I was writing a short story that I felt very good about. It had a plot that was intriguing, a feel that was gripping, it flowed from point to point remarkably. SImply the best short story I've ever attempted, characterization was good, and as far as I knew the premise was unique.

Problem:
I explained the situation to a friend and was told "that sounds like a bad spin off of minority report" I've never even seen or read Minority Report.

I want to continue writing my story but now I'm disturbed that my work will appear to be a "bad spin off of" someothing completely irrelevent to how I thought of my premise.

How tolerable is this sort of "apparent work-repeating" in the writing world. And could publishing work like this have a detrimental effect on my published/publishing name?
 

To quote the Barenaked Ladies

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It's all been done before

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This concept seems to be coming up in several threads in the last few weeks. While there are probably still a few new ideas out there, they are few and far between. But that doesn't mean you can't do something new with an old idea. Hence the existance of The First Ever Hatrack Re-write Challenge.

This whole creativity thing isn't just limited to writers. Thomas Edison may have gotten the credit for inventing the lightbulb, but at the same time a man in Europe developed almost the exact same thing. If I remember, the only difference was in the size of the filament.

We all live in the same world. We are exposed to a lot of the same influences. Similar ideas will show up all over the place. I don't think you need to worry about your work being branded. Just write your story and let the rest worry about itself. Chances are any resemblence to Minority Report will be .. uh .. minor

[This message has been edited by Robyn_Hood (edited August 26, 2004).]

Note from Kathleen:

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Song lyrics are not really quotable.

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[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited August 27, 2004).]
 

Geez! Try finding out exactly WHO first invented the automobile. There are five or six guys (none of them named Henry Ford who was famous for the invention of assembly-line manufacturing on a large scale) who laid claim to that honor.
 

Because calling anything a "bad spin-off of minority report" doesn't sound like the action of somebody that really knows much about SF.
 

(but I did accedently write StarWars once, so you might wanna watch Minority Report to see what he meant.)
 

Where was I?

Oh yeah...ignore him. That's the plainest, simplest advice I can give you. I'm sure he's a good friend and he meant well, but on this one point you have to ignore him UNLESS...

You give the story to people to actually read and many of them comment on the similarity to Minority Report.

Here's something I've noticed about people...they try to look for similarity in things. They want to categorize and catelogue things. It's comfortable, I think. So it doesn't matter what you show them, they'll find something similiar. I described a monster I had come up with to a friend and he told me it was just like a vampire...never mind that it didn't suck blood, live forever, transform other people into monsters like itself, have any problems with garlic, or fear holy symbols or wooden stakes. It killed and it needed to kill to live, and so, voila...a vampire!

Enough of my own complaining. Well, no, I'm not going to stop complaining after all. The truth is, the more LIKE something they've seen and liked that a story is, the more people like the new version. When I try to write something totally different, with a new world that people aren't familiar with and situations that have never been written about before, people get confused and write a lot of Huh?'s all over the place in the margins.

I think you should give the story to someone to actually read, without explaining the premise. Heck, I've got a critique-free week on my hands so I'll take a look at it. I watched the movie Minority Report and thought it wasn't bad, but I'll try not to look for similarities unless they jump out at me. And even if they do, I'll probably like your story.

Anyway, don't worry too much about what one person says no matter what they say. This is why you should always send stories to more than one person for feedback...even though *I* am always right, not everyone else is so you need other people's opinions to compare.

I mean, that's just plain insulting. I can see someone saying "you're making the same mistake as Minority Report, (insert comment about mistake here)". I can see someone saying "this is bad." But there are lines, there are considerations, there are things you just don't say unless what you mean is "quit writing, for the love of humankind!"

And when someone says these things and doesn't mean that, then you need to weigh that advice carefully before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it out the window.
 

The reason I'm asking is because that sounds like something you'd say if you only read a few paragraphs. If your friend read the story, then the comments would have been a little more detailed, instead of the brush off "it's been done" comment you got.

I say, show it to other people; see what they say. And make sure they care enough to read the whole story.
 

I think in your case, the person might have been intimidated by your request for their opinion. They froze with fear.

Here is my empathic peek into their possible thought process:
*
Oh, No, what will I say to my friend who is a writer? I don't know anything about writing. She expects me to say something. Ummm, well.. It didn't really do it for me. What can I say that will sound like I know something about writing and science fiction? Have I seen any sci-fi lately? Think. Think. Got it!

"That just sounds like a bad spin-off of Minority Report."

Whew, that was a close one. Don't want my friend to think I don't know anything about writing, because I know it is important to them. Oops. Why does my friend look so sad? What did I say? Didn't it make sense? Too late to take it back now. If I do, I will look like I don't know anything about writing. Uh-Oh.
*

This has happened to me too. I stopped letting my family members read my writing. They are sweet folks, but they didn't really know how to give good feedback, because they don't write, or even read much. (It's very sad.) They usually only say nice, bland things like, "That's nice." or "Interesting.” or “I can see you spent a lot of time on this."
I finally figured out that they just don't know what to say and are afraid to say something that will make them seem uneducated on the subject.

Maybe that is what happened.
Regardless, don't let it stop you.

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How does one "accidently" write STAR WARS?

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Well it was about a kid who discovered an abandoned form of magic and went to take on the evil ruler of the universe, who turned out to be his father. Then I went and watched STAR WARS and audibly groaned through the whole thing.
 

As for "accidentally" writing Star Wars - Change Luke's name to Harry Potter...
 

Oh, those heroic imperial stormtroopers!
 

The evil sorcerers army of skeletons, that's as important as the rogue pirate's trusty ship which is always on the verge of coming apart at the seams but always sees the heros through!
 

Sheesh - the arguments that break out while you're asleep on this site!!!

And there's even a trip through the swamp - sorry, garbage compactor as part of the escape.

And the by now mythic "percentage of profit"...