Friday, November 9, 2012

Follow Friday #5: Books with Similar Ideas



This post will be linked to Feature & Follow, a weekly blog hop hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read.

So last week was a wild ride with Follow Friday! Thank you so much to our awesome hosts, Rachel and Alison, and all of you guys who have participated (and followed me :P)!

Now, as usual, before the Question of the Week, here's a recap of the rules:
The rules: 
To join the Feature & Follow blog hop, what you need to do is follow Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read, who are the two awesome hosts; and the two featured blogs on their sites (chosen by random). For this week, they are Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer and Paranormal Romance.
Then you create a post (like this one), where friends from the blog hop can comment and say hi, link your blog on the Linky Tools (you can do this on the two host sites, or any blogs on the hop that links to it).  
After that, you follow, follow, and follow any blogs you feel like! Don't forget to comment and let them know you are a new follower!

And here's this week's question!

Q: Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic?

A: Yes. Yes I do! I'm all for originality :)
That said, sometimes I don't mind such books that much, especially if the book in question is well written, or the author has put some of his/her own twists on it. I mean, there is only so much you can write about! There's also the case where an author or a book has made such an impact on a genre that others can't help but take inspiration from them.
However, taking inspiration doesn't mean copying every ideas! (Ah hem, Christopher Paolini, I'm looking at you.) Because why should we read these books if we can read another one just like that, from a better writer?
This is also why I don't like the idea of pulled-to-publish fanfics. I'm a fanfic addict myself, and some of the fanfics I've read were amazing. However, good fanfics don't always make good books. Good fanfics help the characters and the plots you've already loved live on. But good books need to be able to create these characters and plots. Basically, the very definition of fanfic challenges their ability to become original books!

That was more of a rant than an answer - maybe I should make a post on this!

What about you? Do you mind books that are similar to others?

And if you've followed me, don't forget to leave a comment so I can return the favor!

18 comments:

  1. You make great points about fanfics.

    New follower
    My hop

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    1. Yay! Thanks for stopping by, Vonnie! I've followed you back!

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  2. Yeah. I agree with several of your points there, but.. I think it really depends. When it comes to similiar stories, I found that many people are actually actively searching for stores "like [title]". It makes sense to me and as long as those books aren't all the same, I don't care too much if some elements are similiar. And with fanfiction.. I do love fanfiction, but I don't feel like it's so great to make money by publishing a story that is based on already established characters and worldbuilding. Even AU-fanficions.

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    1. Oh, and new GFC and Bloglovin follower! :)

      Patricia // My Hop

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    2. I'm not a fan of publishing fanfictions, too. As for books, it really depends on how they are written :)
      Followed you back!

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  3. I agree with what you said about fanfics - the reason as to why some of them are so good is because they make use of characters and worlds that are already well-loved.

    New follower here! :) My FF

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Lyra! I've followed you back!

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  4. i agree. the better written book wins for me.
    Trish - My Follow Friday

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    1. Yup, it's all about the better book :) Thanks for the comment!

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  5. Great answer. Agreed.
    Thanks for stopping by my FF and following. New follower here :)

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  6. awesome answer. my FF http://jennreneeread.blogspot.com/2012/11/follow-friday-38.html old follower.

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  7. Hopping through. I haven't read Paolini's books. What do you think they're drawn from.
    My Hop

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    1. I think I got through about half of Eragon (his first book) before I abandon the whole series (my first time to DNF a book, too). The world-building and characters were essentially taken from Lord of the Rings - and I haven't even read the books, just watched the movies! Some of my friends say the plot is drawn (or copied) from Star Wars, but I haven't seen the films, so I can't say for myself :)

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