A pox on Nail Gaiman

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

And a minor hex on Terry Pratchett while I’m at it.
About three years ago, I started writing a story. Normally I write short stories; very short ones. But this one, judging by the amount of material in my head, looked like it could be at least a novella, if I really worked at it. I wrote in my free time, which was increasingly sparse, so progress was very slow. I still only have just a few pages written out. The vast majority of it is still in my head.

My story was about gods, no longer believed in, living on Earth. Zeus, Odin, Anubis, etc… I got great feedback from my friends and my writing group, so I had high hopes for the story.

Several months ago, I read Pratchett’s Small Gods. Great story, but I got nervous, because there were very strong similarities between that and my story in progress. It was OK, though. My story was fundamentally different from that, so I figured I was still good.

Now, just the other day, I decided to use my Barnes & Noble gift certicicate. I browsed the web site, looking for some books to get. I clicked one of the We Recommend links, and up pops American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. I recognized both the author and book, though I didn’t know anything about either except that they’re supposedly excellent.

I nearly broke into tears when I read the book’s description. It’s essentially exactly like my premise… I know you have to expect this kind of thing–someone else coming up with the same idea before you get it out–but still… Not only is it just like my story, but it’s by an incredibly popular author. If I were to finish my story and try to get it published, it’d just look like a cheap rip-off.

It was one of the rare creative projects of mine that I was very likely going to finish for once, and now there doesn’t seem to be a point anymore.
I ended up ordering the book. After all, it is supposed to be great…
What do you think? Should I read it now and try to make sure my story won’t be the same thing? Should I finish my story first (however long that takes) and compare it to American Gods afterwards? Or should I just scrap my story entirely and stick to drawing instead?

2

In Neil Gaiman’s blog, he described a time where he has this great idea for a book that was "all about the gods and the days of the week. I chewed it and played with it and was terribly happy with it… And then the penny dropped, and I realised, gloomily, that I’d managed, working back from first principles, to come up with a wonderful structure for a story – but one that Diana [Wynne Jones] had already used, in her brilliant “8 Days of Luke.” (Link to the entry is here (scroll down a bit): http://www.neilgaiman.com/archive/2001_09_01_archive.asp)

So it happened to him, too. I think you should go for it and finish your story. It might be radically different from Neil Gaiman’s work, just like American Gods is different from Small Gods, despite the fact that both deal with what happens to gods when people stop believing in them.

3

I say finish your book, then read it, and see where the similarities lie. I mean, honestly, how many original vampire books are there out there? If your story’s original, it will show. If it comes off way too similar, then reinvent your story if it’s something you really want to write about. But, by finishing your story first, you can make sure you don’t come up with anymore similarities that wouldn’t otherwise be there (you know, you may come up with an idea in your head and forget that you actually read it…by finishing your book first, you’re sure that all similarities are just coincidence).

4

Some years ago, Arthur C. Clarke and Charles Sheffield both came out with new novels, almost simultaneously. The premise of the Sheffield was a famous engineer who’d been commissioned to build a “skyhook” or “beanstalk” – something linking Earth’s surface with the geosynchronous orbit. To build the beanstalk, he invented a gadget called a “spider” which climbed upwards laying monofilament behind it.

In contrast, the Clarke novel was about a famous engineer who’d been commissioned to build a “skyhook” or “beanstalk” – something linking Earth’s surface with the geosynchronous orbit. To build the beanstalk, he invented a gadget called a “spider” which climbed upwards laying monofilament behind it.

Coincidences of plot do happen. For years, Barb and I worked sporadically on a novel about the rescue of humanity when the Sun goes nova. Then Stanley Schmidt came out with the same plot. Our Twilight on Terra went into the trash can shortly thereafter.

But avoid writing a short story entitled “The Anticipator”! :wink:

5

Back in college, my friend and I cowrote an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation which were going to submit. Then we saw almost the exact story on one of the episodes.

What really sucks is that the idea was good enough for an episdoe, we just didn’t get to write it.

Keep writing, that’s the writer’s creed.

6

Douglas Adams in one of the Dirk Gently books has used a similar theme as well, with Thor and Odin still wandering on earth.

7

And then there´s Tom Holt´s “Ye Gods!”, also quite different from the others…

Hey, on the bright side, if your story really is similar to Gaiman´s, you can consider yourself at a level with one of the wittiest authors around :wink:

8

I was going to mention “Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul” (1991) but Dragon Phoenix beat me to it. There are tons of books about the modern life of mythological gods (indeed, “American Gods” wasn’t the first time Gaiman dealt with it – several poped up in his Sandman comic book series, and Mike Carey’s Sandman spin-off Lucifer is all about, well, you can figure it out). So my advice is to 1) resign yourself to the fact that you’re nowhere near the first person to come up with the idea, and 2) realize that you can write a hell of a book about this despite the fact that you’re not the first. After all – Gaiman wasn’t the first either, and American Gods was great.

–Cliffy

9

Thanks everyone for your support. I guess it happens a lot more frequently than I thought. I think I’ll take El Elvis Rojo’s advice and finish my story before reading American Gods (even if that means hiding it somewhere for a few years).

Thanks again for convincing me to keep on with it. Maybe I’ll let you all get a sneak preview when it’s all finished. :wink: