169. Uh oh ... doesn't that sound like ...

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

I'm sure this has happened to every writer at some point. Last night, I began to read my latest book review assignment for the ERRW site, and a few pages in I stopped reading. Not because the story was bad, but because the more I read, the more I saw the eerie similarities between this book and my current WIP. I'd never seen this book before, and I had just opened it to read for the first time last night. I continued reading, and I'm about ten pages in of about 125 for this book. Just from the little I've read the plot is similar, but there are little unique differences to each story. Mine is more internal, and this story seems to depend more on external descriptions than I do. As I read on, the story is really good and well written. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it. See if it keeps up this pace it started at.

However, now I'm playing the what-if game with my own WIP. What if the story I'm writing is too similar to the one that I'm reading? Will this hurt the stories changes at selling? Does my story measure up to the one I'm reading? All these doubts began to fill my mind, and I'm only ten pages into the book I'm reading! Yes, plots are reused over and over. It is up to the writer to make their story stand out and be unique when it comes to how it stacks up to others.

I thought I had an original idea. When I mentioned my idea for my paranormal to others, they all loved it. I'm loving the writing of the story. The basic premise if you recall is a man moves into his new home to find out its haunted by a ghost. Turns out the ghost is a past lover of his in a past life. Things get hot and steamy in some dreams he has, and the ghost basically takes over his every waking thought. I'm hoping this is slightly different from the book I'm currently reading. Yes, I know I can target another publisher when it is complete, and the story can stand on its own. I guess I'm now just a bit worried when it comes to the story. I didn't even work on my WIP like I planned to last night because the similarity threw me off a bit. I'll have to continue reading and see what happens. I'm just playing the doubting diva now, and I hate that. Anyone out there have any thoughts or advice?

In other news, last night I did end up watching and reviewing the new NBC show, Surface. You can check that out on my review blog here. Tonight we have Bones (FOX) and Supernatural (WB) with their second episodes. I'll be watching those. ABC also has the Dancing with the Stars dance-off. I watched and reviewed this show over the summer for blogcritics, so I'll check in, but I probably won't watch the whole thing. The way this was done it almost feels like they set it up this way. If John wins, I definitely would feel that way even more. A ratings ploy by the network when the ABC network doesn't really need it. They have two of the most popular shows on television with Lost and Desperate Housewives. I guess we'll see what happens. I really didn't like the results of the show when it aired. Top that with my other regular weekly review of the Real World: Austin, and I have a busy night ahead of me.

I hope you're all well. I'm off to blog hop now. Have a great day everyone!