So I just came up with the best idea ever . . .

[Constantine K]

. . . only to find out that it's been done before, and I am not the original genius I thought I was only hours ago.

Has this happened to anyone else? It feels like winning a free Lamborghini and crashing it on the first ride.

:rant:

[Khazarkhum]

Everyone. It happens to everyone.

[storygirl]

Yep, just like Khazarkhum said, it happen to us all.

[Karen Duvall]

Yep, it's happened to me, too. Though I wasn't horribly surprised when it did. When a fresh idea appears, it's often a group mind kind of thing. But only one of the idea creators will get recognized first.

[Matera the Mad]

Ever hear the expression "reinventing the wheel"?

[Constantine K]

Thanks. I feel better already.

[nevada]

apparently, while writing "Neuromancer" william gibson went to see blade runner adn left the theatre in tears halfway through because ridley scott had depicted this world exactly how gibson imagined his but, in gibson's words "Much better. Better than I ever could."

So yeah it happens to everyone, so no worries. There are no new ideas, just new ways to tell them.

[bluntforcetrauma]

Sometimes I wonder if ideas aren't just floating out there and several people grab the same one at once.

[Constantine K]

Well, after some serious thought (at least 10 minutes worth), I've decided to tweak my idea in a way that will make it mine. If it's true that everything has been done before, then why not?

Technically, the idea isn't another book: it's a movie. And it isn't slated for release until 2010. Better start writing!

[blacbird]

. . . only to find out that it's been done before, and I am not the original genius I thought I was only hours ago.

I empathize. Just this week I had this great idea, a whaling captain who's had his leg bitten off by a gigantic albino sperm whale, and is now bent on revenge.

So I did some research.

Dam.

caw

[nevada]

I empathize. Just this week I had this great idea, a whaling captain who's had his leg bitten off by a gigantic albino sperm whale, and is now bent on revenge.

So I did some research.

Dam.

caw

Just tweak a bit, make the guy a submarine captain, add a giant squid, and..... wait...... Damn!

[BlueTexas]

Sometimes I wonder if ideas aren't just floating out there and several people grab the same one at once.

I've certainly reinvented the wheel. I got ten thousand words into a novel before I realized not only had it been written, but I'd read it. Can't recall what it was now, but I sure remember how many words it was!

I do think bluntforce may be onto something here. Some of the best ideas in history have been invented nearly at the same time, one person just happens to get the patent, deal, whatever, first. Like the light bulb. Makes me wonder where we pluck those seemingly original ideas from, anyway.

[bluntforcetrauma]

Like that time I sat down and decided to write the Bible.

[Constantine K]

What if all of reality was just some computer program? What if our real bodies were just lined up in little pods so machines could feed off the energy our body creates?

And get this . . .

What if there was one person that was like uber and could save the entire human race from unconscious slavery!

[bluntforcetrauma]

What if all of reality was just some computer program? What if our real bodies were just lined up in little pods so machines could feed off the energy our body creates?

And get this . . .

What if there was one person that was like uber and could save the entire human race from unconscious slavery!

OK. I'm gonna try to talk you down. See the nice firemen with the trampoline? Jump there.:roll:

[blacbird]

Just tweak a bit, make the guy a submarine captain, add a giant squid, and..... wait...... Damn!

You mean . . . you mean . . . ???

Oh, wait . . . how about we have a metal capsule from outer space crash, and it comes open, and these monsters with heat rays attack . . .

Dam.

caw

[lfraser]

You mean . . . you mean . . . ???

Oh, wait . . . how about we have a metal capsule from outer space crash, and it comes open, and these monsters with heat rays attack . . .

Dam.

caw


Oh crap. There go two years of my life.

[nevada]

You mean . . . you mean . . . ???

Oh, wait . . . how about we have a metal capsule from outer space crash, and it comes open, and these monsters with heat rays attack . . .

Dam.

caw

Tweak is the name of the game. the metal capsule goes into space and instead of monsters there these monkeys see, and...... okay i give up. im going to dental school.:flag:

[Jonny Ryan Mac]

I was query-ing for my initial project, and I recived a polite note - "Been Done Before."

At first I was irate, rightfully so. After a while i began to wonder, "Could I do it better?" I made sure that I knew my competition the second time around, and it helped. espicially in the Pitch Crits at the Conference I attended this year.

Thats what the Agents and Authors talked about this year at the ACW Conference for a while, doing it better. There just arent that many originial ideas anymore, well....mainstream ideas that is.

Here's an idea.....

Post a "Cliche" mainstream Idea that gets over done, and over done, and over done.

I'll start.

Vampire Hunters.

[Mumut]

Shows how important it is for writers to read. And don't forget, using just one person's ideas is plagiarism but using the ideas of many people is research.

[Dale Emery]

. . . only to find out that it's been done before, and I am not the original genius I thought I was only hours ago.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Wasn't there a thread about this just last week? ;-)

Anyway, sure, it's happened to me. I take it as good news. If someone else has done it well, and been successful, that's confirmation that I'm able to create a worthy idea. Eventually I'll create one that hasn't been done, or hasn't been done my way.

