Now that's a hard one. I swear, every time I come with something I think has never been done, one of my friends tells me that they either just finished reading a book about it or saw a book about it online. My reaction? WHAT??? Are you kidding me?
No, they are not kidding. This has been happening to me since I first started writing. I remember being sixteen and thinking I had a killer idea that no one else had thought of. Then I went to the store, looked at the books, and found that not only had someone else already thought of the same idea, but they'd beaten me to it. This also happens to me frequently with titles. Sucks!
Can you guess why I'm writing about this subject today? That's right. It happened again. Because there are sooo many books about vampires and werewolves, I decided to go out on a limb and do something different. I came up with what I thought was a wild idea. Then I spoke to a friend in Ohio, and she tells me that she's reading a book that has the exact idea. ????
How does this happen? Am I psychic and picking up on other peoples' ideas, or does God give these ideas to several people at once? Kind of depressing.
Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me for some reason?
2 comments:
All. The. Time. I'm telling you, it's the most frustrating thing in the world!!! I'm right there with you;) I say write it anyway. We all have a different spin on the same old stories anyway, so why not put yours out there? You can never have too much variety:D
There's a big difference between having an original idea and having something original to say. The former puts pressure on us to be perfect to the point of the impossible; the second is the point of writing.
Mark Twain once write an essay titled "Mental Telegraphy" that talks about exactly this phenomenon. It's worth a read - and then just writing anyway, without concern about who has the same idea.
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