I've been preemptively ripped off! :(

Antilles

I've been working on a novel for the past few months. I'm an outliner, so I've got my world and characters set. I know them inside out. I've got a plot almost nailed down, and am just working on some niggling issues near the midpoint, but everything else is going great. I'm off work this week and was planning on having my outline complete and ready to start writing this weekend.

But just now I've learned that there's an American TV show that's set in a world eerily similar to mine. I'd never heard of this show before and it's only in its first season, but there are so many similarities it's not even funny.

What should I do? Abandon the work I've put in and start something new? Keep on with my project and hope nobody notices how close my novel is to this show? Retool my idea into something very close to what it was but with superficial changes?

I seriously feel like the world has dropped out from underneath me.

Das Kitty

Have you seen the show? Maybe it's not as close as you think? Your characters will be different though, no matter how close the setting turns out to be.

(I'm very curious about the show now)

Daemos

Yes it's a funny old world, isn't it?

I had another story in mind also, but now there's a TV show called Continuum, and honestly it's like watching a TV adaptation of a book I never wrote

There are some differences, but the similarities are too close to ignore, and even though I used to be really passionate about my idea, I've now pretty much abandoned it completely

On the other hand, it has inspired me to say that if I can almost have a good enough idea to make a TV show, there's nothing to say I can't make something good of my other ideas

Branoic

Yeah I've had this happen, not fun. I'd be half way through working out an awesome idea, then pick up a new book to read and go "Oh, damn" as I'm reading it and may as well be reading a version of my own unwritten book.

What's the show by the way? Is it Defiance?

Antilles

Um, yeah Branoic that's the show. How did you know?

Jeez now I'm even more depressed that my idea wasn't original at all

--Kaiser--

I had an idea for a book eerily similar to The Matrix about 3 years before the film was released. You just have to realise that sometimes people come up with the same ideas as you, I call it convergent ideation (after convergent evolution)

Danpad

I feel as though I was (what's the opposite of pre-emptively?) ripped off.
I was asked for the full MS by an agent. Yippee I thought. Then when a 'scout' was sniffing around and, off his own back, pushing the agent to run with my novel I was on cloud nine. As per usual, months passed, nothing strange there, I thought. Until I got an email containing a link and a message telling me; 'You should check this out,' from an anonymous source whose email address is no longer valid. I checked the link. It turns out someone 'networked' shall we say, concocted up a novel very, very similar to mine and got it published. Gutted, but hesitant to cry 'foul play!' initially, I approached both agent and scout to express my dismay at such a similar novel suddenly appearing on the market. My dismay turned to suspicion when they both replied within 24hrs proclaiming the exact same thing in the exact same words; 'Hard luck, however, you can't copyright an idea!'

Afterwards, quite hesitant to reveal anything of mine to the small, clique like Irish publishing industry as a whole, I completed three shorter books for the YA genre. Bypassing Irish agents and the like, I submitted to the UK. Now, via an English establishment, I'm lined up to write eBooks for a new e-reader project for school libraries nationwide.

coffee_cake

There would surely be some legal case considering you had the original documents with original dates on them

Antilles

Wow Danpad, that sucks. These guys didn't really steal my idea. In fact given how much time it takes to make a show they almost certainly had it first. They just had the audacity to come up with the idea before I did.

Branoic

Antilles wrote: »

Um, yeah Branoic that's the show. How did you know?

Jeez now I'm even more depressed that my idea wasn't original at all

Lucky guess. I got the vibe that your idea was in the sci fi genre, and Defiance is probably the most high profile new American show in its first season.

There's also an MMO tie in game released on consoles and PC to accompany the show, with plot elements in one apparently meant to impact the other. Neat idea, though I believe the game itself is a little ropey.

Antilles

Branoic wrote: »

Lucky guess. I got the vibe that your idea was in the sci fi genre, and Defiance is probably the most high profile new American show in its first season.

There's also an MMO tie in game released on consoles and PC to accompany the show, with plot elements in one apparently meant to impact the other. Neat idea, though I believe the game itself is a little ropey.

Well I watched the first episode of the show today and it was pretty ropey too. It also allayed some of my concerns - there are definitely a lot similarities between Defiance and my premise, but they are all entirely superficial. I'm going to make some changes but nothing major and my project isn't as derailed as I thought it was

echo beach

Antilles wrote: »

I seriously feel like the world has dropped out from underneath me.

Antilles wrote: »

I'm going to make some changes but nothing major and my project isn't as derailed as I thought it was

What a difference a day makes...
Glad things worked out for you.

Antilles

echo beach wrote: »

What a difference a day makes...
Glad things worked out for you.

Still unnerved by even the superficial similarities. The show looks awful though. If it was good, I'd probably still be worried