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Post by torainfor on Feb 27, 2009 13:12:46 GMT -5
I think we've been over this a bit before, but I wanted to whine.
So, my novel is about an Earth astronaut in the year 2110 who discovers Venus was colonized by pre-Flood refugees fleeing from the decadence of the locals.
My friend just gave me the novel Ice by Shane Johnson. It's about an astronaut in the mid-70s who discovers the Moon was colonized by pre-Flood people. But they were bad.
His writing style is very much like Michener's Space, as if he's trying to impress you with how much realistic stuff he learned from real-live astronauts. Mine's, of course, more along the lines of McCaffrey or Moon. Still, pre-Flood settlers? Not fair!
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Post by seraphim on Feb 27, 2009 17:00:01 GMT -5
That happens, and probably a lot. There are several ideas I've kicked around for decades in my stories trying to get it right, and then I notice someone else manages to publish a story with their version of that same idea. When I read Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead and learned his little piggies grew into trees when they died/morphed it irritated me because I had been poking around a very similar idea for at least 3 or 4 years prior to his book's publication. I'm still massaging it to a certain extent. I think this phenomenon is just proof of our common humanity, and that at certain times certain ideas are in the air...and someone is going to get their version to market first, either you or another. That doesn't mean their version is the best...and if you have a similar story you might still find a market for it (look at all the stuff published on Harry Potter's coattails). And getting there second is not always bad if what's you've got is really good. How many times did someone take a crack at filming LoTR before Peter Jackson got it right?
Personnally I think it is wisest to assume that you've got no startlyingly brilliant, utterly unique ideas for a story or story element...you may, it's just not likely. We recycle stories all the time...how many variations on star crossed lovers are there...but only a few of them stand out like say Pyramis and Thisbe, Romeo and Julliet, and West Side Story.
The trick is not to worry so much about other people having or being first to market with an idea like yours, but rather to make yours the best, the one that stands out, the one remembered. Consider "I Will Always Love You" made the charts first with Dolly Parton...but which version is the one now remembered...Whitney Houston's if I'm not mistaken.
Just try hard to do it better.
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Post by Divides the Waters on Feb 28, 2009 20:02:54 GMT -5
Been there.
Some argue that you should never read anything similar to what you're writing in order to avoid unintentional copying. I think it's actually valid to read the other authors' work to see how one might avoid getting too close to their premises. I can think of several times where I have deliberately changed my work to keep it from seeming as if it was lifted from a pre-existing story, when in fact I had had the idea independently.
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Post by mom2boys on Mar 21, 2009 9:57:29 GMT -5
Along those lines, are there any guidelines about titles? My working title right now is Stand (as in Ephesians 6:13 "...after you have done everything, to stand.") Of course, I'm not Stephen King...
What do you guys think?
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Post by torainfor on Mar 21, 2009 18:31:34 GMT -5
If I recall correctly, titles are not copy written. It may be bad form to copy the title of a block buster, but I don't think it's illegal (as copying, verbatim, a passage would be).
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Post by fluke on Mar 21, 2009 20:54:54 GMT -5
Sometimes you want to make a reference in homage to a great author or work. For example, I have two characters (one a monotheist, the other a polytheist) talking about the gods.
Polytheist: We have a god for almost everything.
Monotheist: Drinking?
Polytheist: Oh yes. He's very popular.
Monotheist: What about a god of hangovers, for after the drinking.
Polytheist: Think we missed that one. But he would be an "oh god."
If you have read Hogfather, you get it right away. If you haven't, hopefully you snicker. I think of them as reverse annotations.
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Post by duchessashley on Mar 22, 2009 8:53:15 GMT -5
In music, I can think of several song titles that are exactly the same. And I've seen book titles repeated by various authors. I don't think there is any issue.  |
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 23, 2009 21:55:42 GMT -5
Plus, there's always the blessed chance that someone will come across your book while searching for another, and decide to buy yours instead because it looks interesting.  |
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Apr 3, 2009 8:54:07 GMT -5
Christian speculative fiction is full of the idea that pre-Flood (or "antedeluvian," if you want to sound impressive) people were highly advanced and did all kinds of nifty things before God wiped it all out with the Flood. You should feel free to have them doing--or settling--whatever you wish, even if someone else has done something similar.
Now, I wouldn't advise you writing a novel about "bad" antedeluvians who settled the moon (just because that might feel too much like Shane's book), but you can have such settlers doing other SF things.
Jeff
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