What to do when someone beats you to the punch?

So I had an idea I've been sitting on for awhile in which a race of locust-minded creatures return every thousand years to reap havoc on a Medieval Fantasy society. I also wanted these guys to be more like praying mantis in shape instead of locust in shape, and to have a bit more individuality than the average insect (they have a single reproductive queen, but nobles often squabble amongst themselves instead of being Bee People). The focus of the story was on how due to a war the kingdoms were busy fighting each other instead of preparing to fight the mantis menace, and a hero rising up to fight back.

Here's the issue - not only have I came to realize that the plot is similar to A Song Of Ice And Fire, but recently Blizzard entertainment announced a race of mantis-like creatures that also follow a thousand year cycle of invasion AND consists of nobles squabbling amongst each other instead of Bee People for their Mists Of Pandaria expansion to World Of Warcraft: scroll down to Townlong summit zone description.

So what now? I came up with the idea on my own about six months ago (after watching Kung Fu Panda and Independence Day in a single weekend), but it seems that someone had a very similar idea and beat me to the punch. Do I try and use what I've already developed, perhaps rework it (replace mantis people with what...crab people?), or start over from scratch?

Ah, I faced this very, VERY often.

Just keep developing your work and delve into other media. You will get new ideas.

Meh—unless it's a name that's the same, I wouldn't worry. A Song Of Ice And Fire is so complex that general parallels like that don't really scream plagiarism.

Agree with the above.

Does it count as being beat to the punch when you can't remember if they came up with it and you plagiarized, or you coincidentally came up with it around the same time?

^ That reminds me long long ago when I was designing RTS units based on cool factors in 2002 in high school (I was caught up with Red Alert 2 and Starcraft way too much then). I designed a melee unit that was super tough compared to infantry and had high damage.

The name of the unit? Blademaster. Then I heard about Warcraft III and its Hero unit of the same name.

edited 17th Jan '12 3:02:47 PM by MajorTom

This reminds me of the bizarre circumstance in which I discovered that Anne Rice, of all people, had written a character and scenario quite similar to one I'd invented.

Then I realised that what I'd written was a hell of a lot sicker and got along quite nicely with my life, thank-you-very-much...

I remember when I was really young, I came up with the plot to Ocarina of Time in a Legend of Zelda fanfic I wrote. No joke. When I learned what the game was about, I was pretty shocked.

To a certain extent, doing something similar to something else can simply be ignored as "so what, everybody is doing something similar to something else." Of course, you should still try to be as creative and innovative as is feasible, and if necessary shift things around to avoid unfortunate similarities with other works that you didn't originally intend...

Beaten to the punch? Keep going, just because something similiar comes out doesnt mean you have to stop and drop everything and have to start over.

I doubt I'd care. I might even crib some of their better ideas for my own work and just generally try to execute better.

This. Two people can have a very similar idea and still execute it in very different ways.

If you're going to worry about potential plagiarism, you might as well hire a lawyer to look over your shoulder. Or you could quit writing. If you look long enough and hard enough, you're going to find something like your own work.

I'm a late Baby Boomer. Among other things, it means that every time I have a good idea, I find out someone else had it about five years ago and is just now bringing it to market. You can either stop trying or stop letting it bother you.

Do it better than the other guy.

There is the saying that there is nothing new under the sun. However, you can have a fresh approach to any idea. In the end it may rest on simple popularity. I had people trapped in computer pods half a dozen years before the Matrix came out, but as my story moves to an iPad game I expect to hear crys of "rip off!". It really doesn't matter; the big wigs rip off each other just short of copyright infringement and then some all the time. If what you have is good then people will not care, unless someone sues you for a piece of the action.