“My novel is similar to another one. What do I do?”
“Is my story too much like another book?”
Authors worry a lot about whether their story is original enough. And I think they worry about it too much.
What if someone told you they were going to write some young adult books about a boy who goes away to a wizarding school? Would you tell them not to bother, because there was already a beloved series with the same premise?
If it were the early 1990s, you might be talking J.K. Rowling out of writing her Harry Potter series, based on similarities to Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea trilogy. Harry Potter is much different than LeGuin’s classic, and it’s now much more popular, but neither of these things would have been obvious before the Harry Potter books were written and published.
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In a similar vein (heh), the huge popularity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not to mention the existence of L.J. Smith’s young adult series The Vampire Diaries, didn’t deter Stephenie Meyer from writing her Twilight series. I suspect she’s glad that she did it.
Sometimes we writers worry a little too much about stories with similar premises to our own. It says in the Bible, “There is nothing new under the sun,” and that was written a really long time ago. It’s even more true now.
I believe that some myths are deeply rooted in our collective unconscious. Magical weapons, resurrection, demons, fairies or “little people,” changelings, ghosts, heroic quests, and other elements show up in stories across the globe.
Certainly, shared stories pervade people’s cultural consciousness. For instance, the Norse sagas, Greek mythology, Arthurian legend, and the Bible have all had a huge impact on Western storytelling.
Beyond our shared mythological heritage, some human stories never fail to fascinate, terrify, inspire, or save us. That’s why they come out in our writing, and why we respond to them in other people’s stories. Willa Cather said, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”
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Occasionally I’ll hear a writer talk about they want to write a completely original story… and go on to describe a gimmick that I cannot imagine anyone enjoying.
That’s not to say that you can’t do something bizarre, and do it well. I just think the weirdness has to come from a place deep within yourself. If it comes from superficial desire to do something shocking or to show how clever you are, it’s probably going to fall flat.
I’ve written before about how it’s good for a writer to know about different fiction genres, so that they understand how their story fits into it, and so their story isn’t exactly like everything else out there.
That being said, if someone or even a bunch of someones are doing something quite similar, it’s not a reason to despair or to abandon your work. While it’s true that a particular editor may pass on something because they just published something very similar to it (particularly if they’re a small publisher, like where I work). it’s also true that there are a lot of publishers out there. They didn’t all publish something just like it recently!
If you’re already having a low day as a writer, you may exaggerate how similar your story is to someone else’s. You may think things like: Oh no — my heroine is a professional dog walker, just like the heroine in this movie! I’m so unoriginal. I should just give up. That may just be a reflection of your mood and your self-esteem at the moment, rather than a legitimate concern.
If you encounter a story that really is similar to yours, though, that’s okay, too. I think that’s the universe’s invitation to go deeper into your own heart and bring out more of those elements and those things that you need to say that will make your story truly your own.
If you’ve started writing a novel or you’re trying to figure out how to revise one, you might be interested in my book Blank Page to Final Draft. I share a lot of my experience in publishing, and I try to make the whole writing process easier. Take a look!
Have you ever worried about doing something too similar – or conversely, something too niche or unfamiliar? I’d love to hear what you have to say!
If you like chatting about writing, follow my blog—you can subscribe below. Happy writing!
Lately, I’ve been teased about Xander de Hunter being a feline James Bond…. maybe, maybe not. I mean he does have that high tech collar, but – though it is never mentioned – Xander has been neutered, so there are no racy scenes 😉
Well, I think the fact that he’s a cat makes him pretty different, Jeanne 😀 The thing about him being neutered made me laugh!
Brian? Anyways I love you what I got to know about you so far. Anyway I have wrote a book well fell asleep on it and somebody picked up on it and I’m freaking out. Anyway . You would love to hear my situation and read my book. Maybe we’ll talk.
My ideas are too wide but when i sit to write i get confused about which part is to be executed first.
