What To Do When Your MC Isn't Really Yours...

Has this ever happened to anyone else? You get 80% done with the first draft of a WIP, only to realize your MC is eerily similar to another popular character? So much so that you feel compelled to scrap the entire thing because you feel like some kind of thief?

This happened to me last night. I closed out a chapter in my WIP and, when I was going back and charting the character's growth in my notebook, I started to realize that I've essentially created her in the image of a popular television character. They have the same hair color, same overbearing mother, same eating disorder...

The similarities are too striking for me to continue the WIP as is (even her name starts with the same letter!). This was entirely unintentional, but I want to fix it because I love the story I'm telling (it's a supernatural mystery, not a dramady like the television show the character she resembles is on -- point in my favor?). Any advice?

What do you do when your MC doesn't belong to you?

Yeah, I did write it in first person, which is why I'm having so much trouble with the idea of scrapping it altogether. They're not the same genre and the path the characters take are very different, but I think the similarities are just too much to overcome without looking like I'm aping someone else's work. That's something I would never want to do, intentional or not.

I guess I'm going to have to spend the day combing through this and my notes, looking for things I can take away from her without making the entire character collapse. For instance, my MC is a major control freak. That's why she has the eating disorder she has, because it's a means of having control over something when she has control over nothing. And, I don't want to take that away from her because, in the end, when she essentially sacrifices all control, it has to mean something.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think this might be a case of my self-destructive inner editor trying to make me so paranoid I give up. I've been doing a good job of fighting her, but sometimes she gets sneaky on me.

I've thought of a few things I can change without completely undermining the story. In fact, I think these things might wind up strengthening it. For instance, I took out her snarky housekeeper and replaced her with a guy friend who gets how neurotic she is and loves her anyway. And, her closeness with him will provide a point of contention with her boyfriend whenever things start going south, even though she is definitely not his type.

I'm really glad I posted this thread now.