What should I do when I just found out an idea I had for a novel or a movie has already been written?

Answer 1

Go ahead and put it down on paper anyway! Your idea won't come across in exactly the same fashion as someone else that's done it. Only you can tell your story - don't worry that you'll be deliberately copying someone else because you won't be. I can assure you!

Answer 2

Every idea can go back to fables. It's always been done before. Just write out your idea and find some way to make it yours. Change the point of view if you want an easy method.
Go look at the mystery and romance sections. Everything there has been done hundreds or thousands of times, yet they always come up with something new. Look at Stephen King. In the movie "Rose Red," meteors land on the house at the hands of a powerful reclusive girl. Look back about 30 years: It happened in his novel "Carrie." If you think you can come up with something new, don't expect to leave your desk anytime soon.
When I read books, I think about where the story might go if I wrote it. This obviously won't work if you follow red herrings, but just imagine if we read "Misery" from Annie's point of view. I see that one person included the idea that there are 7 or fewer plot lines. Some claim there several more than that, going upwards of 36. No matter how many you think there are, however, everything you think up has been done before.

Answer 3

There is not much you can do. Ideas are not able to be copyrighted. However, if you wrote it down and had it copyrighted, AND if you could show that somebody read that idea and then used your idea to develop their project, you could try to recover damages. So, you can see that it is unlikely you could do much.

When you get a strange, unusual, or noteworthy idea, put it in writing, and copyright it.

Answer 4

Change a few details. Time period, setting, gender of characters, etc. Write it anyway. Go back and edit enough to make it unique.

There are only seven basic plots, anyway. (Some people say five, some say three, and some say one!)

1 - [wo]man vs. nature
2 - [wo]man vs. man
3 - [wo]man vs. the environment
4 - [wo]man vs. machines/technology
5 - [wo]man vs. the supernatural
6 - [wo]man vs. self
7 - [wo]man vs. god/religion

Answer 5

Back to the drawing board, dude.