Fear of Duplicating Ideas

CaliforniaMelanie

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I've seen this idea once or twice but would love a perspective on my situation.

Nearly every time I start writing an actual novel (I've written and published articles literally in the thousands, but a book is my final - and scariest - frontier), I have repeat nightmare visions of someone else finishing nearly the same book, then of me being turned away by a prospective publisher because "we have a similar idea in the works already."

This actually happened to me today pitching an article, but I mean...that was only an article. It's a good article, but it literally took me an hour and a half. That's it. I didn't invest weeks, months or years in it. On the other hand, I really did think that one was original. It's already written, actually. Hope nobody's sensitive the wording here, but it's called "Sorry, Ma'am, But Your V*gina Has Expired" and it's a series of anecdotes about post-menopause. It has a very specific theme running throughout and I was just plain gobsmacked that somebody else has an "overlapping" (the editor's words) article right now about it, but I digress. The point is, as of this morning's rejection it's happened with an idea (more on this below) that I truly did think was unique...so now I'm REALLY scared.

Anyway...I have always stopped short of continuing a book because of this fear. It's a devastating one to me because I've always felt that when I was able to publish a book, I'd have "made it" for real, so if that's taken from me, well...yeah.

My stomach is in knots just thinking about it.

My current book involves the supernatural but also a specific issue. I haven't seen similar books. What's more, it's deeply personal for me, as some of it is, in a semi-hidden way, autobiographical.

Anyone else feel this way? Am I garnering bad ju-ju for myself? Am I just "avoiding," and this, subconsciously, is how? I DON'T want to "rush" my book just to get to the finish line first or something...I want to take my time and really explore. Each idea in the book, each scene, has a lot of emotional impact for me so I write, stop, write, stop. No rushing. But I have this constant fear. It literally keeps me awake at night.

Ideas, anyone?
 
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CaliforniaMelanie

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Oh...before anyone asks: yes, I've seen very similar ideas come up in the past after I considered (or even started) writing a book about them. However, these were ideas that had already been done to death, so it was pretty much to be expected. Arthurian themes, for instance (because duh...so I take full credit for walking right into possible overlap there); Robin Hood, for another (I thought long and hard about doing this for probably six months, right before the Kevin Costner - ugh - Robin Hood came out).

This is different, and is, I FEEL, "all mine," but on the other hand, what if it isn't? You know? :(

Thanks for any help...I probably need a shrink. And a Xanax.

But what I REALLY need right now is you guys...the brilliant minds at absolutewrite. <3

Thanks.
 
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Roxxsmom

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Overall, ideas are a dime a dozen, and none are completely unique; it's the execution of those ideas that make for a unique book. The combination of plots, character, world building, themes, voice and so on, and how the agent or editor thinks it might fly with a lucrative reading demographic, will all figure into an agent's or editor's decision. Ironically, agents often like books that fall under a certain style. They have lists of things they're suckers for, whether it be animal sidekicks, or romantic subplots, or for world building that isn't based on medieval Europe, or for weirdly mechanistic magic systems. But that doesn't mean all books that contain those elements are the same.

On the flip side, many agents want to know comparable titles, because they're looking for books that fall within the same ballpark as some that are recently popular, even if they also want something unique and different. Too similar won't stand out, but something that's too different might be passed over because it's not what readers of a given niche are looking for.

I thought my magic system in my first novel was unique, but after I finished my first novel, I ran across vaguely similar ideas in other works.

You have no control over ideas other writers get. We're all influenced, subconsciously at least, by the stuff we've read, and by what's going on in the world right now. It would be surprising if someone else doesn't come up with a similar idea at the same time. If yours is the best of the bunch, and if you get some luck with regards to timing, then yay. If not, well, it sucks, but you can't let the fear of this happening paralyze you.
 

