My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
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Copyright © 2012 The Office of Letters and Light :: All posted novel excerpts remain copyright their authors.
My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
Not the characters, or the plot--just the premise. But the premise is SO SIMILAR. I started with this image of someone turning a coin over his fingers and ended up with a "god" called Coin who gives money-producing coins to people, and when they lose the coins he requires a sacrifice (which he conveniently doesn't tell them until they lose it). He's an idol by the universe's definition--the universe has God in it. But these idols are created by people trusting them with their happiness, and then they basically go around pretending to be gods and demanding human sacrifice Because They Can. I have no idea where this is going, except that I'm pretty sure this girl Beatrice is at the center somehow and that it's RIPPING OFF AMERICAN GODS AND I DON'T LIKE IT. >:(
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
I don't understand what you mean by 'ripping off American gods'. Can you explain?
It sounds like an interesting story, though.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, is about a war between the old pagan gods and the new gods, which are the things people "worship"--sacrifice their time and energy to. TV, computers, cars, etc. These new gods are created by people worshiping them, like in my story. The rest of the stories are different, from what I've read of AG, but their premises are really similar, which I didn't intend to happen.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
So?
I can guarantee you it won't be identical. Similar stories happen all the time... and it doesn't matter. If your story's good enough, and different enough, it'll be fine. The fact that it has a couple of similar tropes doesn't mean it's identical or that you're ripping off.
Look at the plots of Avatar and Dances with Wolves sometimes. Same plot, completely different executions.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
I did a blog post a while back about exactly this after seeing so many people say about the same thing around here :) (http://jessicadall.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/accidental-plagiarism/) I'm sure you can find plenty of encouragement on the other posts too.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
Same here, I came up with an idea of the ancient gods living in our modern world, and even thought of some new gods, and then I heard about American Gods that had just come out and I was in the same position as you. Thinking should I continue or just stop. I did stop, and I feel I made a mistake. Go for it. Continue with the story. It will not be the same as American Gods, I mean look at all that vampire stuff thats come out in the last few years.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
Look at Gods Behaving Badly. It's another book with the same premise. There's more than just American Gods that uses that premise. There's really no original premises any more it seems.
Re: My latest story is ripping off American Gods.
That's a very common theme, as far as I understand. Douglas Adams wrote The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul a while before American Gods was written, and it has more or less the same theme.
If your general plot and your characters are different, I'm sure you can make it work.