Somebody peed in my wheaties

If I had to count all the novels that have a major character who is a cop, I would be counting from now 'till the stars burn cold.

On the other hand, I've never said "Oh, great, ANOTHER major character who's a cop! Gawd!" So you're probably okay having a cop.

You're on your own with the tranquilized vampire, though.

And here I thought this was another thread about Spooky.

Bummer, Andre. I hope you're not too far along in the project that your rewrite will have to be uber time consuming.

Well, that's frustrating. Maybe make him a detective or some other rank? Military police? CSI?

Use elephant tranquilizer instead. Way cooler than horse stuff.

I'm fairly certain the whole "tranking and torturing the vamp" thing is standard fare.

They torture Angel on Buffy, and I'll eat cherry-flavored snow, freshly fallen, off my porch before a World of Darkness game involving vampires goes without some sort of torturing.

I think you're fine. Just do something new with it, so it's not the same old.

Or you could always go with some other obscure type trank. There are some really cool meds out there just for writers to exploit heh

Don't sweat it. Chances are your style of writing is dramatically different to hers.

Oh, god, I know exactly how you feel--I just got through plotting a vampire paranormal romance novel involving vampires convening in alaska (because of the prolonged night). I was just doing some last research, when I decided to look up Barrow, the northernmost part of Alaska, as a potential setting. Wikipedia mentioned that a there's a horror comic called 30 Days of Night set in Barrow, Alaska. "Oh no," I go, and follow the link...and lo and behold. A horror comic series about vampires convening in Alaska during the extended night. WORSE--its about to be made into a movie! Yeah, its a horror comic, while mine was planned as a romance, but still--the base premise that gets the characters where they need to be is the same. I'd certainly never get it published before the movie, so even if it did get published, everyone who saw it would go "Oh, just like that movie"--and because of that, it surely wouldn't get published.

I know its not quite the same--I'm not nearly as far into the writing process--but I've been nursing this baby for ages, and I'd finally gotten all the kinks worked out, and now its gone. Pretty much all of the subplots (ie, everything but the romance) had revolved around that base premise, and now I don't think I can use it, and I'd have to change so much of the plot to get around that that I don't know if anything can be saved. I'm absolutely heartbroken.

So yeah, someone peed in my wheaties too. ;_;

30 Days of Night is a wonderful comic book. Steve Niles is a great writer.

Honestly, this is why I haven't bothered writing anything in particular with vampires, except for one short story about a nice old vampire who was squeamish, and didn't want to actually be a bother by biting someone.

Andre_Laurent said:

Oh what to do, what to do.... hand fulls of hair being yanked out over this.

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This really is an easy question.

Write your book. Finish it. Send it out. Write another one.

Tallymark said:

Oh, god, I know exactly how you feel--I just got through plotting a vampire paranormal romance novel involving vampires convening in alaska (because of the prolonged night).

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Okay, I think I'm owed royalties, because I thought this up at least fifteen years ago. I didn't write it down or anything, but I made firm plans, should I ever become a vampire, to move to Alaska because of the sunlight thing.

There are LOTS of books that, boiled down to a gimmick and a few characters, would be pretty darn identical. What's important is the style you put into it, and if you really care about the book that'll shine through.

By the time your book is finished, edited, re-edited, submitted, accepted, re-re-edited, and published, it'll be a moot point anyway, with the possible exception of extra advertising as people who like the other author's stuff eagerly gobble yours up too.

ETA: (Forgot to add that I, for one, will happily read the other author now and you at a later date, no problem. My bookshelf is plenty big enough for two or three more books involving cops and vampire torture.)

By the time you get to the second or third draft they may have vanished all by themselves.

Concentrate on the parts that are unique to you: your voice, your worldview, your themes.

Listen: I've had one of my novels criticized on the basis that it was "obviously copied" from a novel that I'd never read or even heard of. So what? If nothing else, finishing this book will give you more practice in finishing books, and will get more of the million words out of the way.

The title of this thread cracked me up. I'm seriously gonna throw that into conversation the next time I'm mad. "Why'd he have to go and do something like pee in my wheaties?" Okay, sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anyway, back on topic. I've had that happen to me numerous times. I'll write a scene and then I'll read a book and find a similar scene to mine. And I'm always thinking, "Crap. This guy's famous and published....so if I keep this scene someone's gonna think I plagarized." It's very frustrating.

Andre_Laurent said:

Glad you liked it. I'm off to find a new trank... I wonder what they use to drop tigers with.

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tiger trank? (couldn't resist)

I am by no means a pharmacokinetic expert, but what about some kind of easily available drug that alters blood chemistry that would act as a vamp seditive? Aspirin, iron, dopes allegedly used in cycle racing.

Depends on how your vampires internals operate.

Darn, I guess I'm not as original as I thought. ^_^; Ah well, I guess its an important thing to come to realize that everything has been done before, one way or another--whats important is making your own way different. Maybe I'll try giving it another shot after all, even though my plot was really very similar in some respects--if I let the characters have free reign maybe they can salvage it for me. It's just extremely disheartening (and intimidating) though to find that your idea has not only been done, but been done by a big name in the field--like JR Ward or Steve Niles. Even if your work is very different, its hard to get people--or editors--to know that at a glance.

Its sorta like how after Harry Potter it'd be pretty hard to write about a wizards school--but when I was a kid, I'd read five or six books about wizarding schools. And all of them were totally different from Harry Potter. So it can be done--its just now, one has to work a bit harder to be different enough to get out from the other persons shadow. maybe the extra work is a good thing though (but a stressful thing nonetheless XD ).

Anyway, I would agree that having a cop character isn't so bad, since they're pretty common. And the trank doesn't sound so bad either simply because its a logical move--its hard to subdue a vampire! ^_^; If the shooter knows the guys' a vampire I'd suggest something like liquid garlic or a vial of holy water, but I'm guessing thats not the case.

I don't know how on earth they'd get hold of tiger (or maybe elephant!) tranks, but I think it'd be highly entertaining to see.

Maybe the cop could have a girlfriend who works at the local zoo

I have a feeling that eating breakfast will be a slightly off-putting experience for a while. Or maybe it's time to give up the wheeties for something else.

Haggis said:

And here I thought this was another thread about Spooky.

Bummer, Andre. I hope you're not too far along in the project that your rewrite will have to be uber time consuming.

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Could have been if I wasn't busy writing and critiquing works.

I've never had this problem because my work is unique. Yeah right! Like how many serial killer principles are out there? Huh, I ask you. Or the baby sitter who's an alien in love with the pizza guy. I sad for you to write an original second draft, but look on the bright side. You can always change the sequence or scene to suit your story. Where is it said that everything has been thought, said, or written?