RTW: Story Jinx!
It’s Road Trip Wednesday time again (woohoo!), and this week’s question from the YA Highway ladies is: What SNI [Super New Idea] were you psyched to work on, but discovered it was too close to something already done?
I’m always having to ditch great character names because I discover there are famous people that share those names, but that’s different. In my youth (and I mean barely into double digits), my older brother and I used to create characters based on our favorite TV shows (e.g., Doctor Who). We changed the names, but the veil was pretty thin. But that’s not really what this question is asking.
The closest answer I can come up with is from those days, back when I was about nine years old. I was really into The War of the Worlds–both the novel, which I read around this time (see my first RTW for more about that), and Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version (which is still one of my all-time favorite albums). I decided I would write and illustrate my own take on The War of the Worlds, and call it–wait for it–Battle of the Planets! I had characters, I had a story, and I loved it–especially the title.
Then, one day, I saw an episode of a cartoon series that had just started showing on television. It was an anime series, and I can’t for the life of me remember the premise of it, but it was called… Battle of the Planets!! My jaw dropped and I remember pointing at the television saying “That’s MY title!! They’ve stolen my idea!!” I was crushed… for a while at least. What made it worse is that my younger brother really enjoyed it. Traitor!! Don’t worry, all is forgiven now. But that’s about the closest I’ve come to having to ditch a precious story idea because people with more money than me stole it it was too similar to a famous existing work.
Hey, guys... I'm still waiting on my royalty checks...!
Has this ever happened to you? Tell us about it in the comments, or write about it on your blog and add your link to the comments at YA Highway. And while you’re there, check out other people’s responses. That’s what this blog carnival’s all about, after all!
Glad you worked everything out with your brother lol. It was a cool title though.
Great post! You learned this lesson early on! I haven’t actually Googled the ideas or themes in my ms, but I have searched for the title. It’s really hard to find a title that doesn’t already belong to a book, or movie, or song, or album.
I totally laughed out loud. So sorry for that. I haven’t had anything like this happen to me yet, so that’s a relief. There have been some things that have come a little too close for comfort. My current WiP is YA sci fi and there were things in it that were probably not totally unique, but felt okay. And then Terra Nova aired and lo and behold there were things in the show that made me squirm a bit (okay, a lot). I think it’s all good though after the initial What?! wore off. The differences are great enough that any miniscule similarities are barely noticeable. It just gives you that extra push to try and get it done faster before someone else does before you. My sister ended up permanently shelving a WiP recently that she’d been working on for a decade that turned out to be FAR too similar to a recently published, very popular book. That totally stinks.
Apparently you had a really great idea going on! You should’ve written them hundreds of letters asking for your royalty checks because they stole your idea!
Haha!
At least you were nine when you got that lesson…most writers have to learn it when they’re much older.
I had to smile at your post for two reasons:
1) I needed to change the names of my characters after reading a book in the same category as mine + it had witches and the male character had the same name. The story line was totally different but it still felt too close for comfort.
2) My husband always thinks of new things to create and when we google them, they´re usually created but it did happen once or twice that he thought he had the idea before them – he also want royalty checks 😀 Maybe you guys could team up
Great post, Colin! :D!
Seeing something else with your title is such a bummer. You should totally get royalties.
Lol… title stealing is the worst. I can’t believe those jerks stole a title from a nine year old 😉 Your traitorous brother probably gave the title away…
Seriously though, I hate when a clever title I come up with is already in use. Great titles are so hard to come by (for me, at least), and just when you think you’ve got one, it could be yanked from under you!
Aw! I can imagine how you must’ve felt! I felt similarly when I discovered a story I created in high school, which I based off the movie Labyrinth, had a character who very much resembled Neil Gaiman’s Morpheus. I hadn’t read Sandman at the time (or yet, actually) and I stand firmly on the fact my villain was based off the Goblin King. Now I’m wondering if perhaps Gaiman’s character was based on him too!
Oh, man. I find your story so much more poignant because you were little. At that age, you really, truly believe that your idea was stolen.
That is CRAZY!!! I haven’t experienced title or SNI “theft” yet, but I’m sure I will.
No way, titles are fair game! But that’s not to say that your chances of getting published or represented if your query says, “My young adult novel “Moby Dick and the Old Man of the Sea” . . .”
Just wanna comment that you have a very nice web site , I love the style it really stands out.
Thieves!
Titles are a hard one. There are so many that can apply in different situations. At least yours wasn’t too heartbreaking 🙂
I hate to give a general reply to everyone’s comments, but I would probably say much the same thing to everyone: thank you for your comments, and for sharing your experiences both here and on the YA Highway site. This was an interesting topic, and the discussion over what is legitimate idea re-use and what is blatant plagiarism was equally interesting.
One shout out: Thanks for the compliment on my site, Jeremy! It’s not my own design, but out of all the available templates, it was the one I thought best reflected the nature of my blog. I wish I was as artistically talented as some of my GFC friends who have some REALLY cool designs, but I’m happy with this. 🙂
Haha! Battle of the Planets. I wrote a short story in 5th grade that was in emulation of and very, very similar to NUMBER THE STARS by Lois Lowry. But, almost 20 years later, I’m thinking of my own ideas … at least, sometimes. 🙂
I watched it, but I didn’t understand ANY of it! And hey, I was only what, 3? 4? Gimme a break man! 😉
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