Frustrated!

celticroots · May 9, 2013

I am making good progress on my WIP about my MC who is left behind during the Irish Famine. I am still on the first draft, but am pleased with how it's coming along.

My MC's friend, Sean gets together with a gang of other boys and they go around stealing food or raiding to get food.

In a novel I am reading right now about the Irish Famine, the MC's love interest is part of a group of men who damage the landlord's property, etc

I believe in my story and really want to make it work. But it seems like every time I come up with something to make my concept fresh, someone has already done it. I know that everything has been done before, but it's about making your concept different.

I'd like to add that I came up with my concept long before I read the book with the similar theme.

I am just really frustrated and would like some advice on what to do.

mirandashell · May 9, 2013

Write your story. It will be different to the other one because it's yours.

Chasing the Horizon · May 9, 2013

Embrace that your novel is using a trope of the sub-genre, and make it the best damn trope it can be.

*shrugs* That's what I do.

folkchick · May 9, 2013

You're looking for ways to sabotage your progress. Write the book.

mirandashell · May 9, 2013

Ah.... the nasty old Procastination Monster.

kkbe · May 9, 2013

Everything old is new again and nothing's new under the sun and been there/done that and all that good stuff that's already been said a million times but NOT WITH YOUR WORDS IN YOUR VOICE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS.

So yeah, write your book.

Anna Spargo-Ryan · May 9, 2013

Has it been said already? Write your book!

VGeary · May 9, 2013

Write your book! Write your book!

Maybe another thing to think about is that yes, everything's been said/written/discussed before, but not in YOUR voice, not with YOUR truth. It's not necessarily about making the concept different, so much as looking at something with a new pair of eyes: yours.

Now: Write your book! Write your book!

Layla Nahar · May 9, 2013

Somebody else might have done it before, but *you* haven't done it before. Keep writing it!

Buffysquirrel · May 9, 2013

There's only so many ways people can react in a famine. Unless you bring in pink flying dinosaurs, you'll be bound to repeat some that others have already written about. Don't sweat it.

Susan Coffin · May 9, 2013

Everything has been done before, the difference is in the execution. Just write your book and enjoy every minute of it.

lolchemist · May 9, 2013

Buffysquirrel said:
There's only so many ways people can react in a famine.

THIS THIS THIS! Besides the fact that you're writing a historic fiction and are basically handcuffed into certain historically-accurate limitations (unless you want to veer off into fantasy land.) Realistically speaking how different from each other can the two most different boy gangs of that era/location be?

DO NOT take the above sentence as a challenge. If you write to make your gang as different as possible from the other book's gang, then you've stopped writing YOUR story and are just writing to avoid the inevitable comparison. Don't do that please. Just write YOUR story EVEN if there are similar scenes or characters. You know in your heart that you didn't steal them! If an editor makes you change them later, so be it, but don't put shackles on your own feet.

CosmicLibrary · May 9, 2013

lolchemist said:
THIS THIS THIS! Besides the fact that you're writing a historic fiction and are basically handcuffed into certain historically-accurate limitations (unless you want to veer off into fantasy land.) QUOTE]

I'm just going to go ahead and agree with what's been said. If you're writing a historical fiction novel and it's very different than others, chances are you need to do some fact checking. Of course many plot elements will overlap with other novels, what's different is the perspective you write it from, the ideas you leave the reader with.

Putputt · May 10, 2013

I always refer to The Hunger Games and Battle Royale in cases like these. Almost identical concept with very different executions. You could read both without feeling like you're reading the same story.

Write the book. It'll be different because you're a different writer.

Sonsofthepharaohs · May 10, 2013

Putputt said:
I always refer to The Hunger Games and Battle Royale in cases like these. Almost identical concept with very different executions. You could read both without feeling like you're reading the same story.

Write the book. It'll be different because you're a different writer.

I haven't read THG, but the concept of it actually reminds me more of Stephen King - people have already mentioned it in context of The Running Man, but I'm also reminded of the Long Walk (published as Richard Bachman).

Actually, there are similarities between all those stories, but they are all different enough in their execution to be worth reading.

I also read a lot of HF, especially ancient Greek, and how many different ways are there to tell the story of Troy? Actually, frickin loads...

EDIT: Actually, I need to stop saying actually...

shaldna · May 10, 2013

Putputt said:
I always refer to The Hunger Games and Battle Royale in cases like these. Almost identical concept with very different executions. You could read both without feeling like you're reading the same story.

I can remember watching at least 2 movies which had similar concepts back in the 90's - there was one with a team of american soldiers who were taken out one at a time as part of some kind of game. And then there was a game show set on an island that was very similar in concept - I think this may have also been japanese, but it predated Battle Royale by many years.

And let's not forget The Running Man....

ccarver30 · May 10, 2013

I mainly write regency romances. They are all "the same". You can't let that feed you. Life is all the same- you're born, you live, you die. But everyone's in between is different!!

kkbe · May 10, 2013

Then again, sometimes somebody comes up with a really unique premise. Like Metamorphosis.

Or Memento.

blacbird · May 10, 2013

Your characters will make or break your story. Your plot will not. No one else has ever written your characters. Make them sing.

caw

Pammie Simon · May 10, 2013

Use it as inspiration. After completing my novel I read one that did what I wanted to do, but I liked it more. So I turned around and made mine better.

Mare · May 11, 2013

I know what you mean. The name of the small town in my current WIP is close to New York City. I chose the fictional name of Clear Creek.
Later I read another book with the same name as mine—I changed my town name to Valley Ridge. I read a review several days ago on a book just released, the town in the story was, of course, Valley Ridge.

I'm not going to worry about anymore.

jeffo20 · May 11, 2013

While researching my WiP early last year, I came across a book that seemed to tell the same story. After some waffling, I read that book and found that, while the setting was similar, the story I was planning to tell was vastly different from the one told in the book.

Flash forward five months. I'm watching TV. A teaser comes on for a television show, 'coming this fall.' "Oh, no!" I cry. "Someone turned my idea into a TV show! I'm screwed!" But I kept on writing. Watching the show this fall, same thing--my story is vastly different from their story. The jury is still out on this TV show, as far as I'm concerned, but if it's successful, maybe it can help me sell my book.

Long story short, write your book. Follow the story that you see in your head. It will be different.

Little Anonymous Me · May 11, 2013

Look at mythology. There are dozens of retellings of the same myths within one culture...not counting the ones that went viral and snuck into other cultures! And every single one is different, even if the essential 'guts' aren't.

How many Batman movies are there? Spiderman? Superman? Just because something's been done before doesn't mean it's done for good--because a person with a whole new take on it is just around the corner.

celticroots · May 11, 2013

All your guys' answers have helped a lot. I posted this because I am worried that if I get published, I'll get sued for plagarism.

Frustrated!

celticroots

mirandashell

Chasing the Horizon

Blowing in the Wind

folkchick

Not a new kid

mirandashell

kkbe

Huh.

Anna Spargo-Ryan

Just pokin' about

VGeary

Keep calm, write on

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

Buffysquirrel

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is

lolchemist

Shooting stars.

CosmicLibrary

Putputt

permanently suctioned to Buz's leg

Sonsofthepharaohs

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

ccarver30

Nicole Castro

kkbe

Huh.

blacbird

Pammie Simon

Pammie

Mare

jeffo20

Tyrant King

Little Anonymous Me

celticroots