Hi All, I really hope this thread is still being replied to! After 18 months of working on my story, I have just discovered a published book, (that was published 3 years before my idea was even conceived), with too many similar details for comfort!! Now I’m scared! I do not want to change these details in my story, – because I had them by myself and that means they are just as much mine as the existing author’s, and they MAKE my story. I can’t change them! let’s say it’s about a tortoise who I rescued in Samoa in real life when I was living there. Originally the story was created to raise funds for the animal centre, but I couldn’t write it quick enough. This tortoise has a certain personality and condition that inspired me to write children’s fantasy adventure with him as the central character, in a pirate theme. Samoa is full of local legends and myths, and they are perfect for this story, so some of them will come into play, also as I’m writing for Samoans as much as anyone else. I have decided to use a few words in the local Samoan language with a little footnote for meaning and pronunciation. The tortoise is from the Southern part of the country, (in real life) and I’m really keen to reflect this in the story’s setting, as well as the local myths from that part. There are also some local ‘storytellers’ who tell about the myths and moral stories, (common in all cultures), these characters also play a part in the adventure because they are culturally significant. It being a pirate adventure, of course there must be a quest. In this part of the world, many people believe the myths and they believe in magic/curses, that their neighbours could be involved in ‘dark’ matters. I also experienced people talking about this for real when I lived there. Now I’ve discovered this already published story about a TORTOISE, (why?? why not a dog or something else?!) – who is technically French but the story takes places in Samoa, the local story-tellers are mentioned as a part of the plot, little bits of French are sprinkled in (with a ‘footnote’ system, – can you believe it?), the same local myths and legends are part of the plot, there is a quest to bring something back in order to stop something bad happening, in my story I am only using real places and real myths, (but so does this other author), all the key places mentioned in the existing work are also real and really important to this part of Samoa for the action to take place. My tortoise is the captain, her tortoise is ‘known as’ the captain, (though she has a child character too which I don’t, and I have many other characters besides and different countries later on, as I plan a series, though my tortoise always returns to Samoa – it’s home!), the other author mentions local food and customs, (which I also do, and in some cases the same ones!). Her story stays there in the South part of Samoa. My characters journey all over the world and have arch enemies very different to hers, – but can you believe the amount of similarities???!! I’m gobsmacked! I’ve been so happy about my idea with all it’s little details, especially because I was keeping everything real and using it in a new way, with a certain kind of animal from a certain place in the world, presented a very way, and now I find this!! I expected plenty of existing stories using various elements the same, but not ALL of them together like this!! It would be absolutely awful if people thought I’d taken those parts from the other author and not my own head and experience of the place, not to mention the tortoise in question! Even worse if I got a lawsuit or something!! And yet I only discovered this other work yesterday! Now I feel like I’m plagiarising what are actually still my OWN ideas! To top it off, the author of that work is Samoan! I’m not. So I feel she has more right than me. I don’t know about Samoan copyright law either, and of course I plan to market my work to Samoans! Even the titles will be necessarily similar; ”The Adventures of X Tortoise (…Adventure…) ” She could be really peeved and think I’ve taken those ideas from her work, when I truly haven’t! I feel really cheated because I want to use the book sales to fund a good cause and I’ve been in love with my story for 18 months ! I’m almost tempted to write to that other and tell her in advance. Please help! Thanks.
Heather, you wrote your story and you have a right to get it published. I would definitely recommend going with a very different title so that nobody gets confused between the two works. I really think it will be okay! Good luck!
Thank you Bryn. I’m glad you think I can still do this, because it’s so important to me and it has felt so special all this time, (and it felt so original!). I’m sticking with it and hoping that my creativity will spark it off in another direction but I still love what I have, and I wanted my own family to read and enjoy the stories based on these cultural elements to bring the fantasy alive for them too. But my writing output has suffered tremendously since I came across the other work, it’s like a constant black cloud hanging over me. Thanks for your support. I can and will do this! : )
Boy, that’s really tough. I’ve gotten so paranoid about this lately. As an artist, I’m very aware of the phenomenon of parallel thinking, but I always worry that readers and consumers don’t understand. I know at this point you love your story as-is and don’t want to have to re-start. But maybe instead of changing what is already there, you can add something that could make it different enough. It sounds like there are a lot of similar details, but how similar are the tones? What about sub-plots? What about something as simple as changing the color of the tortoise? If the color was significant to it’s description, like maybe it was gold or the skin had some kind of shimmer? I agree with Bryn, though. I don’t think you need to give up. There’s a way to make it work.
Thanks Ryan! 🙂 Luckily I know my ‘tortoise’ is not the same colour, especially because it’s about a real animal, (he’s not actually a tortoise and the country is not really Samoa,just protecting myself) , – but I have photos of the real-life creature and for anyone to see those, they would know instantly why this story had to be written. I’ve already planned the website detailing his real-life story. The good news is that he does have a couple of arch-nemesis characters, and there will also be action taking place in my country as well as the one I lived in and fell in love with, but the UK has a fascinating history of pirates so it wouldn’t surprise me if the other author has written sequels involving the UK. Let’s hope not! I am also working on sub-plots but trying to do that right as I’m writing for children, sometimes it’s too much for them to handle. I appreciate that you believe in my story and thank you very much for that. : )
This has been my biggest fear writing mystery fiction. While I do tend to focus on a niche genre using LGBT characters in my primary series, I cut my teeth reading Grafton, Evanovich, Francis, Paretsky and so many others like that, plus some slightly darker stuff, that it feels like so many of the base stories have already been done. It’s a lot of work to give my characters completely different lives that revolve around the same old crimes and the usual tropes.
