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[FrickingKaos]

 back in my fanfiction.net days I believe the first story I posted was either a early version of Incomplete, where Brian and AJ try to sing Nick out of a coma. Either that or it was a BSB/NSYNC crossover, I wrote my own version of Survivor from the Outback season. I still have it written on paper, never reposted it anywhere.

[FrickingKaos]

I put my story Forces Of Nature on Hiatus, it's only eight chapters long and I was really into the stormchasing idea. I might need a second opinion.on it cause I'd actually like to make it less of a romance and more of a drama/,action. The characters and premise are kind of interesting and I wonder if I could make it better.

[RokofAges75]

It's a Frick & Frack story, actually.

Even better!

[Purpura Lipstick]

Has anyone else ever stopped writing or refrained from posting a story because someone else beat you to it and posted a story that seemed too similar?  If you don't mind sharing, what was the idea, and what was the story that stopped you?  I wonder how often this happens!

I actually had a zombie story forming for a brief amount of time before Song for the Dead went up but it was barely worked out and Rose and Julie with Zombies...lol no competition. Not saying I won't ever use zombies...lol 

[mare]

Has anyone else ever stopped writing or refrained from posting a story because someone else beat you to it and posted a story that seemed too similar?  If you don't mind sharing, what was the idea, and what was the story that stopped you?  I wonder how often this happens!

I don't think I've ever refrained from posting something. I would hope that even if a story idea was similar, my writing style and take on the actual idea would be different. Now, if I were to read a few chapters of the other story and see they were very similar, I would most likely make changes to mine but not hold off entirely mainly because it would drive me crazy if i did that!  LOL

I actually do enjoy reading similar plots just to see how different authors interpret the same idea. That's why I love this fairy tale challenge so far. There are four stories and as of right now, four totally different takes on the same exact storyline! I think that's so awesome to see!

[RokofAges75]

I actually had a zombie story forming for a brief amount of time before Song for the Dead went up but it was barely worked out and Rose and Julie with Zombies...lol no competition. Not saying I won't ever use zombies...lol 

Aww, I never knew that!  Well, it's not like we came up with the idea of dead people coming back to life and eating brains, so zombies are fair game.

[RokofAges75]

I don't think I've ever refrained from posting something. I would hope that even if a story idea was similar, my writing style and take on the actual idea would be different. Now, if I were to read a few chapters of the other story and see they were very similar, I would most likely make changes to mine but not hold off entirely mainly because it would drive me crazy if i did that!  LOL

I actually do enjoy reading similar plots just to see how different authors interpret the same idea. That's why I love this fairy tale challenge so far. There are four stories and as of right now, four totally different takes on the same exact storyline! I think that's so awesome to see!

I agree; it is interesting to see how completely different all of the fairy tales have been so far!

[RokofAges75]

I have only held off on writing (or at least developing) a story idea once because someone posted something similar.  It was Kelly with her story Fan Friction, which I can't even find on AC anymore, so now I'm wondering if she took it down because it was never finished.  Anyway, I don't remember all the details anymore, but it was a suspense that played on fan fiction.  I'd had a similar-sounding idea that was inspired by Signal to Noise way back in like 2001, but I'd never done anything with it - it was always just one of those ideas I'd had on the back burner to write someday.  I never had a solid outline for mine, but it was one of the ideas I was considering trying to tackle after I finished BMS.  If I'd gone ahead and written it, it probably would have been a lot different from Kelly's, but it's just as well that I didn't.

I remember Hannah started posting Something Beautiful four days after I started working on Curtain Call, and even though she didn't reveal it for awhile, I got that "cancer story" vibe about it right away and was like, "Are you kidding me?!"  But since SB and CC are like two polar opposite takes on the same basic premise, it worked out fine.  There was room for two cancer stories that summer (the more, the merrier!), and I enjoyed reading SB as much as I enjoyed writing CC.

[emilo]

There was a story being posted on the site around the same time that I was posting Falling in Love Again that felt oddly similar in some ways, though I felt there were enough differences to see that they were two totally independent story ideas.  It didn't hinder me from posting my own story, but I did find myself wondering once if people who were reading both saw the similarities and wondered if I'd taken her general idea or vice versa.  I agree with Mare in that I hope my writing style and my own spin on things would make mine stand out as original.  I LOVED the other story by the way.  I hope she finishes it someday!

[RokofAges75]

Have you ever worried that one of your stories was too similar to something that was posted before it, maybe even another story that helped inspire it?

I know I was worried about that with Broken, because it's never been any big secret that Swollen Issues is what inspired me to write Broken.  It's not like Swollen Issues was the first cancer story in the fandom - I'd read others, and I'd even written one before - but SI is the first one I remember reading that tackled that storyline really well, and that was what inspired me to want to write another.  That is where the whole choppage idea came about, actually, because I knew if I was going to do cancer, I had to find a way to make mine different.  I remember actually brainstorming types of cancer and going, "Hm, if I did bone cancer, he could lose a limb..." and there was the different direction I needed to set mine apart.

[Purpura Lipstick]

Aww, I never knew that!  Well, it's not like we came up with the idea of dead people coming back to life and eating brains, so zombies are fair game.

I have had so many other ideas I haven't even thought about that story until this question lol. B

[mare]

Have you ever worried that one of your stories was too similar to something that was posted before it, maybe even another story that helped inspire it?

I was a little worried about that for Mizpah mainly because no one knew me from a hole in the wall. I was really worried I was going to be accused of copying Ground Zero to the point that I almost didn't post it. It wasn't until I saw the other kidnapping stories like the two I mentioned somewhere up there, that I felt like it was okay to post because as long as it wasn't the same exact thing, it was all going to work out which it did, thankfully LOL

[RokofAges75]

I think the kidnapping plot is just one of those universal storylines that is so well-loved and can be taken in so many different directions, it doesn't matter how many of them there are.  As long as it's written well, that's a storyline I almost always enjoy reading.  The medical dramas and bus/car crash stories are like that for me too.  I don't care how many of them I've read; I'll always read another one if it's done well.

I think that's why I've found myself even recycling some of my own plots from old stories that were not done well, because I know I can put a fresh spin on the storyline and write it a lot better than I did 12-13 years ago.

[mare]

I think the kidnapping plot is just one of those universal storylines that is so well-loved and can be taken in so many different directions, it doesn't matter how many of them there are.  As long as it's written well, that's a storyline I almost always enjoy reading.  The medical dramas and bus/car crash stories are like that for me too.  I don't care how many of them I've read; I'll always read another one if it's done well.

I think that's why I've found myself even recycling some of my own plots from old stories that were not done well, because I know I can put a fresh spin on the storyline and write it a lot better than I did 12-13 years ago.

I know, I feel the same way. I'm always a sucker for a great kidnapping story depending on who is the kidnapped person etc...) Same with the bus crash and medical dramas. I haven't really seen a bus crash, trapped in the wilderness or good old fashioned Nick gets kidnapped story in a long time! So any takers, feel free! LOL Include all three in one, even better!

[RokofAges75]

So someone just needs to write a story where the Boys' bus gets hijacked, then crashes in the wildnerness, which turns into a survival story in which they're also trying to get away from the hijackers.  If anyone's looking for a new novel idea, take it, it's yours!