Random Rant

[Tglassy]

Brandon stole my ideas before I had them.

I wrote a fantasy book a while back.  It hasn't been published yet, but I'm working on the second one, now.  I wrote it, oh, four or five years ago?  I only started reading anything Brandon Sanderson in 2018, so I'd never heard of the Stormlight Archive at that point.  But I'm going through my old book and I realize just how many ideas I had that are in The Stormlight Archive.  Here are a few. 

 

Fantasy world, which is one planet out of many, each with their own magic?  Check

Very powerful storms that circle the continent which is secretly caused by (or at least related to) the death of a godlike being?  Check

Magic systems created by spiritual bonds with the spirits of the Forces of Nature?  Check

Humans actually being from another world but it's been so long that nobody remembers that and Humans have basically driven the local population into small, out of the way settlements?  Check

A branch of the local population having a connection to magic that causes them to alter their forms?  Check

Knights that are called based on their character and who are granted great power and who can fall if they break their oaths?  Check

 

Oh the details are very different, and none of the characters are even remotely similar.  It certainly doesn't feel like Roshar. But my goodness, the concepts are too close for comfort.  I read through it and it feels like I ripped off the Stormlight Archive, even though I'd never heard of Brandon Sanderson when I wrote the thing.  Granted, it is no where near the quality of the Stormlight Archive, but that just means that not only did Brandon steal my ideas before I had them, but he did them better than I did!  That's very disheartening. 

 

On a happy note, the sequel is going well, and I should have Part 1 of Book 2 done soon.  So I've got that going for me. 

[Snorkel]

Happens to me ALL THE TIME.

I had a great idea for a board game.  A week later someone showed me a new board game, and almost all of the locations were identical to the locations for my board game.  Gah!

[king of nowhere]

Alas, that's the downside of being 7 billions on this planet. whatever you think, it's very likely someone has done it already. or is going to do it soon.

[Eluvianii he/him]

I know what you mean. I had this idea of a story based on arcs and each arc happening in a different planet. I also had the idea of making stories in a world at different points in time to show how it develops through ages. Then I discovered Brandon and found that not only he had done both of those things already but on a much bigger scale than I had in mind.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Eluvianii

[Knight of Iron she/they]

On 11/16/2019 at 2:58 PM, Snorkel said:

Happens to me ALL THE TIME.

Same. 'Tis why I am way better at writing stuff in other people's universes than my own stuff, which probably isn't helping my unoriginiality. I wrote a book with a magic system in it and all that and then few years later read Warbreaker for the first time. They're almost exactly the same. I, too, felt like I ripped off of Brandon Sanderson.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Knight of Iron

[Stonerunner he/him]

There's a FAQ friday post on Brandon's webpage from October 4 2019 that I think talks very nicely to this topic.

[Snorkel]

Apparently it happens to Brandon too - see The Original section in State of the Sanderson