| Author | Message | ||
     Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
I have just discovered a little known film called 'Deadline' which shares the same plot as my novel, 'A History of Writers'. In fact, my original title was Deadline. I am halfway through the novel, but feel I should abandon it, as the plot of the film is too close to mine. My story does have a prologue which takes place in the 1960's in Britain, and the main character isn't married, but apart from the film being set in the States, the similarities between the two are too close for me to feel comfortable continuing. My question is this: Should I continue or shelve it? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.154.208 |
Continue. Consider it a five-finger exercise, if you wish. Good experience at writing at length. Besides, if you start another, who's to say it won't mimic another piece of fiction? You can't possibly review everything that's ever been produced. Chances are, whatever you write, there's something very similar in the world already. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.154.208 |
King wrote Under The Dome and was then told that The Simpsons movie had the same plot! He said something like, "Well, okay, I've never seen it. But even though it shares the same plot idea, I've done it my way." Having said all this, I suppose ultimately it depends on how important the plot idea is to the book. If it's crucial, then there's probably an argument for either abandonment or revision. If not, then do your own thing with it. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Hmmm, I'm no writer so I'm probably not much help here, but my feeling would be to ask yourself: "Is there something I could change/tweak in order to make it clear to everyone my story is a different one to the film?" Sorry if that isn't much help. :-/ | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Finish the novel. but don't watch the film, as it might taint your writing. genre writing is, by nature, generic: the same story is out there countless times. The originality is in the execution and the themes a writer brings to generic material. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
Guys - many thanks. You've actually swayed me. I'll stick it out to the end. Zed - yes, I will definitely steer clear of the film. Cheers, chaps, I feel much better now. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.251.211 |
Pull a Fowles, Kaufman, etc. - start your next chapter saying you've just discovered there's a film out there just like your novel - then introduce yourself INTO your own book, as you worry about this - get yourself into your own novel, muck up the storyline - go crazy on the page - turn it into something totally mind-blowing and amazing - "A History of Writers" will surely fit even better at that point anyway.... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Check out the story of what happened with Jonathan Carrol's Sleeping in Flames and Neil gaiman's Dolls House series for Sandman. Halfway through writing the Dolls House stories, Gaiman found out that the JC novel had exactly the same storyline. He was about to give it up and JC told him not to be so stupid and keep going as this was his own version he was writing. If you look closely on the bookshelves in the backgrounds in some issues of the sandman, you'll see Jonathan Carroll books on them as tribute to that story. It happened to me with a one act play I was writing - a murder story called Something the Cat Dragged in - which was based around the idea that at a murder mystery evening, a cat dragged two severed fingers into the room and the guy running the event pretends that it's part of the roleplay - when really he'd killed and buried the previous lot of people who'd shown up for teh evening. About two thirds of the way in, I picked up a Patricia Highsmith short story collection and spotted a story called "Something the Cat Dragged in" about a dinner party where next door's cat drags in a pair of severed fingers - a story that I realised I'd read when I was about 15. I didn't bother. Apart from the one event and the punning title, my take on the story was so radically different from hers that all I did was throw in some Gighsmith references, calling one character Ripley etc. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Remember The Fothergill Omnibus. |