Advice needed. Similarities with another story

[DellaLu]

Hi all,

I had an idea for a story and have worked it out the last couple of months. The story was flowing out of my keyboard quite easily and nearly finished as I decided to lay it aside for a week before finishing it up with fresh eyes.

It involves a couple celebrating a 10 year anniversary and staying a weekend in a hotel where the female MC decides to run off with another guy and leave the male MC alone and devastated, only to come back to him the following morning.

Sounds familiar?

That was I was thinking when I encountered ‘February Sucks’ by GeorgeAnderson in that week.

After letting out a heartfelt ‘Fuck!’, I immediately thought of binning it. But the idea that a spouse has the audacity to cheat on her husband in such a blatant way captivates me so much that I keep coming back at this story.

My theme deviates from February Sucks after the female MC comes home, but in the build up, the similarities are eerie. I’ve tried to change the settings. A hotel instead of a club, the way the wife is leaving her husband etc. But I can only change so much and it doesn’t take away the similarities with February Sucks.

I also thought of turning it into the umpteenth version of ‘February Sucks’ after Linda comes home to Jim, but my story telling style is different than GeorgeAnderson, who (imho) told his story in a very good way. An alternate version of his story would be at least confusing in style. Or perhaps just confusing.

I can also finish the story, publish it, and have the scorn of Literotica poured over me for copying another idea, even if I put a disclaimer in it.

But now I don’t know what to do so here’s my question to you peeps. Should I

- Bite the Bullitt and kill my darling?
- Make it another “February Sucks version?
- Finish it and publish it with a disclaimer?
- Or something else?

Please advise me on this.
And for those wondering, I can take brutal honesty quite well.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

From what you write, I don't see why you'd bin it. It isn't "February Sucks," it's just a story with a similar setup. Write it.

 

[Spicylady22]

Definitely write it. It will have your own style and will be unique. No need for a disclaimer.

 

[sijopunk]

Keep going. I am working on two projects right now, and sent myself into spirals on both of them when someone posted a similar project they're working on. MelissaBaby's thread about a satire that was almost exactly the same plot as one I'm working on for an October event had me about thirty seconds away from quitting writing forever.

@old_prof and I have had this exact discussion over the past weeks a couple of times now, and I'll share the conclusions we came to.

You're going to write it differently than anyone else. It's going to have your focus, your perspective, and your spin. If you're skilled enough as a writer, it will have your own voice, too.

Rest assured, none of us are really going to be all that original. Lit gets hundreds of stories a day, and has for 25 years. None of us are writing something no one's ever seen before except in how we write it.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'd go ahead. It doesn't sound like the points of similarity are sufficiently detailed that the author of February Sucks could claim to own them. Also, you didn't lift your story from that one. They just happen to be similar.

Just make sure the details, names, and setting are different, and publish your story.

 

[Lifestyle66]

How many different ways can the story of two young lovers being pulled apart by their family dynamics be told? Try counting the number of Romeo &Juliett variations.

Almost EVERY story has already been written in one form or another. But authors continue to crank out their own variations, with many authors thinking theirs is special, unique, or drastically different.

So, write your story your way.

 

[Ianus4]

FebSux is starting to feel less like a blues song and more like a blues riff, the kind that pops up in every blues musician’s set list, and something everyone’s actually proud of.

 

[old_prof]

Since @sijopunk brought me in, we were having this discussion not only because two of her stories are also being written by someone else, the same thing just happened to me. A few weeks ago, I got together for lunch with a friend (recently retired professor who is writing as a retirement hobby). I hadn't seen him since December. We had both started new novels since we had last talked, neither of us mentioning what we were writing to the other (I'm not sure either of us knew the other had started writing something new). Both are sci-fi (not surprising, we were both working on sci-fi novels in December). But both were about modern day scientists discovering evidence of intelligent dinosaurs near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Each of us are writing it as alternating chapters between modern day and 65 million years ago. Oddly similar. But as we talked more, almost everything else about the stories are different.

