Someone stole my story

I've had a story idea in mind for a while now. And then I saw in the paper that someone recently published a book with the very same premise. So, what do I do? 'Cause I really wanted to write this story. I'm thinking I might do it anyway - just make sure I don't read the published version so I won't be influenced by it. It would be interesting to see how different the two stories end up being. And it doesn't bother me that it's already published, because I don't really have dreams of publishing my version outside of a very small circle of friends and family, to whom I could explain that I DID NOT plagarize. But still, I worry that it will look like I'm not being original, or that I'm just copying someone else. Or worse, what if my version isn't as good? (On the other hand, what if it's better?) I just feel bad that someone beat me to it. I really wanted to write it and make it my own.

Any thoughts,

Is Twilight the original vampire love story?

Anything you write will not be like the other book.

There are only a few basic plots, the difference is how they are told and who tells it.

Don't worry about it and write your story.

Writer's Digest has a writer's contest every month where the first sentence is provided. Every entry is different. Totally different.

I could tell 500 people to write a story about a wizard school, and they will all be different. And a bunch of them would get published without more than a brief reference to Harry Potter.

All of Nano could read my synopsis and not one of the versions others would write would be like mine.

So don't worry about it and write your story.

If you'll feel better by not reading the other story, fine.
Read it after you write yours and see how different they are.

Hope this helps,

In my first Nano - 2009, I created a whole world around the concept of spices... days of the week had been renamed and were related to spices, jobs were related to spices, names were related to spices, architecture was spice-based... you get the picture.

In January of 2010, Jasper Fforde's next book came out.. not a Thursday Next, as I'd expected.. but a book called Shades of Gray. The whole world revolved around color... one's position in society, one's name, one's job ... you get the picture.

I was devastated, and felt compelled to point out to those who were reading my Nano, that I'd come up with my idea, on my own.. that there had been no advance information about Fforde's book -- I had not even known in October that he was coming out with a new one. (unfortunately, most didn't know who Fforde was, more's the pity)

IF I went to a publisher, might the publisher be concerned about timing.. and consider my efforts to be a cheap copycat of Fforde's work? Maybe. Is that the reason I haven't edited/polished/gone to a publisher with - my 2009 Nano? Nope.

I understand your feelings -- but if the story is inside you, and begging to be written -- well, ya gotta let it out!
You know you're not plagiarizing... Be true to your inner self, and the rest of the world be damned.

Go ahead and write it. Just because the premise is the same doesn't mean that what you do will be the same.

If you did a one paragraph summary of all the stories written in the world, you would find that there aren't that many core stories. Various authors have said that there are from three to twenty some odd stories out there and 'all' stories are based on those.

Yes, just go ahead and write it.

My grandmother told a story about something that happened to her in the 1920s in Eastern Europe. It was a wonderfully amusing story and she told it often at family gatherings, I'm sure it was somewhat embellished with each telling. In the late 60s, maybe early 70s, I read Richard Brautigan's short story "The Revenge of the Lawn' and the first part of the story correlated exactly with what had happened to my grandmother decades earlier. Brautigan's story took place during Prohibition in this country. I couldn't help but wonder if Brautiogan hadn't sat next to my grandmother on a bus and heard the story from her although Granny's hold one the English language was very slim. But as others have mentioned, there are few original stories. The interesting thing was that my grandmother actually experienced the event a good decade before Brautigan's fictional character did and about 4 decades before Brautigan wrote it.

Thanks everyone. DancingFool, you came the closest to capturing my feelings. It's MY idea, but someone beat me to it, and now I'm left trying to explain how exactly I didn't get the idea from someone else. I know my story will be different. For one, he gives his character five years to accomplish what my character will need to do in less than a month. So already we're on slightly different tracks. But the result is nearly the same, and that's what bothers me. Still, with the encouragement of people I trust - fellow NaNoers, I'm still going to try it. Somewhere in my bag of writing quotes is someone saying if you just write what you feel like writing and don't worry about what's been done before, you'll be original. I've said that to other writers, so now I guess it's my turn to se if I really believe it.

There is nothing new under the sun.