The good news is, probably a lot of your readers love those writers, too, right? That is a challenge, though — working in the confines of a genre but also making it fresh! But hey, you’re totally up to the challenge 🙂 It’s great that you’re writing with more inclusivity.
Thanks for reading, Anne!
I am working on my first book ever. (!!!) It’s a young adult fantasy with a young woman as the reluctant heroin who leads the people in battle against a barbaric enemy. Throughout the process I have been trying so hard to make sure it doesn’t sound like Divergent or The Hunger Games. I don’t know yet if it will be a trilogy, because YA sci-fi fantasy trilogies are so the thing to do right now. ? It takes place on a distant planet in the far future, and strangely enough, I got more inspiration from The Martian than I did from any YA fantasy stories I’ve read. ?
Allison, congratulations on working on your very first book — it’s so exciting! A hero leading people in battle has been a popular story since… well, since recorded stories. It’s classic, and the fact that the hero is female doesn’t suddenly turn it into Divergent or The Hunger Games. If anything, we need more female heroes like that, because we have thousands of male ones!
I don`t think anyone has written a novel about a dead rockabilly and his possessed car who chases after a live girl that he has fallen in love with? No? Please say no.
Ha! Adele, I think you may have that one to yourself! That’s awesome.
I MUST READ THIS STORY!
Has this been written yet?? I’ve got to read it.
Thanks for this! I once had my novel rejected because it reminded an editor too much of Stephen King’s Carrie… It must only have been because there are characters who can start fires with their minds. I’ve never read Carrie, so I can’t be sure, but since my story came from a “weirdness deep within,” I’d bet there are no other similarities. Maybe someone will read both and let me know, because it’s going to be my first published book very soon!
Your blog is so inspiring.
Um, lots of people can start fires with their minds… *shifty eyes* Seriously, King did not come up with that! Congratulations on your upcoming publication, Jessica — that is fantastic!
SK wrote Carrie AND Firestarter, so he kind of even copied himself. 🙂
🙂 Thanks so much, Bryn and Paige!
This is a very helpful post. In both my writing and my visual art, the struggle for absolute originality can be crippling at times. It causes me to become obsessed with googling every idea have, combing the nooks and crannies of the internet to make sure nothing else out there is too close to what I have in mind. It’s somewhat of a catch-22. The more unique something feels to you, the more people will accuse you of stealing someone else’s idea if they ever come across anything similar. Conversely, the more audiences are familiar with a premise, the more they are willing to accept another work using that premise. The second vampire story to be published was maybe perceived as a rip-off of the first. Then by the time the fifth, sixth and seventh vampire stories came out, it was no longer a premise, but a sub-genre. And now, even something as specific as Young Adult Vampire Romance is almost becoming its own sub-genre.
Hi Ryan! Oh yeah, that is such a good point about it being a catch-22. And I never thought about how something can grow into a subgenre… that is so true! Thanks for the great post.
It’s quite funny that you wrote this post, because I was thinking of exactly the same thing yesterday. My book’s about a girl who goes to some kind of magical school and has a “destiny” to live up to. I didn’t realize that it was so similar to Harry Potter until I dug up the books and read them for some inspiration on how to improve my magic system. But then I thought: it’s similar, but there are some key differences. In my book, for example, Morgan (the MC) goes to the school not because she got an invitation/letter/something-like-that, but because she is magically transported to the school and has no choice.
So I realized that these differences make my book somewhat original.
Have you ever thought of making a blog post about music to listen to while you’re writing? Or have you already written such a thing and have I missed it? I think it would be an interesting thing to make a post about. It’s just a suggestion, I always listen to music when writing (mostly classical or stuff that fits the scene I’m writing) and I would like to hear your opinion on it.
Hi Kiete! I’ve already seen a little bit of your writing, of course, and your style is so different.
It’s funny you should ask about the music! I did a post a long time ago about a playlist for writing medieval stories, and I’m planning on doing some more playlists for different genres! You read my mind. (Do they teach that at the magical school? 🙂 )
Haha!
Eh, no, it’s more of a survivalist school. Morgan doesn’t know how to read minds either, although she can share her memories with people, that’s sort of the same.
