"Borrowing" Ideas...

[Don]

I'm sure this happens all the time..  I came up with what I thought was an original idea, but somebody had beat me to it.  Nothing is new under the sun, and all that jazz.

I'll probably never get around to writing it, but I had an idea for a novel that blended contemporary urban fantasy with sword and horse through the simple expedient of introducing something I've been calling "the Shadow".  It came upon humanity as a surprise, and nobody (it seems) really know what caused it, why it happened, or how to reverse it.

The Shadow is some substance that had flooded the earth that caused a complete arrest of not only technology, radio waves, electricity, etc... but also combustion itself (happily taking guns out of the equation, as well).  This is just a plot device, though.  The world-building, the characters, and the messages would all be my own.

The problem is that the idea isn't so original.  The show "Revolution" is using the same idea, but I've been told that an author named S.M. Sterling had published a novel using that very same idea in 2004.  I haven't read it, and I don't want to for fear of it having an influence over me if and when I do decide to write this thing.

Which leads me to my question:  If I did write a novel using this idea as a major plot device, and I put my own spin on things to make it a unique story, would I then be able to submit it to agents without those agents rejecting it outright because of a "stolen" idea?  I've read enough Butcher to understand that borrowing ideas is part of the craft... *cough*Pokemon*cough*...  but this seems to me to be more significant than that. 

I don't know why I'm worrying about it.  I'll probably never get around to it, and even if I do finish it, I don't really stand a chance at getting published.  I have about /zero/ fiction writing experience.  If I do this, it'll just be something that I do for myself (and maybe I can force it upon a few of my closer friends).  I have free time, I'm leaning towards getting serious about time management and actually giving this a serious go..

Thoughts?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Difficult one.

I think in your situation, I would feel I should read the Stirling and watch the TV series, to see what they do and how they do it, and to get a handle on how what I wanted to do was distinct.  (If it was distinct enough; I have abandoned projects because the precise things I wanted to do with them were done enough better by other authors that there didn't seem any point.  But I have read enough S.M. Stirling to be very confident that the political landscape of any setting I wrote in would be quite different from something of his.) 

No matter where what you did stands in relation to those works, they'd be the points of comparison that readers of your work are most likely to have.  I don't think you could avoid being compared to them in reviews.  I think it's quite possible you could come up with a worthwhile different spin on the idea; I don't want to think too much about it in case I come up with one of my own, because I have too many projects already.

Also, if your Shadow stops electricity, why does a human nervous system still work under its influence ?

[LizW65]

I'd go ahead and write it and THEN read/watch the other media. Don't worry about it being potentially sellable; if its a story you really want to tell you should just do it. You can go always go back and change some things if it turns out to be too derivative.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'd go ahead and write it and THEN read/watch the other media. Don't worry about it being potentially sellable; if its a story you really want to tell you should just do it. You can go always go back and change some things if it turns out to be too derivative.

If you're the kind of writer who can go back and change elements in a finished work at that scale, then that sounds workable.  I'm pretty much not, myself, and I do not generally find I have to worry about other people's visions of things getting in the way of my own, which would be why I gave the advice I did.  As with most writing advice, which is actually better for a given writer depends on the details of their own process, I would reckon.

[Galvatron]

I think a setting or theme that is similar to others is ok, I read a lot of end of world or post apoc novels, quite a few have similar themes to them.

As a fan of the genre, I do not pesonally care as much how the world ended/ got to its current state, I care a lot more what happens next, and thats where your story becomes unique.

The zombie genre is a good example, tons of novels these days with zombies, but thats ok as long as the story that goes along with the zombies is different from the other books already on the shelves I happily buy them.

[Don]

Also, if your Shadow stops electricity, why does a human nervous system still work under its influence ?

Living things have a built in threshold-like property that keeps the Shadow from penetrating.  It's also checked by other things, but I don't really want to talk about all that.  I can say that I see these complications, and I understand that understanding the physics behind what I'm doing is important.

I'm not saying I have it all worked out, but I have a few workarounds.

I'd go ahead and write it and THEN read/watch the other media. Don't worry about it being potentially sellable; if its a story you really want to tell you should just do it. You can go always go back and change some things if it turns out to be too derivative.

I still have to make an outline for the story as it exists in my head today.  I have 80 pages of copy that I decided to reject but keep for spare parts.  Maybe I should plan out the story and then compare notes...

[Timeline]

I like the workaround you used to explain why the nervous system still works, the same logic can be applied to why pacemakers and the like have not stopped working. I have to say though, it gives me a (sort of hilarious) terrible image of genetically engineered cat-guns, what is essentially is normally a cat is also, well, a gun. The combustion happens inside of the cat, so the shadow wouldn't affect it.

I'm a terrible person.

[Don]

I like the workaround you used to explain why the nervous system still works, the same logic can be applied to why pacemakers and the like have not stopped working. I have to say though, it gives me a (sort of hilarious) terrible image of genetically engineered cat-guns, what is essentially is normally a cat is also, well, a gun. The combustion happens inside of the cat, so the shadow wouldn't affect it.

I'm a terrible person.

[Sir Huron Stone]

It just so happens I've read S.M. Sterling's books, and I can tell you, it starts off like regualr world, but then it goes more into the magical realm as the books go on. But yeah, they're pretty good.

[Bones]

Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series has something vaguely similar. Magic entered the world at a certain point and vies with technology. When a magic wave hits there's no tech and when it subsides the tech works. So people are using horses and coal stoves just in case magic hits and they can't depend on their technology. The leading lady wields a sword. I know that's not exactly what you're talking about, but it seems vaguely like it, so the basic premise is out there in various forms. You may as well go for it.

[Loganimol]

I liked the early books in the S.M. Sterling world of "Changes" but the later books kind of drag on. Steven Boyett wrote a story along the same lines in the early eighties, and that didn't stop Sterling 

I say go for it, whether you read the other books or not. The Steven Boyett novel is "Ariel" btw, and its fun but by no means polished.

[The Corvidian]

There is also the Magic Time trilogy. A government experiment brings magic back, and shuts down science. In the third book, and means was created that allowed science to work. Don, what about fire?

[Don]

Don, what about fire?

I don't really want to get into details here, but there can only be fire in places the Shadow can't reach. Military scouts on the new frontier have to endure some pretty horrible winters.

[Wordmaker]

Definitely write it, and see where you get with it. If nothing else, everything you write helps improve your craft.

You can always change things if an agent or publisher thinks it's too similar to something that's already out there. Take it from a guy who re-wrote his second book from scratch, there's always a way.

[The Corvidian]

There is also the Lady Pendragon comic book series. Magic came back when the heroine pulled Excalibre from the stone.