"Nothing is original"

missesdash · Jul 21, 2011

So I was reading excerpts from some recent YA and my jaw dropped to the floor when I read the very first line from "Vampire Academy"

"I felt her fear before I heard her screams."

The old opening to my WIP was

" I tasted her fear before I heard her scream."

Glad I decided to change it, as i've never read VA but it was essentially the same line

I remember thinking that my opening line was pretty damn original. -_- anyway, on to the question!

Ever had any of your "original ideas" pop up in other places? Do you change it, or take your chances?

mellymel · Jul 21, 2011

I have not yet had this happen. I think I'd have a bit of a freak out if it did

And, funny enough, I have the first book for VA sitting on my night table waiting for me to read (after I finish Siren, Invincible Summer, and Cracked up to Be all of which are from the library, including VA

)

Mharvey · Jul 21, 2011

Heh, that's kinda funny. I'm almost positive I opened mine with something similar to that too... lemme check...

Even now, her musk was still thick in his nose. Her smell had been so rich, so intoxicating. The feel of her jugular artery, pumping against his hands. That powerful pulse on his fingers. The rich taste of her fear in the back of his throat.

[FONT=&quot]Yep. That's my 2nd paragraph. We all need more inspirations. Let's all go back and reread some Mark Twain. He never wrote about the undead.

[/FONT]

GLOOMCOOKIE · Jul 21, 2011

I've had that happen to me before, yes. Several story ideas I've had came out as movies or video games before I was even able to start writing.

In fact, I can recall many years ago when my father and a business partner of his were talking about an new idea for a website where people could hold virtual auctions... literally two weeks later Ebay hit the internet in full force.

There's no such thing as an original idea in this age of free information. You just have to find a new angle on an old idea, or combine several in a way that hasn't been done successfully yet.

Rhoda Nightingale · Jul 21, 2011

Yeah, tasting/feeling/sensing someone's fear before a scream doesn't strike me as terribly original. But I read TONS of vampire fiction, so I might see it more than others.

Since you decided to change it anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. And additionally, since that idea seems to come up quite a bit, you probably wouldn't have to worry about plagiarism/copyright issues either.

EDIT: To answer your actual question, yeah, I've had this happen. The only way to get past it is to take deep breaths and move on. You might have a few things in common with an existing work, but no one tells a story in the exact same way. We're all colored by our individual experiences, and that will make the work unique.

missesdash · Jul 21, 2011

I guess I wasn't thinking of it from a vampire novel POV because my character is an Empath, not a vampire.

And in this vampire academy line, its a psychic connection. Hmm. Going to have to google my new opening line just to make sure.

Shady Lane · Jul 21, 2011

Last night I thought of a line I thought was so cute and I was like, "I'll put that in the WIP! It's original and romantic!"

and then I turned on the TV to a badly-scripted murder mystery and one character said, verbatim (it wasn't long, haha) that line to another. And I was like um well scratch that then.

Chazemataz · Jul 21, 2011

I thought that my novel about a shy, dorky boy in a Deep Southern town who meets a witch girl and falls for her was the most original, coolest thing since sliced bread.

Well, until I read Beautiful Creatures and it was pretty much the exact same thing. They even liked the same BANDS. How does that happen? :/

missesdash · Jul 21, 2011

@chaz ugh I'm praying there aren't any PNR about empaths or druids

Gwendolyn · Jul 21, 2011

Once upon a time, I was working on a tale involving demons (of the hellish variety). My character was afflicted with a demonic illness and needed treatment. To get there, she had to cross the Blackfriars bridge. I thought myself rather clever - since the bridge was named Blackfriars, why not have the Black Friars (Benedictine monks) cure her? They could watch over the river and bridge.

Then I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, and he had already brought the Black Friars to life.

Ashes Oh Ashes · Jul 21, 2011

When I was fourteen, I thought I had this brilliant idea about Dragon Riders. Turns out I was just writing another version of Eragon, which is a steal from God knows how many other books/movies (Star Wars and the Pern books come to mind).

I still don't think I've recovered from my idea being stolen so blatantly.

thebloodfiend · Jul 21, 2011

When I was nine or ten, I had an idea about an awesome group of people who could control the elements (fire, water, etc). And they were at war with each other.

Then I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Yeah.

Truth be told, they told the story way better than my ten-year-old self ever could

Liosse de Velishaf · Jul 21, 2011

I must be lucky. No one's ever used a first line of mine.

They've used plenty of other ones, but most of those were pretty generic.

I have had some of my ideas end up similar to already published stuff, but mostly not so much that I couldn't get away with my own spin on it.