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With well over half a million works of fiction published each year, it's impossible to know whether, or not one's work is unique. If you consider it, at the very basic level, there aren't all that many stories to tell. It's a bit like cooking. There are only a few things you can actually do to food - expose it to direct heat (broiling/barbecuing); surround it with indirect heat (baking/roasting); immerse it in boiling liquid (stewing/casseroling); put it into hot fat (frying, deep or shallow). But that doesn't mean there are only four dishes you can create. Just as the art of cooking lies in the unique combination of ingredients, flavourings, etc. So, in writing, the art is to tell what is perhaps yet another romantic, or mystery, or paranormal, or fantasy story, but in a unique way, with a new twist and a fresh voice. The key is not to worry about what has gone before, but to move forward, sure that what you are writing is unique to you. If, in the end, an agent, or publisher tells you that your work is good, but they have a very similar title already on the stocks, it may mean that you've been a little too generic in your writing, or have tried to follow trends and accepted genre norms rather than writing for yourself, from your heart. It may simply mean that you've been unlicky - this time around.
Plus, writing a novel is hard enough. The constant nag of self-doubt can make a difficult task almost impossible.
The only piece of advice I can offer is "Go for it." It's the only way you'll ever know.
 

lizmonster

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There are zero original ideas.

There are also zero other authors who can write your story the way you write it.

It's easy to "what-if" yourself into never completing a novel at all. Stop worrying about it, and write the thing.
 

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To quote Robert Heinlein: "That's the way with writers; they'll steal anything, file off the serial numbers, and claim it for their own."

He wasn't just casting aspersions, either. Once (my original source for this is in print, but here's a partial corroboration online), when asked by a reporter whether he was mad that David Gerrold had stolen the idea of Tribbles from his Martian Flatcats, said not only that he was fine with it, but that he'd actually stolen the idea from something E.E. "Doc" Smith had written. :)
 

The JoJo

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Look on the bright side, there are far, far more books published each year than any one person could possibly read. Unless you are unlucky enough to get pipped to the post by the next Harry Potter or Hunger Games, it shouldn't be too much of a disadvantage if somewhere out there, there is a similar book to yours.
 

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When I have a new idea, the first thing I do is google movies/books with some aspects of the premise. If nothing majorly relevant comes up within the first 2 search pages, I assume I'm safe. If something does come up, I give it a closer look, and 99% of the time, I don't have to worry.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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Thanks so much, everyone.

I actually did Google two or three terms related to my book plus the word "novel" and didn't come up with anything similar. With that aside, this REALLY helps. I can't thank everyone enough for these very logical and practical answers.

I'm going to go forward and just keep writing. I'm exorcising a few demons in doing so, anyway.

And of course it does make sense that there is nothing new under the sun...as an aside, it's always kind of tickled me in a hashtag-irony sort of way that this saying itself was derived from Shakespeare ("...and there is no new thing under the sun"), who, himself, ripped it off from the Bible...the literal translation of which is a full-circle to the way we reproduce the quote today. I wonder what the Bible ripped it off of, LOL! (If the answer is "God," I'm just going to have to sit around tonight wondering what great book God read that He saw and snagged the quote...) I guess that roundabout run-on sentence pretty much proves the points made here!

Thank you so much for the kind, wise words...I knew I could count on the minds of Absolute Write. :)
 

Filigree

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Good for you! Of all the limiting factors in and outside a writer's control, fear of originality is probably the least realistic one on your journey.

Give yourself kudos for *caring* about inadvertently duplicating an idea.

Then go write the thing. You already know how to write, so no learning curve there. Interweaving 'big picture' plots and significant details is more work than a single article. But that discipline has taught you a big secret of novel-writing: one section at a time.

As for originality? There will be other books similar to yours, but not exactly. So let yours shine.

This has happened to me twice, regarding a big, longterm novel project very close to my heart. The first time, back in the early 2000s, I read a literary gay fiction author's take on epic fantasy. Oh no! There was a central plot point and character very similar to one of mine, a character so interwoven into my book-universe I couldn't remove them. On a second read, I realized my take was quite different.