I wondered about the music thing because I’m composing a “soundtrack” of some sorts for the book right now. But I’m having some troubles because the only instrument I currently play is saxophone and that’s not the best instrument to start composing music for a huge classical orchestra on…
I might put the songs on some kind of website some day, not sure about that now.
I’d love to see your medieval playlist if its available! Perhaps it will inspire me to get back to work on my medieval story, which I’ve been struggling with for longer than I care to admit. (Well, the first chapter is in good shape, sigh. ?)
Really, there is nothing new under the sun. This is a very inspiring message. It sometimes happened with me, too. Now I can start several stories soon. Thanks for this.
Sayed, so glad you liked this. 🙂 Thanks for reading, and for commenting!
I’ve simply had to stop thinking about it! It’s too stressful! 🙂
Haha I can understand that, Kellyn 🙂 If you think about it too much, it’ll just drive you nuts.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks so much for this Bryn. What I get out of this is to not give up. Lately I feel like I’m just kidding myself that I can come up with something original. This post gives me hope!
Yes, exactly! Don’t give up — putting yourself into it will make it original 🙂
Thanks for reading, Janice!
Bryn Donovan, I just want to comment on how happy I am that you’ve posted it. I have this problem alot, coming up with ideas that I think and believe or original but only to find out that someone else has used it. Sometimes I feel so frustrated and discouraged. Like if you write and published a book that is similar to another that has been published before, some gold-heart people will accuse you of ripping off someone’s work, and worst, they even go as for as said you plagiarized it. Like seriously, people do this, all the time. There are instances where I have read one book then read another, then after I would see what persons might have comment on them. You know what they say! I quote “Man! I swear this story A reminds me of
Story B. Did you read it. Were you inspired by it? Is this a fanfiction of story A?” Yes, they ask you a lot of questions.
Currently I’m working on a story that involves a society where the color of a person’s blood decides which position of society you belong in. You have red, blue, pink, yellow and even black blood individuals. Then I hear persons telling me that my story reminds them of a story called the red queen. I haven’t read the red Queen and I don’t plan on doing it. Because if do read it, I feel as if I’ll be discouraged to continue my work. Do you think I made the right choice?
Years ago I wrote (and abandoned) a story called Colour Matters about a group of aliens whose skin changed colour based on their status. White was lowest, then through the rainbow to black as highest status. When they arrived on Earth they promoted all the black people to positions of power, and enslaved the white people, and then I couldn’t decide what the ending should be, and started on something else! Your story sounds great and less cheesy than mine – keep going!
Hi Karen, your story still sounds original to me. I like the premise. Pick up your story again, please.
This is a great article. I’ve always worried about being unoriginal. Thanks for reassuring me.
Hey thanks Balle, so glad you liked it! Thanks for reading!
This is very reassuring…thank you! I am attempting my first novel and sure enough I have now come across a very similar synopsis; the protagonist even has the same name!! *gulp* I’m thinking of just changing the name and still running with it as 1) I’ve come too far and 2) I feel that there are enough differences that it could stand alone…..crazy when you work so hard and see something like that though, kind of knocks the wind out of you.
Changing the name is probably a good idea. 🙂 Other than that, absolutely run with it! Sometimes a plot can seem quite similar, but the actual treatment is totally different, because writers bring their own unique qualities to it. Good luck, Aurelia!
Hi Bryn,
Great article! It has helped me feel a little better about my writing so thank you.
I too am writing my very first book(s). I’ve actually been writing this story since I was 13. Now that I’m 46 looking back, it has changed a great deal from those early days.
I have felt like giving up some many times. And I have a couple of times. But some how I end up write by down some scene that pops in my head or a possible new character and their description. Over the decades I’ve seen so many stories that are very similar to what love written. But it has been those times when I focus on small item and start thinking the worst. Like, ” Well that character wears a blue coat and so does mine so that sucks!”
I also have a huge fear because I’ve never had formal schooling for creative writing since grade school. I didn’t think this was going to be something I wanted to do until much later in life. Sometimes that alone gets to be defeating to me. Is that really something to worry about? I do plan on taking a few courses when I can. I just don’t want to have all my work looked at and passed up because of no formal schooling in the craft of writing.
Thanks again for your article.
E.J.
Hi, E.J.! I think that’s awesome that you’re working on a story that’s been with you for so long. It sounds like something you need to tell. ~ As someone with an MFA in Creative Writing, I think formal schooling for creative writing is terribly overrated. I not only learned nothing from my MFA, but almost got talked out of my own best instincts. If you’re open to learning, there are so many opportunities, through online resources, books, and informal workshops. It’s not something to worry about at all.
