When an imagined world resembles or has similarities with a famous world
Arguably this might belong in worldbuilding.stackexchange.com, but the question has to do with a fiction story and its relation to other fiction in the real world.
I have a plot which involves an alien race. This race needs certain characteristics (biological, social, technological, etc) to make the plot work. Call these primary characteristics.
In fleshing out the race, it adopted a number of other characteristics which seemed to "naturally" spill out of my imagination in relation to the primary characteristics. They just seemed to, artistically speaking, "naturally" fit or extend from the primary characteristics, backing them up and making a believable, convincing whole package.
When I then looked over what I had, I realised that my alien race seemed similar in many ways to a race in a certain famous film / TV show / novel. Ouch. Didn't intend that.
I want to avoid copyright upsets, so I'm considering my options:
- Rework my alien race until it's not at all similar. This relies on the idea that the similarities are in the secondary characteristics, not the primary; and assumes I will be able to "dress-up" the primary characteristics in a completely different set of secondary, if I can unstick myself, imaginatively speaking. It may involve rewatching / rereading the film / show / novel (it was many years ago) in order to systematically note down a comparison, and to know what to avoid.
- Go "all in" with the alien race. This would involve somehow contacting the creator(s) of said film / show / novel and asking for licensing permission to use their race. Problems here are a) how to communicate with them, b) I don't want to become fan-fiction, I'm just looking for a useful vehicle for the primary characteristics, which is what the plot is all about.
- Ignore it. This answer basically takes the viewpoint, "If there's no money involved, it doesn't matter. When (if) your story ever becomes big enough, cross (or burn) that bridge when you get to it." In other words, relax, I'm worrying over nothing.
Any suggestions for a good approach to this?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44925. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I say, ignore it. Sort of.
I think you're right that the primary characteristics aren't the problem but it's all in how you flesh the race out. If your goal is humanoid aliens with human levels of communication skills and intelligence and a culture that is mutually intelligible (aliens you'd bump into in Star Trek or Supergirl or any of a thousand other works), there aren't many directions to choose from.
What you want to avoid is:
- Names that are too similar to known ones. No "Klingins" for example.
- Very specific characteristics made famous by others (unless you can really pull it off). "On the third hand."
- Groupings of stereotypical characteristics that will make people think of the race. "Huge human-like ears and incredibly greedy and stingy with money...hmmm..."
My suggestion is to show what you've got to some geeky friends and ask them if they see similarities (don't say with whom). If they do, then make some changes.
There are some things you can easily tweak before publication. But others would require a large amount of rewriting. So anything big like that, you do want to figure out before you get too far.
Most similarities people notice will come from culture and not looks. Avoid making Planets of Hats and that eliminates a large portion of the problem.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads