See icon for truth.

[vulgarweed]

Or at least it will be. Weatherman Tom Skilling called what's coming "An Edmund Fitzgerald storm." Greeaat. Well, actually, it's good writing weather.

I'm up to my elbows in the 1992 novel (with veterinary gloves on) and having a grand old time, but lots of things are irking me. One of them is the fact that this book has sat in a drawer for nearly twenty years, and in that time frame, lots of other writers have come up with some of the same plot points as me. So I'm sitting there copying this thing, thinking from time to time, "Hey, didn't something really similar happen to Harry Dresden once?" and "Isn't that also one of Sookie Stackhouse's problems?" and the like. Of course, most the things that my own book now reminds me of were written afterward. Which kind of makes me hate myself for procrastination, but since that's one of the defining aspects of my personality, I doubt that'll change. Or, y'know, maybe I'll change someday. ;)

It's also another reason never to make plagiarism charges lightly. Great minds don't have to know of each other to think alike sometimes, and the tighter the genre, the more likely it is that similar things will pop up here and there like mushrooms that have never met. Or something.

Comments

[laceymcbain.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I have the same issues at times thinking, "but that's been done before". But the reality is everything's been pretty much done before in some way, shape or form. The trick is to bring something of yourself to it, something interesting in the way of characters. Characters enliven the plot, but the plots are often simply variations on age-old themes.

The thing is if you think about it too much you'll never write, so it's best to just plunge ahead and do your best. But, yes, I totally have moments like that as well.