BEATEN! I've...

[Rafael Domination]

...been beaten to an idea!!!


I know, it sucks eh? Even when another author has only come close to getting the same idea as yours, it still sucks cuz' originality points just vanished form your novel.

Here's the thing: how do you recover from such an incident? Do you just go on and hope the quality and content of your novel or work would be different or even out-class that of the author who beat you to whatever genius idea you cooked up? I mean, that happens a lot.

So? Thoughts? Opinions? Solutions?

[Nyx]

Depends on how close the ideas are.

[Ichigo]

That's happened to me a little. I pretty much just cry in the corner.
I have no solutions.

[Rafael Domination]

What I do is up my characters and plot one level (without disrupting the novel too much) over they guy who beat me to the ideas. First, Dante and Damien were teenage agents, but Alex Rider forced me to turn them into Teen Assassins, and the the Sleeper Code finally made me make them into Teenage Kingpins. So yeah, in a way, Kingpins would be more realistic than agents of assassins.

But yeah, evolve your characters if they get beat!

[Pibs]

GAH!
I hate this! This happens to me all the time. I think of a grand idea... pick up a new book, and... lo and behold, that new book's plot/character/place name/etc is really similar to mine! I guess that's why I'm having trouble with writing anything but fan fiction right now.:doh::writersblock:

[sXe_Jinxeh]

I cannot count the amount of times that has happened to me.

When I originally started my Paranormalists books, I went to the library and found "The Supernaturalists." I was so mad! I actually borrowed the book, and it didn't have anything in common to my story, but the name was like the exact same.

More recently, and more impactedly on me was my "short" story, My Girlfriend is a Superhero. I had just finished the first draft and was printing it off when an advertisement for "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" came on the screen. Thankfully, though, after seeing what a Crap-Fest that movie was, I felt better, and went back to writing what I was working on. I still have to find MGIAS...hm.

But when that happens I usually read/watch the thing that "ripped me off", and then feel better because it's only the basic idea. I've never had somebody with similar characters.

[Carraka]

I pray.

Carnivorous horses have already been done. I know ... I know ...