Do any of you fear you are unintentionally paralleling a story that has been previously published?

[Idealect]

Naruto rips off a bunch of characters from hunter x hunter, and mirrors it quite closely at the start. I didn't notice this until it was pointed out to me, and didn't mind after it was. So you're safe from me. If I don't notice conscious imitation, I'm not going to notice unconscious imitation, and I'm really not going to notice coincidental parallel development. The only thing better than that is independently coming up with something no one has ever thought of. But fundamentally that's just a matter of timing. There's a lot less difference between coming up with something first, and coming up with something independently, than there is between coming up with something independently, and consciously or unconsciously imitating something. And conscious imitation is fine. So don't worry about it.

 

[RX-79G]

The main danger, to my mind, is your work being distractingly similar to something else. It would be unfortunate if a well written book is hard to read because the reader keeps thinking about a different book.

If I come up with a really odd SF hook, I google the idea as much as possible to see what comes up. But basic story structure is not something I worry has been done before - it almost certainly has.

 

[Overread]

I think its unlikely that a well read author would write a story which is a carbon copy of another to the point where its so glaringly obvious that every reader spots it. It's more a danger of the less well read where they've had far less input and thus have a greater potential to copy-paste from what little they have read.

Also don't forget many can't see the comparisons - eg take Eragon. It's said to be Starwars retold by some; however when I read it yes I saw the mentor that dies and the quest and suchlike; but it didn't scream starwars. It's a bit like the chords in music; you can copy-paste the same chords into multiple different works of music and yes some people can indeed hear the same chords underneath the music. The vast majority can't and of those who can only a few are distracted by it.

 

[cyprus7]

Don't worry. Just write.
Anyway, isn't fiction just another person's set of alternative facts. Ha!

 

[Phyrebrat]

I just plan on getting exceptionally defensive and offended if anyone says I've written something with similarities to an existing work.

Then I'll mean Tweet...

Then I'll, I'll ...

Personally I think I'll be the first horror writer to have characters die.



Seriously though, its inevitable and as i write for myself it won't bother me.

I think the problem is when you intentionally rip off something without irony, pastiche or spoof and get caught. Then you have something to worry about.

pH

 

[JessieBogag6161]

I think a good way to help this is simply ask your friend if the two ideas or stories sound the same. There are alot of books/ films etc that are pretty similar to one so I wouldn't worry too much. Ofcourse you don't want to end up copying the same thing.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Do any of you fear you are unintentionally paralleling a story that has been previously published?

I think this is a common fear when someone begins writing. The solution is simple - push yourself to better read your genre.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree. I think a lot of people think that they have to be "original", but total originality is very difficult. Often originality comes in giving a new slant to an old idea, or in cross-fertilising two existing ideas (although obvious cross-overs of the "zombies in the Wild West" variety are a bit old hat now). Some of the best stories involve bringing an element from one genre to another, where what's old in one genre becomes new in another.

I've seen people on forums saying that they don't want to explain their plot because someone else might steal it. I think this misses the point. If you gave two good writers the outline of a popular novel, the books they produced would probably be very different indeed.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I've seen people on forums saying that they don't want to explain their plot because someone else might steal it. I think this misses the point. If you gave two good writers the outline of a popular novel, the books they produced would probably be very different indeed.

Yes, and they need a little dose of reality, or some tough love in the style of get over yourself..!

pH

 

[RX-79G]

Yes, and they need a little dose of reality, or some tough love in the style of get over yourself..!

pH

Yet no one seems to discuss overall plot, including those who have gotten over themselves. So either nearly everyone feels it is personal, or there is a fear.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Yet no one seems to discuss overall plot, including those who have gotten over themselves. So either nearly everyone feels it is personal, or there is a fear.

Personally I don't care (or, rather was not commenting) about someone's reasons for not sharing their work only those who didn't because of fear of being plagiarised.

pH

 

[MemoryTale]

A while back I beta read a story that reminded me a great deal of a video game I'd played. This wouldn't have bothered me, and in fact I may not have even noticed the similarities, if he hadn't named a location after a location in the game. To this day I have no idea if he'd played the game and consciously copied it, or if it was all a huge coincidence. But once I'd seen the name, I couldn't get the game out of my head.

So what I'd say is don't worry if there are a few plot similarities, but maybe run a google search on things like important names and places to be sure nothing like that happens.

 

[Null_Zone]

There are odd things that cause me worry.

Names for government types say, you will go years without hearing about a Protectorate and then suddenly every other book will have one.

 

[Steve Harrison]

Pretty much every story written in the last few thousand years is a variation on a theme, so anything you write is going to be similar in varying degrees to something else.

I had an interesting experience a few years ago while writing screenplays. I had always been amused by production company legal disclaimers stating they may be reviewing similar or identical scripts to the one being submitted. However, I had almost finished writing a romantic comedy script when I saw a trailer for an upcoming film. Not only did the film have almost the same premise, a minute long sequence in the trailer was almost word for word the same as one of my scenes! No one knew I was writing the script and I had no idea the movie existed.

I never laughed at those disclaimers again...

PS: The movie with the trailer flopped, which pretty much killed my screenplay

 

[Dan Jones]

Yet no one seems to discuss overall plot, including those who have gotten over themselves. So either nearly everyone feels it is personal, or there is a fear.

Plenty of people here have put up whole synopses for critique, including plot reveals and denouements. Because, like, that's what writing groups do, dontcha know.

Right, where did I put my blue drink?

 

[RX-79G]

Plenty of people here have put up whole synopses for critique, including plot reveals and denouements. Because, like, that's what writing groups do, dontcha know.

Right, where did I put my blue drink?

Is that a rhetorical question?

 

[Toby Frost]

Re plots: the reason I wouldn't greatly advise putting them up for critique is that it's extremely hard to tell whether a plot is any good before the book itself is written. I also think that unless a plot has massive, gaping holes, contains huge errors or is based on a premise that's totally impossible to believe (as opposed to being wildly fantastical) I would have trouble telling if the book would work. Also, I'm not sure that originality of plot is very important. Not only do many books have fairly predictable plots, but people want fairly predictable plots in pretty much every genre. The brain seems to be wired to like some plots more than others.

I've seen some posts here along the lines of "Is my plot any good?". They tend to involve a dense summary, which I find hard to visualise without anything more. My usual response, unless there is something blatantly wrong, is "Sounds ok. Can you make it any good?"

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

Re plots: the reason I wouldn't greatly advise putting them up for critique is that it's extremely hard to tell whether a plot is any good before the book itself is written.

One thing that I think could be handy is to write and submit the back-cover blurb for critique and comment. After all, that's what the public will see if the book is published, and it's what will induce the reader to purchase (or not).

A blurb has to not only present an interesting plot, it has to do it in a captivating way. So it's almost worth writing that first and getting comments, before you even start the novel.