When you get a new idea for a fanfic, do you like to share it with someone or save it as a big surprise? Have you ever waited a little too long to post something that you thought was an incredibly original idea only to see that someone else suddenly posts an idea similar to yours before you get to? Would you scrap the idea or still go ahead and do it even if it meant people might think you were copying?
I almost always keep my ideas to myself. I like them to be a surprise. Sometimes I will tell one person, especially if I'm in need of an opinion before I decide whether to keep writing or post it. Sometimes I don't tell anyone.
I have definitely had that happen, where I hold on to an idea for too long and then someone posts a story that seems eerily similar. It's not like I come up with super original ideas, so it's not that tough to think up an idea that's similar to one of mine LOL. Usually, though, the other story turns out to be different enough that it ends up not seeming like much of a "threat" - that or it just gets abandoned and doesn't matter anymore.
This isn't fanfic, but for awhile it was happening with Lurlene McDaniel, who was my favorite author in middle school. When I was thinking of rewriting Broken as an original novel, she published one about a guy who loses his leg to bone cancer. And then when I was still in the early stages of Secrets of the Heart, which would be an easy one to novelize, she published one about cellular memory following a heart transplant. I was like, really, are you kidding me?! But I bought and read both books, and neither one was really that similar to my stories - and to be honest, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I liked both of mine better, so nyah!
