I just hate when this happens...

JAM2b

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I hate it when I have a story or character idea, and someone else does it before I get it done, especially when they do it big.

Years ago I had an idea about a story line for a modern day, European princess to be raised in the U.S. as an ordinary girl, and then gets whisked away to her country to take her place as royalty. As I was writing it, "The Princess Diaries" came out. I was devastated. Although there was a difference in my story in that she was always aware she was a princess and had a relationship with her father, the king, much of the storyline was very similar. There is no way anyone would have believed that I came up with the story material myself.

And just yesterday, I was brainstorming about a Christmas fantasy story in which Santa has a daughter named Candy. I got very excited thinking about the story line, when I decided to do a google search. There already was a cartoon made in the 1980's about Candy Claus who was a doll brought to life and became the daughter of Santa. I thought it seemed obscure and the story wasn't much like what I had in mind, so I thought I would just change the character name and proceed anyway. Then I googled "Santa's Daughter" to see if anything else had been done with a similar story line, and wouldn't you know it. They are making a Christmas movie about Santa's daughter, and Anna Kendrick is going to play the character. I don't know if my story would be similar other than the character being Santa's daughter, but it is too similar over all. I think it would look like I derived my idea from this movie.

sigh.

I'm always too late. Always.
 

thesunisout

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I hate it when I have a story or character idea, and someone else does it before I get it done, especially when they do it big.

Years ago I had an idea about a story line for a modern day, European princess to be raised in the U.S. as an ordinary girl, and then gets whisked away to her country to take her place as royalty. As I was writing it, "The Princess Diaries" came out. I was devastated. Although there was a difference in my story in that she was always aware she was a princess and had a relationship with her father, the king, much of the storyline was very similar. There is no way anyone would have believed that I came up with the story material myself.

And just yesterday, I was brainstorming about a Christmas fantasy story in which Santa has a daughter named Candy. I got very excited thinking about the story line, when I decided to do a google search. There already was a cartoon made in the 1980's about Candy Claus who was a doll brought to life and became the daughter of Santa. I thought it seemed obscure and the story wasn't much like what I had in mind, so I thought I would just change the character name and proceed anyway. Then I googled "Santa's Daughter" to see if anything else had been done with a similar story line, and wouldn't you know it. They are making a Christmas movie about Santa's daughter, and Anna Kendrick is going to play the character. I don't know if my story would be similar other than the character being Santa's daughter, but it is too similar over all. I think it would look like I derived my idea from this movie.

sigh.

I'm always too late. Always.

Pray and ask the Lord for an original story that you will enjoy writing. God bless
 
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JAM2b

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I write, constantly. Stories, songs, poetry. Then I run scared of violating someone's copyright. There are a zillion copyrights out there.

This is where search engines come in handy. I type titles, character names, and story keywords in to see if someone else has something out there. If there is, and especially if it is well known, I will change what I am doing, sometimes skipping it altogether.
 
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Winken

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This is where search engines come in handy. I type titles, character names, and story keywords in to see if someone else has something out there. If there is, and especially if it is well known, I will change what I am doing, sometimes skipping it altogether.
Thank you......
 
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AMOG

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Seriously! this has happened to me twice from the SAME film maker. I wrote a script in college about a town taken over by commies... then Kevin Reynolds writes "Red Dawn". then I wrote a script about two of the roman centurions that saw the resurrection and Kevin Reynolds makes "Risen". Now I have a series concept I am working on and Spielberg comes out with an eerily similar film "Ready Player One." Truth is, no one has a copyright on good ideas. if something occurs to one creative person, other creative people will also have the same/similar ideas. Whoever does it best, first, gets the rewards.
 
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Truth is, no one has a copyright on good ideas. if something occurs to one creative person, other creative people will also have the same/similar ideas. Whoever does it best, first, gets the rewards.

^ This, precisely! I've gotten to the point that I try not to worry about how similar my story might be to others. I've heard it said that everything's been done before anyway, so all you can do is add your own little twist to it to make it uniquely yours. Nobody can tell a story the same way you can, so try not to get discouraged. <3
 
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JAM2b

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:destroy:


AGAIN!!!

OK, so I was writing my Christmas book and instead of making it about Santa's daughter, it is about other characters at the "North Pole." One of my main characters is named Merry.

I picked up a cheap romance novel because it had a Christmas theme (a boyfriend/husband for Christmas type of story). I typically don't read these, and that's not the type of book I'm writing, but I'm desperate for Christmas inspiration in September. The main character's name?? Merry!!!

ARGH!!!!!

This is written by a very well-known, award-winning, books-made-into-movies, popular author, and the front of the paperback had several pages full of positive reviews. So, if I write this story with this perfect name for my character, story behind the name and everything, people are going to think I derived my character's name from this other author's character's name in her Christmas romance story.

So, toss the name and the significant story behind the name and come up with a new one? Or keep this absolutely perfect name for my character?
 
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