People can become extremely tired of reading the same story repeatedly.
This leads authors to err on the side of caution and stay away from storylines that closely resemble other stories.
This can be especially true if the story in question is extremely popular.
The idea is not dead
The greatest thing about having a creative mind is also having the ability to be different. Just because your idea may seem like one that’s already been written doesn’t mean that you can’t put your own personal flair on it. What makes a story isn’t the initial idea, but the authors perception of that idea.
For instance, I could read stories about dystopian worlds until I take my last breath. They all have the same basic idea, but each writer is able to make their world different from the others just by writing the story themselves. Many book lovers will agree that there should be more books written in the genres that they like – this is especially true for me and dystopian novels.
This same scenario applies to books of other genres as well. One topic that is seen as being overdone is vampires. The love for vampires has been around for ages, but sometime between 2000 and 2010, the love took a sharp turn. The truth is that vampires are still loved by many and it is up to the writer to make the reader fall in love with them again.
The only thing that keeps you from writing your story is your own self-deprecation. The key to moving forward after finding yourself trying to walk in shoes that are much too big is to stop comparing your writing to others. It is true that writers must read to learn, but we must not attempt to become anyone other than ourselves.
Write your story
Writing can be extremely difficult once you have lost your sense of originality. I personally have experience with this as I have wanted to, and even attempted to start, a novel based in a magical world that begins around a school. At first, The Idea seemed overwhelming, being compared to an author who has sold over 450 million copies of her book.
The only thing you can do after this realization is to move forward. You can move on to your next idea or you can continue trying to work on your current one. (I chose to move on, but the idea is still on the backburner). If your story is too much like another you risk running into legal problems. However, unless you copy the book word for word, this shouldn’t be an issue.
The point of this post is to let you know that the world would be seriously lacking in literature if every writer were too afraid to step on the toes of famous authors.