I'm not worried about it. But very bemused.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

You can't write a story that hasn't been written before. I say lean in. Have the characters say things like "February sucks" to each other. Think about the contrasts and comparisons as you brainstorm details. Leave Easter eggs for the fans. Even if no one else appreciates it, you can have fun.

I wrote a story that began as a parody of Fifty Shades. Instead of "Christian Grey" I had "Shiva Black." Et cetera. IDK if anyone noticed it or cared, but I enjoyed myself as long as I could.

 

[shelleycat1]

Since @sijopunk brought me in, we were having this discussion not only because two of her stories are also being written by someone else, the same thing just happened to me. A few weeks ago, I got together for lunch with a friend (recently retired professor who is writing as a retirement hobby). I hadn't seen him since December. We had both started new novels since we had last talked, neither of us mentioning what we were writing to the other (I'm not sure either of us knew the other had started writing something new). Both are sci-fi (not surprising, we were both working on sci-fi novels in December). But both were about modern day scientists discovering evidence of intelligent dinosaurs near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Each of us are writing it as alternating chapters between modern day and 65 million years ago. Oddly similar. But as we talked more, almost everything else about the stories are different.

I'm not worried about it. But very bemused.

So what might be left from a civilisation after 65My that we might recognise? Steel, Ceramics, Plastics. Did the dinos ever use any oil, did they ever run a reactor leaving out of balance isotoped? Will we find an ancient coal-ash heap? Your story sounds like fun.

 

[DellaLu]

Thank you all for your kind replies and suggestions.
I'll finish the story

 

[lovecraft68]

First off, there are a lot of similar stories out there as far as premise, its how you write it that makes yours different and why you should always write them. Its simply you putting your spin on an existing trope.

Disclaimer: Be warned, if the story ends in a similar way to February Sucks, a bunch of man babies might rewrite it without your permission.

 

[SkyBubble]

How many different ways can the story of two young lovers being pulled apart by their family dynamics be told? Try counting the number of Romeo &Juliett variations.

There was a time when 90% of the musicals on Broadway were boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. Every one told differently. Many of them classics.

Look at "the Hero's Journey" in mythology, which even Tolkien used in The Lord of the Rings. And while each is the same basic plot, or at least plot outline, each is a very different story.

There are very few plots and a virtually infinite number of ways of telling them. Tell it your way.

 

[Andreas_Kreuz]

I actually love the idea of stories that share similarities on the surface. I would put a disclaimer and a link, so I can read both.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thank you all for your kind replies and suggestions.
I'll finish the story

Good call!

I'll share a personal experience dealing with this issue. In May 2017 I published a story, Late Night on the Loveseat with Mom, an I/T story. Just as I was about to publish it, I thought I'd check if anyone had done something similar recently. Lo and behold, I found out that there was an ongoing series called "On The Love Seat," another Mom-son story with similarities in plot ideas and a very similar idea. I thought, "Well, shit." I didn't write my story with that story in mind; I didn't know about it until my story was done. I briefly had misgivings about publishing it, but I liked my title so much and liked the story enough that I submitted it. And I'm glad I did, because it was my all-time most popular story. And despite the very generalized similarities, none of them were proprietary, and I knew in my heart that I hadn't plagiarized because I had never seen that story when I wrote mine.

Trust your judgment. If you know in your heart that you're not ripping off the proprietary, unique elements of another story, don't worry about the similarities. They're not enough to worry about. The Site ownership isn't going to give you a problem, and it's unlikely the author of the other story has anything real to complain about, and probably won't.

 

[TheLobster]

Since everyone has already shared good advice to the OP, I'll just say that I find it extremely amusing that "February Sucks" is apparently such an iconic piece of literature that you can say a different story uses its framework and be perfectly understood among Lit(arary) critics.

It's kind of like if you had said, in a more mainstream company, that something is a retelling of Romeo and Julliette, as of course everyone would instantly know what you mean.