TV show has the basis of my story... poopy

[Darth_Biomech]

"A weathered veteran adopts a child" is a ridiculously generic plot description. That's not nearly enough to accuse somebody of plagiarizing (though haters will definitely try). You shouldn't be put off by that.

But this sort of stuff happened to me before: I listened to a musical track that inspired me a story about a post-apocalyptic future where people had reverted to a medieval society, and the main hero is a young woman priest whose town is under an attack by raiders, she flees into some old ruins and she accidentally awakens an ancient AI war robot that begins protecting her village with the overwhelming power of cutting edge 21st-century level technology against bows and spears.
Just a couple of months afterward, I read about some American comic going to print its third volume. That comic's plot? A story about a post-apocalyptic future where people had reverted to a medieval society, and the main hero is a young woman priest who escapes from her raider captors, she flees into some old ruins and she accidentally awakens an ancient AI war robot that begins protecting her village with the overwhelming power of cutting edge 21st-century level technology against bows and spears.

Now that's a level of similarity that nobody is going to believe you haven't plagiarized no matter how hard you try. So I abandoned the project pretty much the instant I learned about that damn comic.

[therosesword]

Well, I didn't say anything about plagiarizing anything for my story... copying and plagiarizing are not really the same thing. Just that I had a story that had a popular story line right now. The problem being, though, is you never know what's going to be popular or not.

As to your situation... that must have been a killer. So sorry that happened to you.

[Darth_Biomech]

Just that I had a story that had a popular story line right now.

But if it's not accusation of plagiarism you're afraid of, then that's... good, isn't it? It means your project will be in the popular stream, getting attention from the potential viewers.

[therosesword]

Oh, I'm not afraid of anything like that (being accused of plagiarism) I just hate it when my timing is off, LOL

[WillowTree]

If anything your timing is 'on.' Posting things that are currently popular is a good thing! It means more people are actively looking for things like The Witcher and The Mandalorian and then they'll hopefully find your work as well

[therosesword]

Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that. Thank you!

[milejdyvan]

There is no way you can be 100% original at this point. Literature has existed since looooooong before and pretty much everything has already been written. That doesn't mean you can't write literature though. The best we can do with so many centuries of literature before us is to try and be unique, timely, and exploiting new ways of writing to be original. I feel like that is the top thing I want to try with my series at least, but I don't look at the details like "my character is an orphan, therefore, I am ripping off other stories with orphans as main leads' just as example... Looking at literature like that would mean that nobody would be allowed to write. Plus, inspiration does not equal ripping off, even IF you are basing it off something (which in your case you said it was a coincidence anyway).

One of my favorite examples of this is Hunter X Hunter the anime/manga... Now I'm not saying they rip off anything, I mean obviously not, but it is a shounen Manga. Now we all know what a shounen Manga is, right? They are kind of similar in theme but that doesn't mean they rip each other off. But HxH has a very bland look to it from the start. When you start reading, you literally think to yourself "i've seen this a hundred times before" but I believe it was done on purpose by the author as quite quickly you realize while reading just how wrong you are with your assumption. It seems to me like the writer does everything in his power to "deconstruct" the shounen formula. (for example, the main character changing into a bloodthirsty monster, while the monstrous villain turns into a sympathetic guy, also, please watch HxH, it's the best show ever)

And the reason why I talk about that is just to show that that's how you make good writing nowadays. You don't (because you can't) create original ideas, but the best you can do is "deconstruct" established ideas and make it your own. Hope this helps at least somewhat. Even if it's long, I'm just writing all this because I really don't agree with the whole plagiarism in many cases in story-telling (unless the evidence is too overwhelming of course) and what you describe seems to be as an innocent coincidence, and instead of wanting to change what you write, I suggest expanding on it and make it your own. I do suggest looking into the stories that you found as similar to yours further though, just to help you expand on them too.