For example, the story Kip Running by Genevieve Williams had a lot of elements I'm planning to use in a story, but mine is novel length, and the pakour elements are closely tied to magic. But both be be equally well described as "cyberpunk train-running".

Mharvey · Jul 21, 2011

thebloodfiend said:
When I was nine or ten, I had an idea about an awesome group of people who could control the elements (fire, water, etc). And they were at war with each other.

Then I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Yeah.

Truth be told, they told the story way better than my ten-year-old self ever could

Hah!

On a totally unrelated and borderline thread derailing note, they are coming out with a new cartoon based, like, 70 years after the first one. Looking forward to that so much!

But yeah, that's gotta stink. It's a GREAT idea though!

Katallina · Jul 21, 2011

The characters names in my first novel, back when I was 19 or 20, were Isabelle and Nicholas.

Two weeks after I finished writing it, Christine Feehan released Lair of the Lion, which had a hero and heroine named Nichoae and Isabella.

I laughed. What else could I do?

DrunkenLilacs · Jul 21, 2011

Yeah. This is what pretty much happened on my last WIP. It was about a girl who lost her memory after waking up from a coma and finds that everyone is hiding something from her. Hiding her old self from her. And that the night of the accident that caused her coma, she was with a guy that she didn't know or remember or any of her friends said she knew (because he was from a different social group). When she did know him and she wants to find out what their relationship status was. Too bad he was dead.

And then I read the synopsis of Elizabeth Scott's As I Wake and found it chillingly similar to my WIP.

"Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them - and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust."

Yeah, I was bummed. Cause I was halfway done with the book.

Mandiloo322 · Jul 21, 2011

My protagonist is cursed with horribly bad luck, so it was only natural that a black cat should latch on to her - even if the cat is really a young sorcerer trapped in a cat's body, right? Then I found cat-sorcerer companions popping up all over the place. Sabriel, His Dark Materials, Tamora Pierce stories...but most annoyingly of all - "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch." That show annoys the heck out of me because Salem is a puppet, and one of the most aggravating characters. And of course the show has been syndicated in about 50 countries and still runs today, so there isn't a person alive with cable that doesn't know about him. I'm desperately hoping that my cat-sorcerer is so much better that he will never be compared to that stupid puppet...!

waitingfordawn · Jul 21, 2011

This happened to me today, actually, haha. I wrote about half of a novel that was a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid with two POVs rotating between the mermaid and the other princess going after the prince. I thought this had never been done before. Nope--turns out a novel was pubbed a few months ago, claiming to be the first to write the other princess' POV as well as the mermaid's. ;_; Ah well. At least my rewrite idea involves them falling in love with each other instead of with the prince. *_*

Schnitzel · Jul 21, 2011

Ack, don't you hate it? I've never seen exact lines appear somewhere else verbatim, but the ideas...Well, I once thought the epic fantasy I'm currently chipping away a brilliant and original test that, despite the common tropes of the genre, would be truly mold-breaking and original.

Then I realized it was heavily based on THE GOLDEN COMPASS. Back to the drawing board with that one.

Ashes Oh Ashes · Jul 21, 2011

Schnitzel said:
Then I realized it was heavily based on THE GOLDEN COMPASS. Back to the drawing board with that one.

Oh, you can just rewrite that one. It was so good, the world could do with another one.

sadbeautifultragic · Jul 23, 2011

Yes!

it sucks.
Well I used to think that parkour was a fairly unknown sport

Jehhillenberg · Jul 24, 2011

I see my ideas on TV all the time and say those writers of those shows are picking my brain when I'm asleep or something.

AlwaysJuly · Jul 24, 2011

The flip side of nothing being original is that when something IS original, it's often awful. Or at least that's how I feel about my work when I come up with something unusual.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jul 24, 2011

AlwaysJuly said:
The flip side of nothing being original is that when something IS original, it's often awful. Or at least that's how I feel about my work when I come up with something unusual.

No, no, no. The flip side is that when something is originial, it doesn't have to be awesome. People will buy it just for the WOW factor. Of course, if it also happens to be awesome, then you've really got it.

Anaximander · Jul 25, 2011

I had a few of my fantasy ideas turn up here and there - mostly Eragon, which was annoying. The best of my ideas for that are still usable though - haven't seen them anywhere (yet). I ended up shelving that book though, because it somehow turned into six. Hate it when that happens.

"Nothing is original"

You can't sit with us!

Liker Of Happy Things

The Muffin Man

Vampire Junkie

You can't sit with us!

my name is hannah

I went to sleep a poet

You can't sit with us!

Honest, not Harsh

Cory

Liker Of Happy Things

Growing tipsier as we speak

[Shhhh....I'm writing.]

il terzo paradiso : inner peace

Honest, not Harsh

N/A

slugging through