Something familiar here...

brainstrains · Aug 25, 2005

What do you do when you finish writing your novel and then realize that some really bad B-movie made in the 80's has almost the same EXACT plot?

Getting the shredder ready

...

BT

rowriter · Aug 25, 2005

Change a few plot points in the rewrite!! Obviously easier said than done, but you did go through the trouble of writing the whole novel didn't you?

Also, study that movie and your book just a little more closely. Is it really the same? There might be some significant differences that are enough to separate your book from that movie.

Whatever you do, don't trash it. At least keep it so ten years from now you can look at it and laugh...

James D. Macdonald · Aug 25, 2005

There are only five plots (some say seven) anyway.

Submit this one (after it's fully revised to the best of your ability) and start work on your next.

Starlightmntn · Aug 25, 2005

It can't be that bad! I'm sure your novel is wildly different. Who sees those 80's B-movies now, anyway?

Garpy · Aug 25, 2005

Hell, you might have come up with the same plot as some crummy movie...but maybe you implemented the story in a far less crummy way. So....don't give up just yet!!

Frankly Independence Day and War of the Worlds are the same basic idea, but Well's book pisses on Roland Emmerich's movie from a very great height.

NeuroFizz · Aug 25, 2005

Make sure yours will make an A movie.

MacAllister · Aug 25, 2005

I'm sure your novel is wildly different. Who sees those 80's B-movies now, anyway?

*raises hand, a bit embarrassed*

I love those movies...which one is it? C.H.U.D.? Silent Night, Deadly Night?
Child's Play? The Hills Have Eyes? OOh! OOh! Is it The Lair of the White Worm[font=verdana,arial,helvetica][size=-1]?

Seriously, I think Uncle Jim's exactly right. And since I'm in your target audience...
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Eldo · Aug 25, 2005

Precisely as others have said... how exact is EXACT?

I mean, my first ms was a baseball novel, which when I was finished, I was able to draw many, many comparisons to Disney's THE LION KING (first to my horror, then to my amusement). Obviously, the plots aren't exact (unless lions and other African animals start playing baseball that is). Like in music, change a note here or there in the rewrite, and it's no longer sampling, right?

NeuroFizz · Aug 25, 2005

MacAllister said:
*raises hand, a bit embarrassed*

I love those movies...which one is it? C.H.U.D.? Silent Night, Deadly Night?
Child's Play? The Hills Have Eyes? OOh! OOh! Is it The Lair of the White Worm[font=verdana,arial,helvetica][size=-1]?
[/size][/font]

Hand held high. Re-Animator Acting terrible enough to make it a cult classic.

Saanen · Aug 25, 2005

Don't worry, I'm sure your book is far, far better than the movie! Just be glad you aren't unwittingly rewriting an acclaimed classic. That's happened to me. I was 3/4 through what I thought was a frankly brilliant and unusual YA story when I stopped to ask my alpha reader (who hadn't yet seen the thing and never will now, alas) her opinion on my planned ending. I described the characters and plot and she said, "That's Dicey's Song."

You know Dicey's Song--the Cynthia Voigt novel that won a Newbery. I hadn't read it, but I'd apparently written 3/4 of its clone, only I'm quite, quite sure my version is not Newbery quality. Oh well, it had other flaws I'm aware of now that several years have passed, but at the time it was quite a blow.

Don't give up on your book, though. Chances are no one but you will ever make the connection with the movie--and if it becomes a runaway success the accidental movie connection will make a great anecdote for the interviewers.

WriterInChains · Aug 25, 2005

I'm with MacAllister; knowing that only makes me want to read it! :Sun:

Vomaxx · Aug 25, 2005

Heck, Virgil used the same plot as Homer (and even one of Homer's characters) but the Aeneid turned out pretty well anyway.

jackie106 · Aug 25, 2005

Eldo said:
I mean, my first ms was a baseball novel, which when I was finished, I was able to draw many, many comparisons to Disney's THE LION KING (first to my horror,
then to my amusement).