The second time: the staggeringly skilled N. K. Jemisin and I apparently were inspired by the same character from one of a British fantasy author's best known series. We wrote our fantasy stories completely independently, over different periods of time. Our books are completely different. Hers became the 'Inheritance Trilogy', while the second volume of mine comes out next year from NineStar Press.
 

Cindyt

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One of Dean Koontz's books--Strangers?--is about an It eating a town. Sound familiar? Yet each author puts his own swing to it.
 

Lakey

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A few months after I started working on my novel about lesbians in McCarthy-era New York, someone sent me a link to a recent novel that was getting critical notice - about gays and lesbians in the Village in the 50s. I had a pretty bad meltdown, knowing that even if I finished my novel it couldn't possibly be as good as that one (not that I read it, or anything; I just knew), and was about ready to scrap the whole thing. Eventually I pulled up my socks and got on with it.

Then a few months ago I learned that one of my college classmates had written and published a lesbian romance set in the 1950s. A college classmate. I went to a small women's college where we all still have close relationships even now, with our twenty-fifth reunion around the corner - dozens of our classmates and compatriots who know both of us well have certainly read her book. Oh, I bristled when I learned about it. But you know what? I didn't melt down the second time (though I occasionally feel grumpy about it). I haven't read her book, either. I don't plan to read either one until mine is done and dusted, because I don't think it would be good for me.

But more importantly I seem to have mostly internalized that mine is the only one that's mine. The first one, from what I've read, is about working-class Bohemians, and is as much about race as about sexuality. Mine is about middle/upper class women, a socially distinct group with a different set of challenges, and I don't tackle race issues (I'm not equipped for that). As for my classmate's book, well, from what I've been told hers is a romance with a happy ending. Mine is not so much. It's telling a different story, with different themes.

Maybe some day I will read both these books, and find that they are covering much the same ground and perhaps doing it better than I could have. But I've made an effort not to worry about that now. And who knows - maybe folks who want to read stories about midcentury lesbians will enjoy reading three books as much as two.
 
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Roxxsmom

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Consider that fantasy novels that retell fairy tales are pretty popular. I suspect there are many stories based on Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood etc. But two writers who choose to re-purpose the same basic premise will still come up with different stories. Consider the differences between Malinda Lo's Ash and Mercedes Lackey's Phoenix and Ashes, for instance.
 

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Many threads posted at AW on "ideas" and "plot" and "concepts" have made me think that too many new writers worry too much about such things, and not enough about "story". In my experience, actually writing stuff, scenes involving characters and activity, generates ideas in a way that no amount of planning or brainstorming does. Maybe that's just the way it happens for me, but I suspect I'm no more unique in that respect than is any "idea" I might come up with.

caw
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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First, two books can have identical blurbs but end up being completely different plot-wise. So unless you've actually read the book, don't assume it'll be just like yours.

Second, how a book is written is more critical to reader enjoyment than the specifics of the plot. You can have two Arthurian novels side by side, love one and be totally unimpressed with the other. Point of view, characterization, use of tropes, tension, level of description, use of side-issues like romances or family illnesses, all these are unique to an author and affect how the reader will receive the book.
 

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CaliforniaMelanie, having read your posts in this thread it struck me that perhaps you're more afraid of the general reception to your work than of it being perceived as a copy of a work in the pipeline. Being published etc is scarey, but you have to get over that obstacle some time. Some would argue that a poor or even an average reception to a first novel is better in the long run, because it gives you experience of all the things that can - and will - go wrong. You can only learn by getting out there...
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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You just ... can't worry about it. The very strong likelihood is that it won't happen. If you worry about it, another very strong likelihood is that you'll never write a book.

When you pitch an article, your take isn't the only take. If it's rejected for being too similar, you'll know that you can find a new angle and re-pitch it, maybe even to the same publication. The "different take" thing is increased exponentially - every single thing you write is different from the way someone else is writing it. The chances of you diverging from someone else's story increase every time something happens in your story.

You can't know what every other writer is working on at any given time, so you have to believe they're not writing the same thing as you, and crack on.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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Everyone has given such spot-on advice and I hope I have repped everyone. I meant every rep. It wasn't just a formality. This all helps tremendously.

