This week's YA Highway Road Trip Topic:
What SNI were you psyched to work on, but discovered it was too close to something already done?
I remember working on my first novel. I'd done some word play off the phrase for a hot guy as a "tall drink of water." ...but after all my parched years I now had two tall drinks of water on my hands. Whatever else happened, I didn’t plan to end up thirsty.
I...in my writerly naivete...thought it was so clever and unique. The next night, I'm watching Desperate Housewives and there is almost the exact play on words...bummer.
I complained to my crit partner at the time. She told me that in the writing/creative world similar ideas do tend to pop up independently but at around the same time.
Think of these two movies:
Almost carbon copies of each other, and they came out within a few months of each other. I know more stealing of ideas happens in the screenwriting industry, but these were shot at the same time by different studios...I'd love to know how that came about.
Okay, so sometimes it's just that our SNI is only new in our own brains, but still, if there's room in the entertainment world for two teen angst movies about a president's daughter then there might be room for a tweaked version of your SNI (that's not so new) too.
What about you? Ever had this happen?
Ha, those two movies are both guilty pleasures of mine. :) I think this happens to all of us (especially phrasing), but as long as you find a way to make your story unique in some way, I think it can work.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even thought about how films come out that are so similar to each other. Good point.
ReplyDeleteEven worse: Babe and Gordie. Two movies about talking pigs in the same year. Weird enough that one came out, but two? Bizarro. I think as long as your book isn't a complete rip-off of someone else's it should be fine. When people read something they like, they immediately start looking for something similar. I did that very same thing after finishing DIVERGENT. I was on the hunt for more, more, more dystopian. And I found some really great titles that way. :-)
ReplyDeleteSo true. This summer there's two snow white movies coming out and they couldn't look more different.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes with movies, studios compete for an idea, and the one who loses rushes out to grab a similar screenplay. Jamie makes a great point, though. The market was over-saturated with vampire books because that's what people wanted more of. And in television, look at how many versions we have of CSI, NCIS, and Law and Order.
ReplyDeleteWhat about all the upcoming Snow White movies? Or the dueling Truman Capote biopics?
ReplyDeleteI think there's plenty of room for books with very similar concepts, so long as each has a unique POV etc.
True, films do this all. the. time. And they're all pretty high concept, too. I guess the film industry knows that we all don't want different--we want more of the same. I know I totally read stories that are similar to each other, and I eat up every word :)
ReplyDeleteI swear, I think some drunken muse is sprinkling water with the same ideas in it over our heads! (or maybe other things)
ReplyDeleteI've seen a ton of the "girl is a princess and doesn't know it" stories, but they keep cranking them out! So, I agree. If there's room for all these similar movies, then there certainly is for all the similar books! (look at all the vampire novels falling off the shelves these days!)
It's also important to note that there's duplicates between UK movies and shows and the US market. A few things get tweaked, but the initial premise is the same.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! There's always room for another (although I don't want to see it) vampire story. And any other repeated idea. The trick is to do the same, but different.
ReplyDeleteAnd no. This has not happened to me...yet. Well, at least not that I'm aware of. :)
Ooh, the similar phrase thing. That can be a pain in the behind--when you think you're using a clever turn of phrase that you invented, then you see it used somewhere else. I suppose it could be argued that if it works, keep it. As long as you don't take credit for it when asked... tough call.
ReplyDeletePerfectly pent subject material. great post!
ReplyDeleteEverything from concepts to clever phrases - we're bound to run into something that is similar! This happens to writers all the time.
ReplyDelete