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.
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.