Did they read my mind or something?

Michael Dracon · Oct 8, 2007

WARNING! Spoilers for Supernatural Season 3 and the last few novels of the Dresden Files.

I know I've mentioned this before, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm currently planning to write a novel and I'm in the progress of making a few MCs. This is my last iteration of two of them (just the stuff that applies to the rant, I've fleshed them out much more than this of course):

Molly: Can manipulate light, including the ability to make herself invisible.
Ruby: Can manipulate fire. Also owns a dagger that is imbued to hurt supernatural creatures.

These two girls are sisters. Both have long blonde hair, Molly has it straight, Ruby has soft curls.

Okay, so here is my reason for being pissed:

I just finished the last few books in The Dresden Files. A new main character is now walking around in there. Her name is Molly, she has blonde hair and she can make herself invisible.

Last weekend I saw the season 3 premier of Supernatural. In comes a girl with a dagger that kills demons. She has soft curly blonde hair. When I saw this my jaw dropped open. It really did. So I checked the internet to see if there was more info about this character. I found one more thing, her character is called Ruby.

Okay, seriously, this isn't funny any more. What the hell do you do when this type of stuff happens?

All I can think of is show the middle finger and just rename my characters. I have done to much revising already. I was just about to finally write a few lines this weekend when I saw the Supernatural episode. :e2writer:

Doodlebug · Oct 8, 2007

Michael Dracon said:
Okay, seriously, this isn't funny any more. What the hell do you do when this type of stuff happens?

You might want to check in with your muse; it sounds to me like she's two-timing you

Seriously, I think that this kind of thing happens to every writer. I know its happened to me a time or three. Renaming your characters is probably the safest option. Maybe changing their looks, too, wouldn't hurt. But really, it sounds as if you are just beginning this novel, and by the time you (a) finish it and (b) find a market for it, so much time will have passed that people will have forgotten about the shows.

(Please don't think that this is a slam against you!! I'm just saying that writing a novel generally takes a long time and, at least for me anyway, finding a market takes an even longer time - though I hope not for your sake!!)
:Sun:

Shadow_Ferret · Oct 8, 2007

Well, the whole Dresden Files thing threw me for a loop. My novel is about a "wizard" (although I don't use that term because of HP), who is also a stage magician, who in this novel is investigating a double-homicide for the Police. And my novel is set in Milwaukee.

After I've finished the novel I start hearing about this Jim Butcher person and his Harry Dresden character who is the son of a stage magician, is a wizard, and is a private investigator in Chicago.

I thought about abandoning the whole thing.

I then picked up one of the novels and realized there was enough to differentiate the two and I'm now subbing it.

nevada · Oct 8, 2007

I thought the blonde chick on Supernatural was Buffy re-incarnated.

Honestly, i would give them different names, just in case, and then go on. Your work is bound to be different than the Dresden Files and Supernatural, because you are writing it. It's a weird little coincidence though.

oscuridad · Oct 9, 2007

synchronicity is a bitch. It happens all the time and is probably something to do with a whole range of very subtle sociological and material trends affecting a number of people in similar ways. How many times have two or even three hollywood studios brought out films with very similar themes at the same time?

Red Planet & Mission to Mars, or Dante's Peak and Volcano (I think) for example.

It has happened to me and it will happen again.

Doesn't mean we have to like it.

It is bloody infuriating.

nevada · Oct 9, 2007

i think, though, that the same movie from different studios is a result of shopping ideas. In hollywood, you pitch ideas before you've even written the script. So lets say you go to WB and pitch an idea about a giant comet coming for earth and astronauts going to blow it up. Guy at WB says, nah, no giant comets. So you go to the next studio and pitch it and they say, sure, sounds good, write it, we'll make it. THen WB has a meeting where the big bosses demand ideas, and the guy who turned down the comet idea says "what about a comet movie" and so you end up with Deep Impact and Armageddon.

In this case, it's just a weird ass coincidence.

Michael Dracon · Oct 12, 2007

WARNING: Even bigger spoilers for the same stuff over here!

Okay, this is getting very weird!

So I've haven't even decided upon the new names yet. Though I did think hey, let's lose the dagger, it's pretty cliche after all. I might as well steal a better idea than that. So I went for Ruby being partially possessed by a demon instead. Partially meaning she's still somewhat in control. And yes, that idea did in part came from The Dresden Files.

So I just finished watching Supernatural season 3, episode 2.

Guess what... The Ruby in there is possessed by a demon.

Seriously, WTF?

I seem to have a knack for doing these things. I already did so in the past as well. I did a lot of tabletop RPGs, and often I was the one leading the game for the players. I had some pretty wicked ideas back then, and more often than I liked some TV series like Buffy or Charmed showed them soon after.

It feels like the opposite of deja vu. And it's really getting creepy now.

Sunkissed27f · Oct 12, 2007

That's like me.

Deferent story same meaning:
I have crappy fashion sense.

SO I buy what looks half way decent and what I can afford.

And then.....while flipping through an up-tot-date women's magazine months later, I see the exact same thing and I bought ......in fashion...if you will.

Okay this may not make you feel better....but great minds do think a like.

Michael Dracon · Oct 12, 2007

With me I had one person actually blaming me for spoiling an episode of a TV series. He thought I was getting my ideas by reading spoilers on internet sites for upcoming episodes.

Max Ingram · Oct 12, 2007

I hate when that sort of thing happens. I'm pretty sure it's just a coincidence, though, and not the result of little gremlins listening to you talk to yourself.

I remember I had an idea for a character who was a thief in a fantasy novel. And I thought I'd come up with a pretty snazzy name for him too; Jack Twist. Sounds good, right? Then my cousin convinces me to go see Brokeback Mountain with him, and guess what one of the cowboys was named? You guessed it; Jack Twist.

I remember sitting in the theatre, thinking, "Yep, can't use that one now. Really can't use that one."

Judg · Oct 13, 2007

Michael, sounds like there would be a good story in there somewhere. I mean, if life hands you a lemon...

Wintermule · Oct 15, 2007

Those aren't really original ideas in the first place, though. It's not all that 'super-weird' for the character to be possessed, because I'm pretty certain there hasn't been a single series about demons where a main character wasn't possessed.

Did they read my mind or something?

Michael Dracon

Urban Fantasy Geek

Doodlebug

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

nevada

oscuridad

nevada

Michael Dracon

Urban Fantasy Geek

Sunkissed27f

Michael Dracon

Urban Fantasy Geek

Max Ingram

Judg

DISENCHANTED coming soon

Wintermule