Well, damn.

[valarltd]

I came to the horrible realization that my airship pirate story is a WHOLE LOT like my Caribbean pirate story.

Oppressed/minority man claimed by pirate captain. Sails, makes himself useful. Submits to wanted attentions from captain, unwanted attentions from enemy. Helps captain get the better of enemy, lives happily for now with sexy captain.

Same story. 2 different locations, different attitudes and almost a century apart. But same plot. Damn. Now I can't send the airship pirates to Ellora.

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Psst. Change your pen last name to "Eddings" and send it out. ;-)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking Follett. 8)

[(Anonymous)]

The D-Man Checks In: Hmmmm... Sounds like you've run into the same (just beginning) problem as John Norman & his infamous "Gor" series. Made the man wealthy & renouned though, with a huge fan-base (although I understand he's not so keen on the latter).

I'm not sure which might be better/worse though: The same basic story/plot told in 2 different genres, or 2 original stories told in 2 different genres? Is the object here to be original, or to tell a good story? So long as they (both) sell... does it really matter?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

John Norman plagarized his first 5 books from Edgar Rice Burroughs. Then he got into telling the same stories over and over for the next 20. At least until Heather Alexander and Gary Stu kicked his ass after the end of the world. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dies_the_Fire)

Ken Follett is a better example. Pillars of the Earth was fresh and innovative. Then I went and read 5 more of his books, to the point they all blurred together: pretty spunky heroine in over her head, luckless hero, wealthy arrogant sod who often ends up married to the heroine, vicious sadistic villain.

Thing is, I'm contracting the re-release of Kestrel (the Caribbean pirate novel with the black guy) through Ellora. I may need to send Skyrat (airship pirate novella with the Irish guy) someplace else. They really are very similar.

They're both complete. The object is to get them both published and making money. And not to alienate my fanbase by having them say "She's repeating herself."

[(Anonymous)]

The D-Man Checks Back: Might I suggest then a seemingly obvious & simple solution... Simply change the ending of the latest story. The hero is on a pirate ship. Pirates mutiny & their leaders are done away with... Pirate captains get poisoned or assassinated by rivals among the crew who wanna be cap'n... Pirate ships get captured by those who make it their business & profession to hunt & kill them... or in the realm of Steampunk, accidents just plain happen & people get killed for nothing more than standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our hero finds himself without a lover & must move on, but he shall always remember.

With your prolific writing talents, rewriting the last 10-12 pages of a story should be fairly quick & easy; just a matter before that to choose where to make the cut.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

There's always a simple solution that is completely wrong.

Romance.

That means Happily Ever After or at least Happily For Now.
Besides, I did the mutiny thing.

[(Anonymous)]

The D-Man Replies: I might suggest then that you resign yourself to & get used to many of your stories eventually all looking the same. Like baking cookies, there is only so much you can do with a set recipe of steps & ingredients that you can't diverge from.

Personally I can think of several romanctic stories that don't have happy, happy, fluffy endings (which -do- get boring after a while when you already know how a story all but has to normally end, just because it's a romance).

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah,
Meet cute, fuck like bunnies, stuff happens, happy ending.

It's the differences in each of those steps that make each book unique. This time around, I seem to have cannibalized myself, lock stock and barrel.