Dale

[Smiling Ted]

Here's an idea.....

Post a "Cliche" mainstream Idea that gets over done, and over done, and over done.

I'll start.

Vampire Hunters.

Vampires. Hunting.

[Dale Emery]

Vampires. Hunting.

Damp wire bunting.

[triceretops]

You can really start panicking when it's too late. Having written Once Upon a Goddess, I found out that the plot was very similar to Bedazzed, having never read that book or seen the movie until afterwards. Fortunately, there's a enough of a difference that they won't have to pump me full of truth serum to find out if I deliberately channeled that one -- or stole it outright.

Tri

[Phaeal]

Damp wire bunting.

Vampires in baby buntings! An entire hospital nursery drained dry, with just one cute little well-fed survivor in pink!

Or a whole flock of vampire buntings, all those pointy beaks!

:eek::e2bouncey

No stealing my brilliant ideas, now.

Seriously, you can make pretty much any old idea your own with enough unique detail. The touchy part is when people describe your work broadly, as in, "Oh, that's just another Buffy ripoff."

[Gillhoughly]

This is an excerpt from an essay on writing by Joe Bob Briggs that I've taken to heart:

There are no new ideas. There are only individual expressions of old ideas. If you and I write the same thing, it will come out in two versions so different that no one will notice, but both versions will be extremely similar to things written 3,000 years ago. To put it another way, your imagination doesn’t belong to you--it’s just something you’re entrusted with for a time.

[Constantine K]

Wasn't there a thread about this just last week? ;-)

Dale


Sorry, I've been trying to catch up on as many old threads as I can.:)

I like this tweaking idea. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I didn't think I was the only one this happened to, but I didn't know it has happened to everyone.

As far as what else has been done to death:

In fantasy, it seems all I read about is evil empires that the hero and his gaggle of friends must destroy. Throw in approx. 50 dragons.

[Forbidden Snowflake]

But that's not too bad. You know what's bad. When you after you get the idea actually do it all, invest your 3249723894732 hours into it only then to find out. It has been done before. That's bad.

[Bufty]

If anyone spent that amount of time on it - it probably has, and been made into a movie, and had intergalactic rights sold, too!

Just kidding , Snowflake.:Hug2:

[HourglassMemory]

I often go on a hunt of stories that are similar to mine.
So far I haven't found any story that resembles mine.
I go for eccentric stuff...no wonder.

But you should always make it yours! And as different as possible!
Eccentricity helps! Taking that to an extreme also helps!

[jenstrikesagain]

I read this someplace in one of those dry as dust writers manuals that I avoid like the plague now, so pardon me for paraphrasing. (It might be Annie Dillard, actually) "When approaching a writing project, there are only two questions, can it be done, and can I do it. If the answer to the first question is yes, the answer to the second question must also be yes, because you and only you will have this idea the way you and only you can have it." Example: There's lots of "big plague messes things up and one man tries to survive" stories, but "I Am Legend" is not "The Stand" is not "Night of the Comet" is not "Dawn of the Dead" is not "Autumn: The City." Just remember Jenz Most Important Rule Of Writing Anything Ever At All:

A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.
A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.
A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.

Thanks. I feel better now.

Incidentally, if David Moody, who wrote the "Autumn" series is on here anyplace, DUDE!!!! YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!!

[Bufty]

Really? - Oooops. Guess who posted the following? ;) Yes, you -:Hug2:


I've noticed that people like to know what your story is about.

Here's a way to do it fast and in a way that everybody will understand. And it's a fast way to know the trends around this site.

Just pick the book you think is the most like yours.

Mine, Jules Verne's "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Around the World in 80 Days".

I often go on a hunt of stories that are similar to mine.

So far I haven't found any story that resembles mine.
I go for eccentric stuff...no wonder.

But you should always make it yours! And as different as possible!
Eccentricity helps! Taking that to an extreme also helps!

[HourglassMemory]

Really? - Oooops. Guess who posted the following? ;) Yes, you -:Hug2:
Haha! Jules Verne's is the closest , but I never said it was near what I have.

And I have to wonder how you remembered that.
Are you stalking me? :eek:

[Bufty]

Ah, said the fly, with my little eye....

Stalk you? Never. I cheated :e2writer:- I checked the list of Threads you created. You can do that, you know. Left click on a poster's name, then click on Profile, and then choose to either check the threads created or wade through all the posts.

In this case it was easy - You started a thread captioned -Which book is most like yours?

Which makes me not so clever after all -eh? ;)

Haha! Jules Verne's is the closest , but I never said it was near what I have.

And I have to wonder how you remembered that.
Are you stalking me? :eek:

[HourglassMemory]

Ah, said the fly, with my little eye....

Stalk you? Never. I cheated - I checked the list of Threads you created. You can do that, you know. Left click on a poster's name, then click on Profile, and then choose to either check the threads created or wade through all the posts.

