Sometimes life slaps you in the face.
On my last newsletter I talked about a project I had been working for a long time and that I had finally manage to unlock. It’s a comic book about a retired and traumatized magical girl who’s forced to go back to action after many years. Well.
Last week I found out that another comic with a similar premise is already being published and I felt like shit. My depression hit me like a bus and I melted in a little puddle of low self-stem and guilt.
(The current political atmosphere was far from helping as well, but I’ll leave those points to another day. One problem per newsletter. DEEP BREATH.)
First: no, this is not a story about plagiarism. We just have similar themes and set-ups and it’s absolutely normal for this kind of thing to happen, honestly. What probably happened is that we were both inspired by the same things around the same time and now we are here.
My first feeling about it was to say “nah, I’m fine”, which them turned into crying while getting water from the refrigerator and later became a sleepless night with my mind wondering around everywhere and nowhere. Anxiety at it’s peak.
The first thing I felt was guilt. Guilt because one of the things that stopped our comic book to move forward was my depression and the fact that I just couldn’t write. IF I wasn’t so depressed, IF I had tried harder, IF I had overcome it faster… IF. How many things have I missed because of my depression? I could write a whole essay only about all the things that went through my head those few days.
But now that the initial shock passed, I’ve been able to talk to my friend who’s illustrating the story, talked to my partner about it and had some time to also talk to myself about what this means… I really am fine.
Yes, our premises are similar, but that’s it. We do share themes and it looks like we do believe in very similar things, but that doesn’t mean we can’t create completely different works. Should I give up my story because I know a similar Magical Girl story already exists? No. I have to work hard to make the best of the story I started writing all those years ago. And that’s it.
I know I should probably talk more in depth about all these feelings I’ve felt, but there’s so much happening in the world right now that this is all I can manage to put on digital paper about writing. This week has been A WEEK.
See you guys later!
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