And don’t throw away the files. Six years from now you’ll have other stuff in the works and remember the perfect sentence, and possibly the whole scene from what you have now, and you’ll go looking for it, and if you can’t find it it will drive you crazy. I know. The original beginning of AJCTA (my real actual main book) would have been lost for good if I hadn’t checked all my floppy disks before formatting them to use in my camera. I wrote it 9 years ago and I haven’t come up with a better intro for the bad guys since then. It was lost once before, found by accident on the hard drive of a university computer where it wasn’t supposed to be, and I’m lucky to still have it. It’s the same with camping gear: if you have it you won’t need it, and if you don’t have it, you will.

If you are as careful as you say you are, then your story *is* original, and you’re not plagarizing. Since I haven’t read your story, I’ll suggest checking Holly’s site for the essay on stealing ideas, just to be sure. It’s a fun read, anyway. You might also look for the test for whether to burn the story. The caption on that one is “Burn it, bury it, let it live” and it’s very helpful in times of writing stress.

Oh, and one more thing: If your sister really is trying to encourage you, then take a look at the things she’s comparing your work to and find the differences. Then take them to her and say, “I appreciate your insight (girls love compliments). It does seem kind of similar, but I’m doing (this part) differently; what do you think?” If it were me, you’d probably pull half a plot or two useable bits out of a conversation that starts that way.

And I’m no plagiarist, and I’m very careful about NOT duplicating what’s come before. It’s just…freaking me out. Maybe I *do* suck at this?

Thx for writing.

Doesn’t matter anyway, as after several setbacks, I’m just chucking it. First, I find out on Tuesday that someone else–a not unknown author–wrote a book that’s not only similar in title, but exceedingly similar in plotline, at least in synopsis. No way I could ever submit my 50K+ as it’s intended to be finished without someone in the biz (agent, publisher) thinking it was plagiarism, even though I think that the plot details are dissimilar. Then, just when I thought, after 48 hours, that I’d come up with a way to ensure that it’s adequately differentiated, while describing a (previously-written) scene to my sister, she piped up “Oh, I know that one! It’s EXACTLY the same as the scene in Working Girl!”

So, screw it. 3 months, 50K words…what a waste of time.

The best hero is the hero who lives to fight again after beating the villain.

Sacrificing your hero and letting evil win is rarely a satisfying ending.

First, finish the book.

Second, figure out how the finished story differs from what you hoped it would be.

Third, revise the book to become the book you want to have written.

FOURTH, worry about marketing it. You can consider genres and possible markets now, but until you’ve finished the book and have discovered what you’ve written, you cannot hope to know where you’ll find the best place to sell it.