IT'S YOUR STORY // how similar stories still have their own impact

Last week I told y'all that I recently watched/read The Hunger Games for the first time, and I shared all the uncanny similarities I noticed between them and the Out of Time series . In case you missed my post last week: 

- MC Girl goes to Scary Thing and has to figure out how to survive

-Girl's journey is broadcast across the country

-Potential love interest in Scary Place with her

-But other guy who is also possible love interest is back home watching her journey unfold

-Attacked by wolves

-Somebody loses a limb (book only, in THG's case)

-There's a little sidekick girl

-MC comes back at the end triumphant and super famous

(there were things throughout all three books of each trilogy, but the most similarities were in the first books.)

Crazy, huh? When I was watching the first THG movie, I was just floored by all the little details and bigger elements alike that the two books had in common. And these were all besides the obvious fact that they're both YA dystopians, too. 

So, yeah, the two books/series are ridiculously similar in some ways, almost enough that it could have been on purpose. But you know what struck me about this?

Both stories are still vastly different.

Even with so many aspects that these books shared, did I feel like I was experiencing the same story when I was watching THG? Not at all. Sure, it's a dystopian about a teenage girl rising above the odds to survive and eventually change her world. Sure, there were scary similarities. But still, A Time to Die was in no way a repeat of The Hunger Games! 

So, what does this mean, exactly? What point am I making? 

Even though two stories may be similar, they are still different stories written by different people. And because of that, they each matter in their own ways. They will hit the hearts of readers in different ways. They will do different things. Though the overall idea of the stories might be the same, and though they might share a crazy amount of similarities, they bring different things to the table. 

Writer, if you're worrying about your story being too similar to someone else's- stop. Especially if you're in the early stages of writing it. Chances are, it's not too similar to really matter. And even if it has as many similarities as ATTD and THG, or even more... you don't need to worry about that right now. 

Someday you might need to. Maybe when you're in the publishing process and your editor says that X concept needs to be tweaked because it's too close to something in a story that's already famous. But for right now, just write your story. Maybe that element that will need to change later is necessary right now to make your story what it will eventually become. Or maybe it will stay exactly the same and will forever bear a parallel to another well-established story. That's okay. That other story is not yours, and your story has something the other one doesn't. 

(obviously there are exception. if you're planning on naming your character katniss... I can tell you right now that's not going to work out. xD)

And I think that goes for similarities between your own stories, too. Everyone always talks about elements and tropes they tend to weave into their books, and... my characters are always in hiding, from either the villain or the authorities. xD I don't know why. It's certainly not intentional. But for whatever reason, my cast is always either outrunning whatever is that storyworld-equivalent of the cops, or hiding from the villain. I've wondered before if that's a problem- surely it's something people would notice one day if all my stories are published and out in the world- but I don't need to worry about that. Maybe eventually I'll need to rethink it, maybe I won't. But even if I didn't change them at all, they are all still very different stories. 

So, if you're discouraged because you don't think your story is original enough, or you think it's too similar to a famous movie or book- take heart. Keep writing. Whatever your story is meant to be, it will become that if you don't give up on it. Imagine if Nadine Brandes had noticed all the similarities between her story and The Hunger Games, and given up on writing it. A lot of people's lives would be different, because her books have impacted SO many lives in ways The Hunger Games hasn't. (And the other way around!) 

Write that story, friend. It's your story. The world needs it. And only you can write it the way you do. ♥