic book, a little girl who's really a enchanted doll, and fairies living in the garden. He ends up having to fight a bunch of trolls and goblins and stuff in the woods behind the big creepy house.

Of course, halfway through writing it I hear about the Spiderwyck Chronicles for the first time and about spit in fury. The stories are not that alike but contain just enough similar elements that mine now looks like a cheap ripoff.

I hate that.

[Hobbs]

Well, my short story that I've written, and still hope to be converted into manga-form, shares some similarities with a 'certain' popular vampire series. The main difference? My vamps are super-ancient [ie. the main chars are 700+ yrs old], aren't whiny, drink human blood etc. The main similarity, however, is the 'daywalker' stint [ie, they walk in sunlight].

I would still like it to be published, but there's alway that nagging feeling that someone will say, "Oh, you ripped her off!"

On the up side, I published it online waay before the first book came out.

[Seshat]

Ideas aren't copyrightable. The expression of ideas is.

There have been many, many stories of 'an orphan boy goes to a magical school'. There is only one Harry Potter series.

There have actually been many daywalker types of vampire - even Buffy universe vampires are more daywalking than Bram Stoker types. There is only one Twilight. (sparkling vampires? Did they fall into the glitter factory?)

If your work is exceptional, it will stand out on its own merits. If you happen to hit a zeitgeist, it will become extraordinarily popular regardless of the idea-base.

Just write YOUR story. Make it yours, do it your way. Avoid reading the work that has the similar idea base until after yours is finished.

[Red_Dazes]

Thanks everyone... I feel much better now ^_^ I'm glad I'm not the only one running into this problem. ^_^

[Kheldarson]

There's a phrase that comes to mind: "Great minds think alike." And throughout history you see that a number of men and women all had the same major breakthrough at about the same time, although only one person ends up credited for it. Story ideas are like that too.