I always thought that The Lion King was cribbed from Hamlet. In both stories, the king's brother kills the king and hooks up with the widowed queen. He tries to get rid of the young prince, but then the prince comes back and kills the usurper.

If you want to look at the broad outlines of a plot, everything begins to look like everything else. You could draw parallels between ABC's Lost, Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, Gulliver's Travels, Sinbad the Sailor, and The Odyssey. After all, they are about getting stranded, being chased by monsters, and trying to get back home.

Were all of the authors ripping each other off? No. Each story has something unique to say and ultimately the comparisons are superficial.

Jackie

E.G. Gammon · Aug 25, 2005

James D. Macdonald said:
There are only five plots (some say seven)

Would you care to instill some of your wisdom on the group and elaborate? The five/seven are...

three seven · Aug 25, 2005

Starlightmntn said:
Who sees those 80's B-movies now, anyway?

Someone obviously did, or else we wouldn't be having this conversation...

HapiSofi · Aug 25, 2005

Who cares? If all your book has going for it is its plot, it's dead in the water anyway. If it's good, it's good.

Did you just finish writing it? Could be you're going through an attack of "Oh Ghod, my work is excruciatingly bad," which generally hits right after you finish. If so, put it away for a while in some dark quiet place. It'll get better.

James D. Macdonald · Aug 25, 2005

The five plots are:

If This Goes On
The Man Who Learned Better
The Brave Little Tailor
How Do I Get Home?
and
Who Are Those Guys?

Some claim the two other plots are:

Seven Against Thebes
and
Gentle Reader, I Married Him

three seven · Aug 25, 2005

E.G. Gammon said:
The five/seven are...

1. Legendary moustache illegally transports truckload of Coors and runaway bride east of Mississippi, pursued by angry sheriff.

2. Bare-knuckle fighter, tow-truck driving best friend and amiable orang-utan antagonise angry Hell's Angels.

3. Angry mechanical shark terrorises coastal community. Sheriff needs bigger boat.

4. Angry zombies chase late-night shoppers. Slowly. While moaning.

5. Bored insomniac hosts violent late-night social event before being terrorised by angry alter-ego.

6. American tourist bitten by angry werewolf on Yorkshire moors. Shags fit nurse. Eats people.

7. Large quiet man, stoned best friend and amiable orang-utan travel to Hollywood to halt production of movie based on own comic book, chased by angry wildlife marshall.

scarletpeaches · Aug 25, 2005

Cinderella - Unrecognised virtue at last recognised.

Achilles - The Fatal Flaw

Faust - The Debt that Must be Paid

Tristan - that standard triangular plot of two women and one man, or two men and one woman.

Circe - The Spider and the Fly.

Romeo and Juliet - Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl

Orpheus - The Gift taken Away. Can also cover 'quest' stories - recovering the lost/missing gift or artefact.

scribbler1382 · Aug 25, 2005

It's all in the delivery.

btw, Re-Animator rocks!

Diane · Aug 27, 2005

It could be worse...

You could have made a $150m. movie, only to discover that it followed the plot of a B-movie from 1970s TV fairly closely...

But _The Island_ seemed so original...

Danger Jane · Aug 28, 2005

If you still are attached, you can remedy it with some work--character development, a REAL plight for them, stuff like that.

And do a real rewrite. Don't just edit heavily. If you can manage it, don't even use the original MS--go from memory by the important things that stick out in your mind.

Something familiar here...

brainstrains

4-8-8-4

rowriter

Bibliophile

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Starlightmntn

Garpy

keyboard monkey

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

MacAllister

Tired and worried.

Eldo

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Saanen

WriterInChains

Feed my eyes

Vomaxx

jackie106

E.G. Gammon

three seven

(Graeme Cameron)

HapiSofi

Hagiographically Advantaged

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

three seven

(Graeme Cameron)

scarletpeaches

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

Diane

Danger Jane