But I did want to touch on something one specific person here said because it made me think of something. I really do think at the heart of it, I'm terrified more than anything to discover that nobody likes my writing. I have had literally hundreds...actually, well over a thousand (I'm compiling them right now, actually; it's a project that's taken me several weeks so far) articles published. Paid articles; not "published" somewhere on the internet as a favor or getting paid via "the experience" it will bring me or anything. ;) I mean...somebody actually, legitimately wants to pay me to write. A few somebodies, actually. And they have, consistently, on a staggering variety of (nonfiction) subjects, for, wow...nearly two decades now. (That is so unbelievable. I hadn't thought of it this way until now.)

Nor has all of this writing been on the internet. I've been in actual print. Yes. A real, actual magazine you hold in your hands and flip pages to read. :ROFL:I cut my teeth that way, actually, as a writer at an international trade magazine. It was (and is) the largest of its kind. I dressed up. I went to work every day. I wrote there. I edited others' work (unbelievably, if you look at my horrific grammar when posting informally as I am now, but I digress). I got a paycheck. I went home. For five years.

So I MUST be at least a fair writer.

Right?

Maybe not. Because here's the reality of it: it has all been non-fiction and with the exception, literally, of ONE of these articles...one, in an 18-year time period...it has, each and every time, been someone else's idea and someone else's assignment.

This means that if anyone were to ever tell me, "My God, Mel, that article just sucked" (no one has so far), at least I could say: well, that person isn't rejecting ME. Not really. It was someone else's idea. I had to work within someone else's boundaries. I had to write X amount of words. It was then stuffed into Wordpress and "corrected" (sometimes frighteningly) to "sound better" by someone who, well, wasn't me. So if any of these articles were to be severely criticized, I could always tell myself that it wasn't a rejection of my own writing. Not really. My heart couldn't be broken by the criticism because my heart was never in the equation to begin with.

But a work of fiction? If that were to be rejected, then it really would be an indictment of MY writing. It would be the final word of: well, I was never meant to write in the first place. Because when it's just me rowing the writing boat, well, I suck.

I always thought I'd be a "real writer" once I published a novel. It had to be a novel. Full stop. And for the hundreds of thousands, hell, probably for the millions of words I've written, I could have written just how many novels by now? A lot. (Math isn't my strong suit, LOL.) What's been stopping me? Excuse after excuse. But really what's been stopping me is the fear of finding out that I can't get a novel published and therefore, I'm not a real writer.

What the hell is wrong with me? Does anybody else feel this way? I feel as if these rejections of my own, original ideas and articles, while also nonfiction (the two approaches I made recently, I mean), verge on that fear. They were MY own. And I got rejected. Immediately.

I actually fell into a depression over that. I'm still struggling with it.

I don't want to have lived 50 years only to find out that my dream from the time I was less than four years old - becoming a "book writer" - is crap, I can't cut it, nobody likes my own, actual work and I am just...average at best, unpublish-worthy at worst.

I hate this. I really do. I know I make excuses and I know why.

I am really, really scared.

I have lived me life, literally, believing that writing was my calling and that one day I'd really write that book. If I can't publish a book, what IS my life? I am just not sure.

I mean...crap.
 
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mccardey

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I have lived me life, literally, believing that writing was my calling and that one day I'd really write that book. If I can't publish a book, what IS my life? I am just not sure.

I mean...crap.
:Hug2:

That's a whole lot of baggage for a little book to carry, though. I truly think you're going to have to find a way out of that that doesn't just involve the writing thing. Because what happens after one book gets published? You'll find it's still there, waiting for you: being published doesn't take away the fear. You'll always have to face the blank page.

Hugs for you, though. You write so well, you made me feel your chaos. Now just find a way to control it.
 

indianroads

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How many times have we seen the "Starship Troupers " plot line replayed? And yet they a staple of the SciFi genre.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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I have lived me life, literally, believing that writing was my calling and that one day I'd really write that book. If I can't publish a book, what IS my life? I am just not sure.

