How Original IS Your Idea?

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a great week ;o)

My little sis is graduating from college on Saturday so it's a surreal weekend for me. *sniff* I watched her grow up and now she is all growed up. SURREAL, I tell you!  I'm also road tripping with the awesome and talented Carolina Valdez Miller (who I adore and I'm uber-excited to meet) to the amazing and gifted author Veronica Roth's book launch for DIVERGENT! Ahhhh! Let the squeeing commence!

So that's my weekend ;o) What about you 

guys?

Okay, I'll get to the point of the post ;o) 

Ideas. 

They come from anywhere in any shape. They haunt your showers, dreams and drives. So what happens when someone has the same one? Or something similar?

Do you runaway screaming "I'm a hack!"? What if the book is published and successful?

I've read a lot of books this year. All fantastic. Seriously. There was at least one that had a similar aspect to the one I'm revising. Okay... okay. It was kind of eerily similar. 

So I had to think... Strange, I know.

Should I give up on my story because someone has something similar? That is IF this story ever makes it to publication years from now... I'll admit. I really did have a moment of... "Well that's it. I'm done, onto my next great idea".  And this particular author executed the idea well and the writing was so much better than mine. Different. Different than mine. Let's stay positive right ;o) Well, I didn't run away screaming. At least not yet. Ha. 

The thing is, no matter what idea is out there, and there will be someone who has something similar. What really sets YOU apart is your VOICE. The words you choose, your CHARACTERS, your STYLE. It won't be the same. It just won't. Even though, I could have tucked my non-existent tail between my legs, I didn't. And I'm going to finish this revision and I'm going to query it. I just maybe will have to mark that author's agent off my list. Or not. I don't know. Maybe there's room for two ;o) 

So I ask you, bloggy friends. What would you do if this happened to you? Has it happened to you?

Have a wonderful weekend full of surprises and candy and cookies and malts and fries... 

Not to self: Never blog when you're hungry ;o

<3 Er

erica m. chapman is a YA writer by night, workin' for the cause by day. Fan of football, especially Lions and Michigan. She loves alternative music, Foo Fighters, animals, reading, golf and playing her guitar. She resides in Michigan where she sits quietly typing her next story on her macbook in her Detroit Lions Snuggie. You can also find her at ericachapman.com.






pic credit: businessweek.com