Someone already wrote my book! .. again! Should I worry?

Hello fellow readers / writers,

My first novel was influenced by Orwell and Dostoyevsky. Half way through writing it, I discovered the book 'Fight Club' and the graphic novel 'V for Vendetta'. Between these two books, I found that they'd already used 80% of my plot ideas and characters. Long story short, I began changing plots, removing events and characters; the novel died a death of editting. I now realise that the books in question borrowed heavily from other authors and I should've carried on with mine.



Now, several months in to writing my second attempt at a novel and yesterday I hear about Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier. I haven't read it but the plot summary I've seen bears resemblance to my book. Both have a young female hero who has to look after herself when let down by the male hero. The setting is similar and both stories have a vicar as the villain and a band of wreckers living off shipwrecks they cause.



What gives?! Should I learn to expect this with all my work?

Someone already wrote my book! .. again! Should I worry?
With how many books there are available, you are almost always going to be able to compare a book as being so similar to another. I mean..I am sure there are a lot of books you don't even know about with a young female hero who has to look after herself when let down by a male hero. So what? And so what if the villain is also a vicar? Does that mean the villain does the same thing? Says the same things? Acts the same way? As long as you are honestly writing the book on your own, and not using others... you should be fine. It should be evident in the writing styles, that yours is a bit different. I am sure there is lots different. And just because someone else has already written a book with the same very general plot, doesn't mean it is good. You also have to consider why you are writing. Is it for fun as a hobby, and that you just enjoy it? If so, then who cares if it is almost the same as another book on the market. If you are eventually wanting to publish it... if you are that concerned, change a few small things. But it is your story...so write it how you want it, not to accomodate anothers book.
Reply:daphne de muire wrote her book long before you.sad to say. its hard being a novelist, these days,

most would be novelists publish their own work, give them out free, to library, school, book shop, and go back after 3months to see if anyone has enquired on orders or reserves, with the school the critism off the pupils or teachers, you need a good publisher who has faith in you and your work, you need to compile ten short stories and post them to various publishers and see what interest and reviews you get, you could also write to your favourite novelist, and ask for their advice, sneakly ask them to read some of your work, thats all i can tell you, good luck.
Reply:Wow..that happened to me..I wrote a story about a man, named Jesus, who claimed to be the son of God. Only after I finished it did I find out there was a similar book already published. Oh how I fumed !
Reply:when it comes to writing a book, if you look hard what you are writing has already been done.

there is nothing more we can create when it comes to writing. everything has been done a thousand times before...

what you have to think is how do i do it differently, so it may be the same structure but in a different way...

good luck because you are going to need it, it is not easy writing a book.

I know because im writing my first. but you do get some enjoyment out of writing that chapter you have been thinking about for a couple of days and completing it...
Reply:Let me tell you my story. While a student nurse I wrote a diary of my experiences, this also included some raher bizaar experiences since I had an undiagnosed adrenal tumor which caused altered states of consciousness, some spiritual and lots of psychic experiences. Day by day I wrote and each day threw the diary in the bin. Unbenown to me someone took a liking to the writing and was actually collecting it. I don't know what happend to the writing but I do know it got passed on and has been used in many, many films, TV series and even for some lyrics of songs and peoples books. Of this I am one million percent certain. As a writer you recognise your way of approaching something, turn of phrase and as a human you know the events in your life and recognise them even if you have it reflected back to you, especially if they are unique and phenominal. Something happend and I was finally discoverd as the source of the writing. The media in Britain went belistic and started hitting out viciously, trying to influence public opinion. I think as a cover up for their ignorance about what had and was happening.



The bottom line is, all writers get their inspiration from their own life and the world around them. Those that write professionally use many sources. They may not always know what those sources are. I don't blame the writers or hold a grudge. I believe they had no idea what my diary was, it would have seemd like a strange fantasy to them rather than a blow by blow account of a neurological melt down so to speak. I don't know whether to feel offended, embarrassed, intruiged, flattered or hurt. I suspect this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happend to someone. My problem is the writing contained detailed premonitions-Princess Diana's death was one of the premonitions I wrote about, about 5 or 6 years before it happend. So, no wonder it attracted attention.



If your writing is accidently used, unless you can proove it you have no legal claim. Since I threw my writing away, I have no legal claim to it. The hostile reaction of the media would indicate that they were caught doing something they shouldn't be doing.



If you are serious about writing then keep a careful eye on it, what I described above actually happend. It's left me in a very difficult sittuation since the media essentially commited to a hate campaign against me in their defense. They are of course not willing to come clean and admit to the truth.



Don't be surprised if your writing reflects common themes in life. However, the best advise I can give you is to write from your own life experience. This is the most inspired type of writing. Who better can write about love than one who loves.



GOOD LUCK AND BEST WISHES.
Reply:If I were you I'd case my house looking for hidden spy cameras.

I bet that *****, Du Maurier is spying on you and stealing your best ideas.



Hey maybe that can be an idea for your new book?



No need to thank me, just give me a mention when the book's published.
Reply:That means you are big leagues.
Reply:maybe you should try and change the male to female or something like that so you would not be coping any but yourself.
Reply:Like a lot of the other answerers said, it is common for a lot of stories to have similar plots and concepts.



Look at how many movies are all the same. Virtually every romantic comedy is the same story over and over again with the same major plot points: A man and a woman meet accidentally and don't get along at first. Then somehow they start to get along and things end up going well. Then something happens and they break up. Then there is a montage scene of them both being depressed while they are apart. Then, in some big dramatic over-the-top way, they get back together right at the end and are assumed to live happily ever after.



See?



So just write your stories and don't worry too much that they are similar to other things.



For more examples, look at the Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown made a zillion dollars from that book and remember how afterward he was almost sued by other publishing companies because his story is actually very similar to other stories that other people wrote before. But who cares? No one.



A character you may have heard of, called Batman, was invented with no other purpose than to copy the successful look and theme of Superman, who had been published a year earlier. I'd say Batman has done pretty well.



The Beatles, especially during the first half of their career, say that they were basically just imitating all of their musical hero's like Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan and other people that I don't know.



I can't think of titles off the top of my head, but just go to any book store and look in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section and you'll see dozens of stories that are unmistakably inspired by The Lord Of The Rings. The Lord Of The Rings, itself, was based heavily on themes (like rings of power) and characters from ancient mythology of Northern Europe.



Just about all of the movies that Quentin Tarantino writes are entirely based on older movies that he enjoys, as he is a huge film buff.



So yeah, that's plenty of examples.
Reply:If I were you, I wouldn't be OVERconcerned. If you look at half of the books on the shelves, they're a lot of them that are the same. You've got the books about the naive girl who moves to the city and comes to her own. The boy who has to go on a quest and there's probably an elf, a talking animal, and some kind of ghastly beast roaming about. The biography about a person who suffered some quirky and dysfunctional childhood but grew up to overcome all of that and turned out pretty darn good in the end.



Just write what you want to write and don't worry about what everyone else is writing. My editor told me once: "What makes a book good is not the story you tell but how you tell it."
Reply:Demoralising, but with the millions of books that have been written and published, there must be many that contain similar plots and ideas. After all, just about everything in life has already been written about, and there's a limit to the number of different combinations of circumstances, etc., that can be plotted. I'm one of those people who's always saying I'm 'going to' write a book, but never do so because I just can't think-up anything really original - there's nothing left! You just keep going and try to include some very original twists in your work. Good luck!

signed,

Little Red Riding Hood
Reply:Now a days it is really hard to come up with a completely original idea.



You just have to be careful about plagerism



http://www.authortrek.com/

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