Mood: Down but not out
Okay, so I was cruising through a superfab chick lit blog I found yesterday, and in that blog I found not one novel, but four novels (by successful authors) who had themes very similar to the novel I just started. Not cool.
While I know each one had a different twist, voice, characters, etc. to differentiate them from my own, it was still disheartening to see my ideas executed by far better writers. It isn't the first time I've gotten that unpleasant shocker, and I'm sure it won't be the last.
I don't blame lack of creativity on anyone's part, or copycatting someone else's work, so what is it that causes several people who have never met to have similar ideas, thoughts, and words we think we've invented? (Words I think I've invented: humilified, boobear, zipstick-now I know that to be a flash drive. I even have what I think is my own line of curse words; dickass and jerkass are my faves.)
I have read on other blogs where a commenter posts that they finished a novel only to submit it and be told there is already another similar novel on the shelves. I know it's not just me.
I'm left with one conclusion, and it is this: Great minds think alike. :)
On the bright side, I have started down another path. After making this discovery of similar novels to my own, I decided to go back to some of the novels I've written in the last ten years or so. I popped in an old "zipstick" this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised. I've already got the skeleton for one novel I think can be great. It needs some work, of course, but the foundation is there, and that is a huge chunk of work that is done. Yay! (Yes, I've browsed around online to be sure my idea is as original as I believed it to be, and Eureka! it is, as far as I can see.)
So now I will spend the next several weeks rewriting, re-reading, and polishing for Novel 2. Wish me luck....
Check out Nicola Morgan's post in the last month or so. She writes about having a book subject very similar to another author. Since they came out around the same time, it obviously wasn't a copying issue. They got to know one another and then found out they'd both chosen the SAME TITLE for their next manuscripts. She changed hers.
ReplyDeleteBreak a leg as the say in the theatre!
ReplyDeleteI tried to comment another couple of times but couldn't work out how!
Nice post!....just remember when you are rich and famous that I was your first follower!!!
Thank you, Theresa. That's absolutely incredible! I've read that there are no new plots - the only thing you can do is put a different spin on the same old thing to make it look like new. I'm trying.
ReplyDeleteAnn Marie, thank you so much for following me! I was SO happy to see that! And yes, I'll remember it always. :)