I mean...crap.

As McCardey says, that's a whole lot of expectations to hang onto it. Especially since, for most people most of the time, the first book goes nowhere. And the second. And often the third. Some never get anywhere. Some take years.

I say this not to discourage you, but to point out that it isn't a one-time, all-or-nothing, this-is-my-only-shot kind of thing. It's a long game, a marathon. So maybe your first book doesn't work out. That isn't the end. Just pick another idea, learn what you can from the first one, and try again. You'll get better with each attempt.

But the more time you spend dithering about it, the less time you're spending writing. And the less time you spend writing, the longer it's going to take to get those books out.
 
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Stephen Palmer

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The only extra advice I can offer (as somebody published professionally for 21 years) is always to take the long term view.
If you truly want to be an author, you'll have to write more than your first book.
When you have a string of books, you'll see that some are panned and some are loved. All authors face this, including the ones people venerate.
Try to imagine yourself a decade in the future looking back to where you are now. It's like jumping off a diving board for the first time. You do, eventually, do it - and you do survive to jump again.
 

Ihe R.G.

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My heart couldn't be broken by the criticism because my heart was never in the equation to begin with.

But a work of fiction? If that were to be rejected, then it really would be an indictment of MY writing. It would be the final word of: well, I was never meant to write in the first place. Because when it's just me rowing the writing boat, well, I suck.

What's been stopping me? Excuse after excuse. But really what's been stopping me is the fear of finding out that I can't get a novel published and therefore, I'm not a real writer.

What the hell is wrong with me? Does anybody else feel this way? I feel as if these rejections of my own, original ideas and articles, while also nonfiction (the two approaches I made recently, I mean), verge on that fear. They were MY own. And I got rejected. Immediately.

I am really, really scared.

I have lived me life, literally, believing that writing was my calling and that one day I'd really write that book. If I can't publish a book, what IS my life? I am just not sure.

I mean...crap.

Just some encouragement for you, from a kindred spirit:

1) Your heart being invested in this endeavour is the correct first step. The stakes are raised because of this, which leads to point 2.
2) Doubt and paralysing fear are quite common, believe you me. And as others have said, it'll never go away. But you can get it under control.
3) Just think that you've been paid to write. For years. That right there is already a wealth of professional validation. It tells you that you are READABLE. That's half the battle, and it's a lot more than what many of us begin this journey with. Keep that in mind!
4) I love me some excuses too. I'm tired, haven't slept, I'm hungry, I absolutely NEED to go somewhere I really don't feel like going to, or I NEED to watch this movie right now or skype for six hours with whoever to talk about nothing, etc. And right before I go to sleep, when I absolutely cannot keep awake, that's when my mind tells me: hey, how about we get to writing? You've been itching to do it all day long, why haven't you? Well, I'll tell you why. Because I'm a coward. And now it's too late and I really do need to go to sleep. Zzzzzz. Then repeat this cycle ad nauseam.
5) The novel isn't the only format that makes you a writer, and being trad-pubbed isn't the only way to become one either. The question is: do you want to write a book you are happy and satisfied with (step 1), or a book a publishing house/agent is happy with (step 2)? Because you have a lot more control over the first step, which is where you should focus. Check that one off the list first, then move on to step number 2. Skip steps and the anxiety might stop you before you can begin.

You're definitely not alone in this, if that's of any consolation.
 

CaliforniaMelanie

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Wow, thanks so very much. :Hug2:

I have been writing each day. Even when I think "Oh...I just CAN'T today," and feel that paralysis - yes, it is so real - I have had inspiration in one direction or another. For example, yesterday I thought of a transitional scene and wanted to hurry to get I guess about 500-ish words down. At the same time, some phrases for the book popped into my head, so I thought: "let me get these down for synopsis ideas." And while doing that, more just came so I got pretty much a first draft of that done.

I am in the middle of rewriting my second scene right now (got on that this weekend) and I'm going to smooth that out today.

I have two following scenes in mind.

Thanks, you guys.