Re: Book recognising as something else?
- From: jd <jonathan.c.dalton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:07:54 -0700
On 12 Jun, 06:34, "R.L." <see-...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:29:56 -0700, jd wrote:
Hi all,
I'm approaching 60,000 words of a first draft, approaching 2/3 of the
way through I'm guessing, and I've reached a relatively new
development. It's good stuff, what I'm writing, but this new
development has struck me with some similarities to a book I read a
while back. Not in terms of plot really, or even where the book is
headed, but a situation has developed where there are a group of
characters who have vaguely similar personalities to another book that
I won't mention. There's someone who's a wisecracker, a woman, a
child, and a leader - a combination that reminds me of this other book
that I've read.
Now maybe that combination isn't that rare really, if so, then I'm OK.
And certainly the character motivations are different from this other
book (they're not all friends in my novel, for instance), but I can't
get this similarity out of my head. I'm just wondering if anyone else
has experiences like this, where they suddenly think, 'this looks a
bit like X', despite the reasons you can list why it's not like that,
and what you do about it. Do you carry on writing, trusting to
yourself that you're just paying the price of reading widely and being
influenced by good novels, or do you do something else?
I'm really enjoying the interactions between these characters, but any
time the joker cracks a joke, for instance, a little bit of me thinks,
'that's kind of like that other character in that other book...' even
though, behind his jokes, he's got darker motives (which is not in the
other book I'm thinking of) that are developing into a major plot
point. Or every time the hero, for want of a better word, feels close
to the child, I start thinking - well, it's developing into an almost
parental relationship here, which is similar to X book...
Basically I'm wondering - is this the natural side product of being
influenced by your reading, or something you need to cut off as soon
as you notice it?
For most people, cutting off something your process is giving you is a bad
move. (Some would describe it as 'insulting the muse'.)
A very common piece of advice is to go ahead and finish, get all the way to
the end of the story, before worrying about ANYTHING. Even if it gets rough
and sketchy in places. Most people find it easier to correct a 'rough
draft' than to deal with blank pages.
As for something reminding you of another book, you might, after finishing
some halfway readable version of yours, give it out to some test readers
and see if any of them complain about a resemblance, or even notice one.
R.L.
--
dela...@xxxxxxxxx works, emails welcomehttp://houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com/
Thank you!
You guys are great for my confidence, I feel a lot better after
reading your replies :) I do tend to worry about things and get
anxious - just an aspect of my personality that's developed recently -
so, it's great to read such encouragement. And, 60,000 words is an
achievement, I agree, especially since it's my first real attempt at a
novel and I started just under two months ago. I've really been taking
the approach 'write, and don't stop', then once I've said whatever it
is I want to say, then go back and rework it.
So thanks again, and I'm well aware of the dangers of having a woman
in the story. Pretty cliche. Tee hee.
Jon
.
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