Great Ideas You've Had Only To Discover It Has Already Been Done

dgiharris · Dec 2, 2009

So, I had this great idea for a script a few years ago. A man and woman would fall in love.

O.k. nothing new there. But the twist was that they would be communicating across a boundary of time via a magic mailbox. He would write a letter everyday, but she received them on a weekly basis. When she wrote him back, he recieved her letters on a dialy basis. So there was a 7 to 1 ratio in terms of time, so five months for him was three years for her.

After about 5 years her time, the two would catch up to each other.

Anyways, I remember brainstorming this, writing out a simple outline and putting it on my back burner of future ideas.

And then, a few months later I see a preview for The Lake House.

Damn it. They stole my idea!!!! Those bastards!!! :rant:

So what great ideas have you come up with on your own, only to discover it's already been done???

Mel...

Kaiser-Kun · Dec 2, 2009

From the beginning I knew that the meteor from outer space that threatened the planet had already been done before.

So I changed it to a sentient meteor! And.. and this meteor doesn't impacts the planet! It expands like a blanket to feed on it!

My story also had a robed antagonist with long hair and a japanese sword.

D'oh! So I shaved his head.

D'oh again! But he's a being made from a very durable material, like a living statue, so maybe it'll pass.

There are also a few giants, emissaries of the sentient meteor, who roam the world to absorb its energy...

Aaargh! Leave me alone, Final Fantasy VII!!

gothicangel · Dec 2, 2009

Why not try it as a novel? By the time you write and publish, the film will probably be long forgotten.

The trick is to make it better.

Slightly off thread, but the idea for my novel came from a minor plot point in a TV drama. These things work both ways!

Kaiser-Kun · Dec 2, 2009

gothicangel said:
Why not try it as a novel? By the time you write and publish, the film will probably be long forgotten.

The trick is to make it better.

Slightly off thread, but the idea for my novel came from a minor plot point in a TV drama. These things work both ways!

Well, thankfully those are -I hope- the only similarities, so I'll keep working on it.

DeadlyAccurate · Dec 2, 2009

I invented digital picture frames in a book before they ever hit the market.

(By about a year; they were inevitable by the time I thought of them).

kuwisdelu · Dec 2, 2009

Boy meets girl.

Imagine my surprise...

jerry phoenix · Dec 3, 2009

an idea i had been working on for a novel showed up in a top tv drama. elements of a novel i was working on showed up in a hollywood movie. a little hook i wrote for a song turned up in a charting pop song.

i think this sort of thing happens all the time.

i think it was the AWer 'maestroworks' who said, (paraphrase) 'my job is to write these ideas better and quicker than the competition.'

ideas are there for anyone to grab hold of. writing them well is the trick.

Ellefire · Dec 3, 2009

I used to have a great idea about a bus-load of people who are transported to somewhere else entirely, like an island somewhere, or a different plane of existence, and they had to survive and find out what happened....

Then I saw the trailers for Lost and shelved it.

Although this years nano did end up being about three brothers who were transported to another plane of reality...

Pyrohawk · Dec 3, 2009

Kaiser.....I do that all the time. Final Fantasy just writes such great stories! And I am an avid player of RPG's.

Sometimes I'll be brainstorming an idea and then start jumping up and down because I thought up and idea or character that is awesome! Only to remember that I played an RPG long ago that had that exact premise or character.....DOH!

sheadakota · Dec 3, 2009

sparkly vampires :evil

Kaiser-Kun · Dec 3, 2009

Ellefire said:
I used to have a great idea about a bus-load of people who are transported to somewhere else entirely, like an island somewhere, or a different plane of existence, and they had to survive and find out what happened....

Then I saw the trailers for Lost and shelved it.

Although this years nano did end up being about three brothers who were transported to another plane of reality...

Island in the Sea of Time did the same thing and it was a great book, so I'd say it'd be ok.

I'm against shelving an idea just because it's been done before. Change it if it's too similar, but if it's good, go for it by all means.

dgiharris · Dec 3, 2009

Kaiser-Kun said:
Island in the Sea of Time did the same thing and it was a great book, so I'd say it'd be ok.

I'm against shelving an idea just because it's been done before. Change it if it's too similar, but if it's good, go for it by all means.

I concur.

I mean, like i always say, ideas are a dime a dozen, what really matters is execution.

It's just that it is a little disheartening to see your original idea already done in some fashion.

Mel...

Mr. Anonymous · Dec 3, 2009

Communism. No really. When I was five I said, "Mommy, why doesn't everyone just share everything?" But that bastard Marx beat me to it.

sanssouci · Dec 4, 2009

This happened to me, like five minutes ago. I just found out that there's a TV show in production that is very, very close to the novel I'm working on. Dammit!

Rhoda Nightingale · Dec 4, 2009

Happens all the time. Well, often enough to be annoying. My current WIP, I was originally calling "The Dragon Heiress."

Then I saw this. D'oh!

I changed the title to "Dragon House," because it's more about family and forgiveness than destiny, and it's definitely not YA, but it still made me go, "Awww, damn, no!" when I saw that.

kdbeaar · Dec 4, 2009

I wrote most of the plot for The Terminator in the late 70's... shelved it too long, someone beat me to it!

jodiodi · Dec 4, 2009

I just posted about this same thing in another thread. I'm always finding something that's awfully close to what I'm writing. I get discouraged and delete everything.

TrickyFiction · Dec 5, 2009

Stranger than Fiction. I never got around to writing it, though.

ChaosTitan · Dec 5, 2009

Final Destination. Damn them!

icerose · Dec 5, 2009

I wrote an enchanting book about a girl who goes to wizard school, has a knack at broom flying, can talk to certain animals that no one else can, there's an evil wizard who was destroyed but not completely trying to kill her who had also killed her own parents. She had a special wand that she was sold to in a wand shop that worked just for her and was part of a very rare group of wands. She had a magical book, a magical tournament, enchanted ceilings, some of the teachers were in with the dark lord...about the time I finished The End, I heard of a rising book called Harry Potter. I won't go through the rest of the story of what happened to said book because it's far too depressing.

Great Ideas You've Had Only To Discover It Has Already Been Done

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist

Kaiser-Kun

!

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Kaiser-Kun

!

DeadlyAccurate

Absolutely Fazed

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

jerry phoenix

Almost expert!

Ellefire

Citizen Of Planet Random

Pyrohawk

Aspiring author

sheadakota

part of the human equation

Kaiser-Kun

!

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist

Mr. Anonymous

Just a guy with a pen & a delusion

sanssouci

Rhoda Nightingale

Vampire Junkie

kdbeaar

Trying to finish at least 1 ms!

jodiodi

Reflections of Reality

TrickyFiction

Who?

ChaosTitan

Around

icerose

Lost in School Work