Trust Me, Writers, You Should Really Google That Idea First

It's a running gag that if you're a writer you probably have a somewhat suspicious search history. From how long it takes for a buried body to decompose, to what the effects of certain hallucinogens are, to the murder laws in particular states or countries, we often find ourselves in pursuit of rather strange information... and that's just for stories that don't involve magic, super science, and other impossible weirdness!

However, a lot of us should really run a few Google searches whenever we think we've had some brilliant, insightful breakthrough. Because a lot of the time you're going to find out that someone has probably had the idea already, and their take on the idea might alter the course you want to take with your own work.

Seriously, just check. Measure twice, write once.

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"Hey! They Stole My Idea!"

As writers we all have those moments where we are so convinced we've come up with a new idea, or a new twist on something that it just excites our imaginations and sends us into fits of creativity. And most of us have felt the cold steel of the pin puncturing that balloon when we've realized that we were not, in fact, the first ones to have this idea. And in at least a few cases, the idea has been around in the genre not just before we became writers, but often before we were even born.

What the hell? Who's been reading my notes?

For a perfect example of this, a younger writer I know practically had a meltdown while they were watching Wandavision. Because to hear them tell it, they were convinced that they came up with the idea of chaos magic... not just that, but they were so sure that the name in particular was something they'd come up with first, and that Marvel had somehow beat them to the punch. In case you're not familiar, Wanda's powers have been described as chaos magic for decades. The actual practice, which I talked about in What is Chaos Magic? for those who want to do further reading, has been around even longer. Not only that, but the term has showed up in dozens of fantasy novels, roleplaying games, and other intellectual properties since practically the 1970s.

So why was he so convinced that he'd coined this term himself, and come up with the idea of a character whose powers are strange and unpredictable? Well, partially it was because he had a relatively bland and samey media diet, so he hadn't seen those movies, played those games, or read those comics. But mostly it was because he didn't do a quick search on the words "chaos magic" because he was so sure that no one else had this idea that he could just proceed with his story without checking.

To be clear, none of this meant the writer in question suddenly couldn't have chaos magic in his novel. The concept isn't copyrighted, and he could have continued on with his plan. The only thing that changed would be that if he tried to use the, "So, the magicians in my story tap into chaos magic," as a selling point he was suddenly going to have people with more genre savvy asking if his book was like X, Y, or Z property. Or, in some cases, accusing him of either homage (or just ripping off) an older property who had already fleshed out that idea.

And for some of us, standing in the shadow of previous books is enough to make us re-evaluate an entire project.

Measure Twice, Write Once

If you're going to check to be sure that someone can actually survive the particular type of stab wounds you're dishing out, or that gas tanks made after a particular year can actually explode, then it pays to do a bit of searching regarding what you think are the unique selling points of your story. Whether it's the type of magic system you're using, the particular genre blend you're trying out, or even the names of your secret societies you're titling your books after, just check. It saves you a world of headache later.

Because nine times out of ten the fact that someone else had this idea ten, twenty, or even a hundred years ago (the pulp era was strange, and full of bizarre creativity) doesn't actually stop you from putting your own spin on it. Whether you're trying to impress readers or an editor, though, it's important to go in with open eyes knowing what the market has already done with a particular kind of book. Because there's nothing worse than walking a well-trodden path absolutely convinced that you're the first one to ever discover it.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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