In this case it was easy - You started a thread captioned -Which book is most like yours?

Which makes me not so clever after all -eh? ;)
But I must emphasize that if you think that I think I'm the most original person in the world, that I'm arrogant to that point, you're mistaken.
I'm humble enough to understand that I am influenced by other people's stories.
But I do honestly try to do something different.

[Bufty]

Whoa! Steady on, my dear. Don't go putting words in my mouth or adding 2+2 to get 7. My post was littered with friendly smileys, Hourglass. :flag:

[Karen Duvall]

Last Thursday I posted on my blog (http://karenduvall.blogspot.com/2008/03/thursday-thoughts_20.html) a little "essay" about being different, as in writing a different kind of book. Writing outside the box. It's riskier to do, and even though agents say they're looking for original work, I believe most of them are more comfortable with the tried and true. But when something breaks out and gets lots of attention, that something will be the "next big thing."

I write different. I'm a genre-bender. And I wouldn't want it any other way. :Thumbs:

[icerose]

It's worse when you write it out and then the basic idea and plot line of your story becomes a best selling book right about the same time you write "The End"

[jannawrites]

. . . only to find out that it's been done before, and I am not the original genius I thought I was only hours ago.

Has this happened to anyone else? It feels like winning a free Lamborghini and crashing it on the first ride.

:rant:

Absolutely! And nothing takes the wind from one's sails more quickly. *sigh*

[bluntforcetrauma]

I often go on a hunt of stories that are similar to mine.
So far I haven't found any story that resembles mine.
I go for eccentric stuff...no wonder.

But you should always make it yours! And as different as possible!
Eccentricity helps! Taking that to an extreme also helps!

If there's any story even remotely close to mine, I would be very afraid of the person who wrote it.

[Terran]

This is exactly why I switched from fantasy to Sci Fi.
I mean Galactic Empire? That's gotta be original...right?


Oh Crap!

[sportacus]

It's an inevitable part of doing anything creative.

[a_sharp]

In the 1990s I worked for three years on a novel set in Sumer, 3250 BCE with a female protagonist, about a battle between the sexes involving a serpent queen and a lion hunter. Set it aside for various reasons, but the point was, NOBODY had fictionalized the Sumerian experience. Whoa, what a concept.

Along comes a historical by Sam Barone in 2006. No, not just one book, another one in 2007. Waitaminute, he just published a third in 2008! Female protag! 3157 BCE!

Man, what I doin here?

I bought Sam's middle book, read it. Not my book, not even close. He's good, he's got a following, but I'm not feeling threatened. Sam and I have a lot of personal history in common, it's almost creepy, but we're different guys, each of us has a different slant on the era. So, no problem.

[Constantine K]

I read this someplace in one of those dry as dust writers manuals that I avoid like the plague now, so pardon me for paraphrasing. (It might be Annie Dillard, actually) "When approaching a writing project, there are only two questions, can it be done, and can I do it. If the answer to the first question is yes, the answer to the second question must also be yes, because you and only you will have this idea the way you and only you can have it." Example: There's lots of "big plague messes things up and one man tries to survive" stories, but "I Am Legend" is not "The Stand" is not "Night of the Comet" is not "Dawn of the Dead" is not "Autumn: The City." Just remember Jenz Most Important Rule Of Writing Anything Ever At All:

A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.
A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.
A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY.

Thanks. I feel better now.

Incidentally, if David Moody, who wrote the "Autumn" series is on here anyplace, DUDE!!!! YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!!

Wow, thank you. A CONCEPT IS NOT A STORY is such a solid rule that I might have to get it tattooed on my belly. It makes sense when you put it in that perspective.

[jenstrikesagain]

If I got it tattooed on my belly I'd have to show it to people. (Shudder)

[Axelle]

Well, I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one it's happened to either. Though true brilliance is to take the most clichéed of clichés and turn it into something that feels original.

After all, when you tell the story of a young knight on a quest to save a princess, who finds a mentor and is given excalibur... whoops, I mean, a magical sword, and then destroys the ultimate weapon of the bad guys, how much cliché does it get ? Didn't prevent Lucas from making a lot of money ;D

[RGame]

I had an idea about a group of characters who live in the same city as a Superman-like character, with the superhero staying mostly in the background. I wrote about 75 pages of that a couple years ago, then got stuck and never went back to it. A couple weeks ago, I found out this was done years ago in "The Superlative Man," which is the same basic idea except with a 40's style detective investigating the superhero, who stays mostly in the background. I'm reading it now, and so far it's pretty good.

[yappo]

What about a teenage couple trying to overcome their respective families' .... ooops

Sten

[wayndom]

Well, after some serious thought (at least 10 minutes worth), I've decided to tweak my idea in a way that will make it mine. If it's true that everything has been done before, then why not?


Exactly.

"Someone gets in trouble, then gets out of it. People love that story -- they never get tired of it." -- Kurt Vonnegut