Mar 11 2009
All the good stuff is taken *pout*
Tell me, have you ever heard of this story line before: A man sees the future only when he touches another person. He begins wearing gloves, covering up, so that he doesn’t have to flash on people. He meets a woman, falls in love with her, but is torn between telling her his secret and keeping it to himself.
I hadn’t heard of this story line before, until I started writing it down for the short story contest . I thought it was pretty clever, and I was really enjoying it. Then, I read it to Turk.
“Sounds a lot like the show Dead Zone,” he said.
I have never ever seen Dead Zone.
Maybe, I thought, It’s just sort of similar to Dead Zone and I’ll be able to get away with keeping it the way I have it.
I kept writing, loving my characters, trying to figure out twists. I ran the story by my dad, who is really good at coming up with cool movie or story ideas.
“That sounds a lot like the show Dead Zone,” he said.
Damnit!
Now, I have to change a lot of stuff in a very short amount of time. Why is it that I think up stories and they have already been done? I swear to you, I have never seen a second of Dead Zone, let alone a preview for the show.
This isn’t the first time this has happened.
For the last contest, I wrote a story about a man with a crappy life who goes to see his therapist. The therapist isn’t really a therapist in the traditional sense, and ends up sending him back to fix his past lives. He does so, and there are a couple little surprises along the way. Again, I thought it was pretty clever.
I kid you not, a week after finishing and submitting my story, I was watching CBC (Canada station) and saw a trailer for a new show called Being Erica. Essentially, Erica goes to see a therapist to deal with issues in her life. Her therapist sends her to revisit parts of her past, not past lives, mind you, but her own past, to help her deal with the now.
Different enough from my story, but still, WTF?!
I’m beginning to become convinced that every story line has been used. I need to create a whole entire new box to think out of… Grrrrrr!
Just have to put a unique spin on them I reckon.
By the way, love the new flower on your blog!
Awww, was that the Ryan & Heather story? It seriously sounds so good. I’ve never heard of the Dead Zone. I think it’s an awesome concept & one I never would’ve come up with!
Hey, the TV show the Dead Zone is actually based off of a Stephen King story. Since you had only mentioned the TV series I thought I’d mention the origin. The story was also made into a movie starring Christopher Walken a while back. I just thought you might wanna check them out.
I had no idea it was a Steven King story, thanks for the info!
Yep, Heather, it’s your story. I am determined to figure something else out.
Angel- Yeah, you’re definitely right, there has to be a new spin… (Thanks for the flower compliment!)
I feel your pain!! I started a book back in the fall with the main character as the daughter of death. Then bam, six chapters in I came across a brand new book by Amber Benson called…. you guessed it: “Death’s Daughter”. Grrr.. So I’m off on another idea. Try, try again right?
KeriJ
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