Writing a novel and then realize another book has a similar plot?

The world ran out of original plots a couple of thousand years ago. Authors have been recycling ever since.

The same goes for movies. Q) How many times do I want to watch some unnoticed hard working girl finally get noticed by some very handsome successful guy only to find out that she was part of a bet between he and some of his buddies? They part with her in tears and he horribly regretful and the distance proves that he actually loved her and she really loved him and they end up kissing just as she's packing her car to leave town. The details change, the bet changes, but the story is the same.

A) Over and over, apparently, and I love it every time.

I heard that in Bollywood they make 300 movies a year and they're all basically the same story. Valuing novelty is itself fairly novel in the larger scheme of things. The old oral traditions did fine with a few favorites told over and over. For some, an old, familiar story is analogous to comfort food.

The story is in the telling. I agree that the plots have all been done.

ejket said:

I heard that in Bollywood they make 300 movies a year and they're all basically the same story. Valuing novelty is itself fairly novel in the larger scheme of things. The old oral traditions did fine with a few favorites told over and over. For some, an old, familiar story is analogous to comfort food.

The story is in the telling. I agree that the plots have all been done.

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Well, Hollywood just keeps remaking the same ones over and over

Well, basically every Amanda Quick book (or romance book) has the same plot. & we still love 'em!!

It's the details & 'path' that matter!!

When I told the summary of my book to my Sis, she said, 'Star Wars' - of course, I got paranoid & had to borrow all parts from the library to check! Luckily, LOTS of things are different!!

Then I had a scene that I vaguely remembered was similar in another movie! (So I fussed & fretted until I actually saw the movie again & could see it was exactly 'the opposite'!!/very different) In my case, checking out those two worked better for me than incessant fretting... (though I still haven't finished the book! lol)
I could also make sure to make some things very different...

As far as I know it's okay to 'borrow'/'be inspired by'... as long as you make it very much different & 'your own'...

Putting in my two cents. Definitely all about your storytelling and less about the story. Similar stories are all around, as others have noted there are realistically no new ones out there.

omg please help

Bacck in october I wason this other website forums with writers and publishers ect talking bout the book I'm going to write, just now scrolling threw books on my nook from barns ad nobles I come across a book just plushed in january, my title, story premise... everything.... what u write on forums is copy writed isn't it?

If it's just an idea, it's not copyright. When you share it on a forum, ANYONE can take the idea from you. sorry.

~Amber~

No, what your write on forums is not copyrighted. But a few things...

1. Who is the publisher of the work? If it is traditionally published (by publishers like HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, any reputable publisher), the book will have been written a long, long time ago and bought by the publisher a long time ago so it could not have been copied from yours. If it is self-published you may have some cause for worry.

2. Did you post any of your own actual writing on the forum? If the book contains your own writing, word-for-word or very similar to word-for-word, that's a copyright infringement. Your work is protected by copyright law the minute you write it down.

3. If none of your own writing was copied, you don't have a case to sue anybody. You cannot copyright ideas or titles.

And really, ideas and titles are a dime a dozen. You can write a book with the same premise and same title (though why you'd use the same title as a similar book is beyond me) as another book. What matters is the writing. How many romance stories can you think of that have similar ideas to them, but they're completely different books because of the way the author wrote the story?

ETA:

xXVampyrePrincessXx said:

If it's not published, it's not copyright. When you share it on a forum, ANYONE can take the idea from you. sorry.

~Amber~

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Actually, your work is protected by copyright law as soon as you write it. You don't have to register a copyright for your work to belong to you. If you have the original document and can prove you wrote it, it's safe.

The text of what you write on forums is copyright. But if you only talk about your idea, the idea itself is not copyright, only the words you use to express it.

Becca C. said:

Actually, your work is protected by copyright law as soon as you write it. You don't have to register a copyright for your work to belong to you. If you have the original document and can prove you wrote it, it's safe.

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What made me say that was that the OP said she was talking about something she was going to write, so I immediately thought she didn't have anything written there to post it yet. I should've been more clear. sorry for the confusion.

~Amber~

Agreeing with Becca C. Five months is not enough time to take someone's idea, write a novel, polish that novel, get an agent, sell to a publisher, go through edits, go to press, etc.

