Oh no! Accidental Harry Potter Comparison!

[AstralCat]

So I'm writing out the outline for a story I plan on starting, and then all of a sudden I realized something about the story as a whole. There's accidentally a lot of comparisons I can draw between my story and the 2nd book in the Harry Potter series.

My main villain is a man who is able to turn into a snake (a black mamba to be specific), but this isn't revealed until almost the end.
The main villain of Chamber of Secrets has a connection with snakes too, but you don't find out who he is until the end.

One of the main conflicts in my story involves humans having prejudice towards animal-shape-shifter people.
One of the main conflicts in Chamber of Secrets involves wizards having a prejudice towards muggle-borns.

The main villain at first presents himself as a friend to the heroes but is secretly pulling strings behind the scenes and causing all sorts of bad things to happen.
Same thing happens in CoS.

I plan on this being the second book in a series.
Yeah...

While I am confident that my story isn't anything like Harry Potter (though I have nothing against Harry Potter), I worry that people will see the comparisons. I'd rather not have to change things if i can help it, but I've considered changing the animal that the villain turns into. The story still works, just so long as he's something reasonably small and dangerous. But I also really liked the idea of snake-guy using his own venom to get rid of people who get in his way. I am having a very hard time thinking of a better animal for him to be.

Anyway... Opinions?

 

[Ireth]

Maybe he can turn himself into a swarm of wasps/hornets/other venomous insects, and sting people to death if he wants them out of his way.

Or spiders. Spiders are scary. And often deadly.

 

[Spider]

Or spiders. Spiders are scary. And often deadly.

Obviously not deadly. Come on, Ireth. Have some faith in me.

 

[Ireth]

Often =/= always, dear arachnid. You're among the not-deadly ones. ^^

 

[Philip Overby]

One thing as a writer you're always going to hear is "Oh, that sounds like..." People invariably make comparisons to stuff they've already read or heard. Why do you think so many books say on the back "In the tradition of Tolkien, etc..."?

Write your story. When it's finished, go through it and see what things you can change so you won't get the Harry Potter comparisons if it bothers you too much. People changing into snakes has been done before Harry Potter. G.I. Joe did it even.

I recently found an author named Jay Kristoff who does an Asian themed world in his Lotus War series. Not a big problem really, lots of people have done Asian themed worlds. Mine's not Asian, but has some influences there. However, the fact that his MC is a woman hunting down a griffin was very similar to some elements that are in my own story. So I continued writing my story and I've been changing small things along the way. Just because another author used a woman character hunting a griffin doesn't mean I have to scrap my whole novel. My MC isn't hunting a griffin the whole story anyway, that's just one small part.

Anytime I think about my story or concept not being original enough or being portrayed as a copy, I think of that South Park episode:

No matter what you do, The Simpson have already done it anyway. So don't worry! We're all in the same boat.

 

[Amanita]

If the background of your story is sufficiently different (not twelve-year olds with abusive relatives attending a magic school and the villain having built a secret room to annihilate the shapeshifters.) this shouldn't be a problem.
Snakes have been traditionally associated with evil in our culture starting with Adam and Eve or maybe even earlier so I don't think it would make people automatically think of Harry Potter. There is something both intriguing and scary about them which works relatively well to evoke the desired reactions in readers.
If your villain pretends to be a "flesh-and blood friend," it's different from the HP situation again...
Apart from that, follow Phill's advice.

 

[Ayaka Di'rutia]

I've run into this problem myself, but something I've decided is that if I've thought of it first, and then I realize it's similar to something else, I'll normally stick with my ideas anyway. The way I see it, you're not "stealing" if such is the case, and most certainly not plagiarizing.

Something you may find as you write the story is that your ideas branch out from what may seem very similar to Harry Potter ideas. That again is something that has happened in my writing, with ideas similar to what one of my friends wrote, but as the world developed, it became significantly different from hers.

So if you want the villain to be able to turn into a snake, I say go for it a black momba is a good idea.

 

[wordwalker]

Seems like the similarity is that your villain's a snake, that mundanes don't like that, and that he deserves it. And that it's the second book. Not much to worry about.

I often say originality shouldn't be a focus in itself, that a story that's true to itself will make itself distinct-- there's still room to worry now and then if things look too alike, if a Really Big Name has just done something important with them, but this isn't one of those times.

One question that might help: is the similarity about some of the Whats of the story (snakes? everyone does them) or the Whys that underlie it (if your snake was trying to turn students against each other with accusations of murder, then it's the whole story rather than the tools that start to look familiar).

 

[Butterfly]

They are all elements of your story, which seem similar to another... it's how you use them and what you do with them that makes the difference.

After all... Harry Potter was not the first ever book to be set in a school of witchcraft and wizardry, you know.

 

[Pat Harris]

Snakes are hard to beat for being creepy, but scorpions are pretty nasty, too - and some are deadly.

 

[DameiThiessen]

I don't have much input to offer other than a link to an amazing video series on this subject. If you haven't seen "Everything Is A Remix" by Kurby Ferguson you should watch it.

Watch — Everything is a Remix