I don’t know how many times I have heard: There are no original stories out there. Everything has been done and done again (and now thanks to some uber-creative and slightly scary minds done w/ a monster twist). The other day I was working on a new book and I stopped for a mental break to watch Lifetime. The movie on was something I’d seen before, probably three or four years ago. It is eerie how similar the movie is to my story—even though I didn’t even remember it until ten minutes in. And this is not the first time it’s happened (Just usually it’s finding something similar AFTER I have finished at least the first draft).

Being with and around writers for the better part of eight years now, I know (and believe) you can give ten different writers the same outline and they will all create a vastly different story from it. The concept will be the same but the ins and outs will shift some per their personality and their style.

Still… after seeing this movie and knowing how close the plot is to my book and knowing I’d seen it way before I started, I can’t help but wonder how much of my story was organically pieced together and how much might have been a recall from Lifetime. It boggles the mind (well my mind anyhoo…). Now let me state it is different *enough*. And just the other day I read a blurb for a book in RT that was almost identical too—and I have not read that book at all.

Too, I suppose, some topics are timely. How many times do similarly themed books hit the shelves and movies hit the theaters. These are things that began their lives (in some cases many) years before so it’s not like someone threw it together to get it out for competition sake.

I have wanted to experiment and get together several writers and see how different one plot can be—and I know it’s probably been done before, I have just never run across it. Unfortunately most writers have their hands full with stuff already and it is a time consuming challenge. Something to shoot for down the road I guess. Still … I can’t help but wonder about it.