[therosesword]

Thank you, um i've been writing for a long long time (12 years staff writer with an audio drama company - four years ecolumnist, book, plays, etc. even taught a few seminars.) I'm aware of non original stuff... but, there's no way that you could know that.

Thank you for taking the time to write your response, I have read it and I appreciate it.

[domisotto]

Someone told me that my idea for a story beginning has huge similarity to Lucifer TV show I didn’t watch. It surprised me none because it’s not like angle-demon body swap even pretends to be original.

I put it on the back burner for now, hopefully it wouldn’t feel too soon forever.

The other time, I had undead coming to help during the battle on a frozen ice-lake, and people remembered Martin. I like, replaced blue glow with white flow and crossed my fingers.

[lynestjules]

It's very common to have a story be similar to a movie, book or tv show. People will say what they want about the subject, but as long as it's not word for word and it's still an original piece of content that came out of your head, it's all good.
I've had a couple of people tell me that I ripped off Frozen.
I started writing my series 20 years ago or so. I saw Frozen and it's a good movie, but it's not at all the same. Clearly these people never actually read my series. The only common thing is I have a character that's a princess who wears a blue dress and powers that control the Winter elements. But, she is no Elsa.

[therosesword]

Obviously it's the blue dress, what else could it be? Blue dresses, the bane of many women's existence.

[milejdyvan]

Honestly, talking about such similarities, my story has been called a My Hero Academia rip off 🤣 well let me examine the similarities...

1. There is an academy for supernatural kids
   2.....
   3....
   4....

Yeah, I haven't really figured out how that works out just yet 🤦🏼‍♀️ as if MHA created the idea that stories can be written in an academy with supernatural kids. My story barely even focuses on school life anyway, while MHA is pretty much all about that.

[therosesword]

There are the Septimus Heap books too

[milejdyvan]

I have not heard of those, but yes, there are many stories with this idea 🤣 my plan is to deconstruct it to the best of my ability tho.

[therosesword]

Not into deconstructing, only into moving forward

[Lunar-Turtle]

If I remember correctly there is only a certain set of story types, it was around 10, maybe, I don't know. No story is original and is based on things that came before. My own story was heavily based on things that I grew up with and affected me as a person. No one will accuse you of stealing ideas, just because you have a certain story archetype. It's not about the story idea, but how you use it and execution. So no stress.

[ble]

If you're talking about the main character adopting someone, not only the examples already mentioned, but even Batman adopted Robin, so yeah is a very know trope, I don't see the problem.

Most stories are good guys beat the bad guy, the two main characters fall in love after a while, etc, etc. What makes the stories stand up, It's their own take, like character design/development, dialogue, world, etc, that make stories different.

[therosesword]

totally forgot about batman! lol. I guess I should have put this as a rant rather than a concern. I knew I didn't have anything new (there is nothing new and most things remind people of something else) . thanks for the boost.

[Llyrel]

Oh my, I feel you.

If I had a penny for every time I came up with a story idea only to find out years later that it had already been done by someone else, I'd probably be rich by now :'D heck, I still can't get over the fact that one of the bad guys in my story (which I've been writing since 2015) is pretty much the lost twin of Lord Viren from The Dragon Prince (2018): same face, same haircut, same beard, same colors, both have a name that ends in -en, heck, the two have a lot in common even as far as their attitude goes. Okay, they're not exactly the same, buuuuut... I'm still kinda shocked, lol.

So yep, as other people said... this kind of stuff happens a lot. Sadly, coming up with 100% original ideas is pretty much impossible, at this point. The good news, however, is that you're hardly going to meet someone who will accuse you of "stealing" a well-established trope. Well, unless we're talking about haters, but as others have pointed out, haters will find just about any excuse to hate on stuff, so it's not like not using a certain trope is going to do much to prevent hate. Also, as previous posters said, it's your take on the story that differentiates it from other works, so even if there are a few traits in common with other works, the way you're developing your own plot is what counts the most

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I am fine. Thank you.
I am not angry or anything, this is how I talk.