Tired Tropes of UF

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Darkshore

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Hey all. I've been away for quite awhile, but college is finally winding down and the summer has arrived. I really want to finish my novel this summer, but I've got a few concerns I'm not sure about. I finished the first draft last summer and I haven't yet read back through it all from front to back yet, but the parts I've glanced through seem really good. A few sections honestly make me giddy with how well they seem to have turned out.

But here's the thing, anyone that has read the opening chapters of my book have compared it to the Dresden Files. Flattering yes, but...I fear it is too similar. I'm afraid that it reads as "my version of the Dresden Files". I have an idea to really dig into the grit and take it away from such comments, but I'm concerned about messing up the story.

In short my main character is a street kid turned private eye, with access to supernatural tools and knowledge. He isn't a wizard, but he also has a childhood friend that happens to be a cop...and there happens to be a spirit...

I fear the cliche's are dooming me. What do you all think? I have a story change in mind but it would take a complete re-write. How would I go about doing this while still trying to keep the main story intact?
 

Myrealana

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I say let it go.

Write the story the way you see it, make the characters as real and true to themselves as you can. Get it on paper before you worry about whether it's too derivative. If you worry about distancing your story from Dresden, you may lose the core of it.

Similarity isn't always bad. Different isn't always better. Write the best first draft you can with the characters that are meaningful to you. If you flesh them out well and write with your own unique voice, you may find that the similarities are all on the surface.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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AW's own John Levitt has a series with some similarities to the Dresden Files also--I actually like his stuff better.

I agree with Myrealana. Just write it out, and worry about it once you have a workable draft.
 

JRehnay

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Write it and tell the story you want to tell. You can go through it all with a bleeding red sword later if you still feel like you need to, but for now you should just be true to yourself.

I am a huge fan of the Dresden Files, but that doesn't mean I would actively avoid reading a story with a somewhat similar set-up. In fact, I'd probably want to read it, since I like the genre!
 

ChrisElfy

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I think people like to compare things to other things (yeah that came out wrong). Anyway the Dresden Files are hugely popular and it stands to reason that more people have read that, so when they try and compare a UF work to something that often comes to mind. It may be that your work has a few things in common with the Dresden Files. It can still work. Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series is also compared to the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher even gave it a thumbs up), to the extent that the author actually references Harry in the first chapter. It didn't seem to hurt the book's reception overall.
For years you couldn't pick up an epic fantasy without it having 'the next Lord of the Rings' written somewhere on the cover. Every new YA or kid's series that featured magic was compared to Harry Potter for a while there, too.
 

Darkshore

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You are all most likely right. My first novel doesn't need to be some amazingly groundbreaking new idea, maybe some similarities are a good thing. I'm about to start tackling it usuing holly lyile's one pass revision method.
 

amschilling

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Unless your protag's name is Harry, the spirit lives in a skull and has an affection for bodice-rippers, and the bff cop is a short, blond bundle of fire, I wouldn't worry too much. As others said, similarity can be good. And it may only have superficially similarities.

I love the Dresden Files, but Butcher is hardly the only person to write about a PI in the supernatural world.
 

Darkshore

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That was part of my concern, not just that it's like Butcher but that perhaps Private Eyes are old hat.
 

Reverend Ben

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Private eyes are old hat as much as an old hat is old hat as far as I'm concerned.
You only still have it because it's comfortable, looks good, and feels better.
 

Benedict

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Don't worry about it. My Alex Verus books get compared to the Dresden Files all the time, and I regularly get reviews saying "this is just a rip-off of the Dresden Files, it sucks". But for every one review that says that, there are several others that say "it's like the Dresden Files, so I like it".

You'll always get compared to other writers, no matter what you do, so don't lose sleep over it. Just concentrate on writing the best story you can.
 

Mytherea

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I think what would matter more would be if the whole book resembled "Storm Front" (or insert whatever Dresden Files title in here). If it ends up that only the beginning feels like another Dresden Files, that could end up being a selling point, since you'd then attract fans of that series. If you divert and do your own thing with the story, then it wouldn't really be a Dresden "copy." Even if it ended up being exactly like a Dresden Files book, that doesn't stop you. I can think of three books off the top of my head that follow Dresden Files in a similar vein, and one of them was published before the Dresden Files. Like everyone else said, write what you want to write.

And as for supernatural PIs...with a superficial glance at my book collection, I've so far counted nine series with some form of supernatural crime investigator, and at least three of those are ranked in my all-time favorites. If nothing else, there's a market of me, and if the number of available UF PI series are any indication, there's a much larger market for them than just me. As Reverend Ben pointed out, it's an old comfy hat. And not all old comfy hats are the same. I'd call it a broad enough trope that it's not quite a cliche, just a staple of the genre.
 

Muppster

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Don't worry about it. My Alex Verus books get compared to the Dresden Files all the time, and I regularly get reviews saying "this is just a rip-off of the Dresden Files, it sucks".

Heh. I thought it was more like Buffy.

Police/PI stuff is always going to come up because it's such a good route into an array of Trouble without the protagonist necessarily being a bad guy, the brains defeat brawn, and because most stories are essentially a mystery (maybe not a whodunnit, but a figuring something out/finding the right solution).
 

Darkshore

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Thanks for all the replies everyone and Benedict I love your Alex Verus books they never felt like a rip off to me that's for damn sure. O've tinkered with a few scenes here and there, but I do intend to keep the general story and theme intact. I think I just needed some reinforcement. Thanks again everyone.
 

ChrisElfy

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Thanks for all the replies everyone and Benedict I love your Alex Verus books they never felt like a rip off to me that's for damn sure. O've tinkered with a few scenes here and there, but I do intend to keep the general story and theme intact. I think I just needed some reinforcement. Thanks again everyone.
In some ways having a frame of reference could even help the book, especially when it comes to marketing. As Benedict said for every review he gets that feels the Alex Verus books rip off Dresden, he gets one that says they like the books because they have some similarities.
 
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