Also, you say you were talking about a book you're going to write. Ideas are a dime a dozen, as Becca says. If you haven't written anything, well, there's nothing to steal.

It's not true that only published works are copyrighted. Nor do writers need to pay to have their unpublished works copyrighted (or mail their work to themselves, or any other such rumors that go around). Your work is protected by copyright law as soon as it's written.

Ideas, however, are not protected by copyright law.

That really sucks, the most I ever posted was the concept of the story and my first page. Originally I thought it could be a fluke but there's way to much detail that she stole for it to be someone who had the same premise. Only things it seemed she changed were character names and the object the story is centered around. Published by delacorte books

Delacorte is an imprint of Random House, one of the biggest publishers in the world. The book would definitely have been written and sold long before you posted your idea online. Coincidence.

That actually makes me feel better. The thought of someone taking my whole thought made me wanna cry. Thanks guys

Delvianna01 said:

That really sucks, the most I ever posted was the concept of the story and my first page. Originally I thought it could be a fluke but there's way to much detail that she stole for it to be someone who had the same premise. Only things it seemed she changed were character names and the object the story is centered around. Published by delacorte books

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You haven't actually read the book in question, have you? And you haven't actually written YOUR book, correct? Perhaps the book isn't as much like yours as you think.

And as has been pointed out, it's just not possible that the book in question stole from you. Five months is not enough time to write a book and have it published with a traditional publisher.

I don't think there's any need to give up on your idea/your book. If two authors do take the exact same premise and write a novel based on it, the books are still going to end up being quite different from one another in the end.

So, go write.

Smish said:

You haven't actually read the book in question, have you? And you haven't actually written YOUR book, correct? Perhaps the book isn't as much like yours as you think.

And as has been pointed out, it's just not possible that the book in question stole from you. Five months is not enough time to write a book and have it published with a traditional publisher.

I don't think there's any need to give up on your idea/your book. If two authors do take the exact same premise and write a novel based on it, the books are still going to end up being quite different from one another in the end.

So, go write.

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The main plot is the exact same to a T. Might have a differnent ending or sub plots but I read enough to know just how closely simular it is. Id rather scratch the idea and write my 2nd idea than continue the first trying to look for different things to put. Id want to completely love my book not just finish writing it because I felt like I should finish. Knowing how deeply identicle her book is wouldn't make me proud of my own.

Lots of books have the same main plot and central idea. Hunger Games and Battle Royale, for example. Yet they are hugely different books and both successful in their own right

As an author published by Delacorte, it took two years for my book to come out. I can't imagine one coming out in less that a year. The chances that it was more than a coincidence are...pretty much zero.

Ideas and plot can't be copyrighted. The exact "treatment" can be.

And it's all about the execution, too.

maestrowork said:

And it's all about the execution, too.

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Which includes, in this forum, the fact that "omg" is spelled "oh my god", and "u" is spelled "you", among other things.

This is a writers' forum, not a cell phone. Respect yourself as a writer and post accordingly. You'll generally get better responses.

amergina said:

Many, many people get the same idea. Take a wizarding school. It was done before Harry Potter, and it will be done after, as well.

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I once read an article by a movie studio script reader who said that in the course of their career they'd read two scripts set on alligator farms, and they both turned up in the same week.

Even if you ignore coincidence, often the same ideas are going around among different people who've been inspired by the same trends or recent events, so they end up writing similar stories.

Delvianna01 said:

Bacck in october I wason this other website forums with writers and publishers ect talking bout the book I'm going to write, just now scrolling threw books on my nook from barns ad nobles I come across a book just plushed in january, my title, story premise... everything.... what u write on forums is copy writed isn't it?

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The likelihood of stealing a story idea in October, writing it, submitting it, and having it published by January are remote in the extreme. (Unless it's one of those instant biographies or character assassination books that come out just before elections.)

You may be the victim only of an amazing coincidence.

The best way to kill a book project is to talk about it with others.

Your literal words of your forum contributions are copyrighted, but the idea itself is not. If someone actually stole it, they owe you thanks, nothing more.

I neglected to mention that "OMG" (oh my God) has also become a horridly overused cliché, denuded of any real meaning, ranking just below "awesome".