Thanks for the kind words! Good to hear from you! 🙂
Thank you so much for saying this! I am just planning my own first novel now and I was worrying about it being too similiar to loads of other books (characters come out of suspended animation to find the whole world changed) but you helped me realise that as long as my characters and plot are different enough I don’t need to worry too much about the similarities. When I read your replies to other comments, I felt so much better about you saying we need more lead female characters anyway. I am now much more confident in my originality (or lack of), knowing it is ok to have some similarities with other books.
Hi Alexis! I’ve actually never read a novel with a Rip Van Winkle storyline, myself, although it’s classic! I would really enjoy it. Personally, I’m writing about a character with amnesia, which is a super popular trope…. and I don’t care at all, haha. Good luck with your story!
Thanks so much for this! The past week I’ve been feeling weary of a screenplay I’ve be working on for awhile. I’ve been reading different forums trying to keep my confidence and continue on which have helped a lot. The Shakespeare arguments REALLY got me yet I still felt lingering doubt and a lack of clarity in regards of what to do. I jump around a lot with my projects since I do more than just writing and get bored easily (those racing thoughts for you haha). So that means I usually write down/outline random ideas I get and come back to work on them later if I’m too busy. Pretty much 98% of the time I have a complete story playing from beginning to end in my mind like a movie but it’s just a matter of translating it to a written/visual form so that I can share with others. But when it’s just a plot or idea those few times I just build the story up over time. Late 2016 I saw a teaser of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and that inspired me to stop sitting on the screenplay. At the time I was thinking that maybe it wasn’t the right time or just I don’t know, psyching myself out on whether having black leads in thought provoking suspense/thriller/horror could be a thing. Especially with racial commentary at that. So I continued on creating an outline and pretty much the whole basis/events of the story. I ended up seeing “Get Out” last week and have been over analyzing some of the similarities to my story…
Mostly cause we both share a theme of underlined prejudice, isolation, and paranoia. The twist was somewhat similar to an event that happens in my story as well but overall your article and the other forums have made me stop stressing in order to see the obvious differences instead of focusing on the similarities. For example my story is in a high school setting with a strange breakfast club feel going on with the five main characters as they start noticing/investigating the weird behavior of their friends/peers. I was inspired by 90s teen horror/thrillers, “The Faculty” aka “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (70s version)” whereas I’ve seen Jordan say that he was inspired by the original “Stepford Wives” and “Rosemary’s Baby”. My story is more centered on identity and a lot of themes he did not touch upon so I’m feeling more confident with it!
Thanks so much for this post. With such amazing material already out there, you tend to dread and worry about plagiarism when you sit down to write. Even though you know that the story belongs completely to you, when you come across a similar one you fell disappointed and disheartened. So it’s really important to understand that your voice is what that matters, your perspective and your voice and your words more than any storyline because everyone story has been told before.
While I have never gone beyond writing a short plot and character description (no novel here), I do teach English, Creative Writing, and Fiction to Film. This blog post will definitely help my students to better understand the collective unconscious, universal themes, and archetypes. I’m going to recommend they follow your blog to further their own writing.
Did you get my reply
Write the we are similar
Hi Bryn, I can’t thank you enough for your article as this is EXACTLY what happened to me. I’m still devastated. Turns out the author of that book & I know some of the same people, so awkward & devastating. QUESTION: do I tell querying agents? Or keep my mouth shut? The book in qquestion wasn’t a hit, but the author broke the NYT list (albeit one of those sub-lists & not in the actual newspaper).
Hi Kris! I am so glad you asked. Don’t mention it in a query letter. It’s a non-issue. Every single submission an agent gets has strong similarities to something already published, whether the author happens to be aware of it or not.
In the time since I wrote this post, I became an acquiring editor at a publishing house. As an editor, I’ve sometimes passed on a project because we, personally, just did the EXACT same story. I always know the author didn’t intentionally rip us off. Great minds, etc.! As a publisher, we want to have a variety of stories, and we don’t want someone to ask, “Why did they do two books about having amnesia on St. Patrick’s Day?” etc. I’ll also ease up on a certain theme. I don’t want fifty percent of our books to be about bakeries, for instance, because some readers might not like stories about bakeries.
But this is probably a somewhat bigger issue for our publishing house (which is still tiny, so we don’t have a ton of titles) than it is for most publishing houses. Querying agents is different, because they work with many publishers.
If an existing similar book is a big enough deal, the agent knows about it anyway, which may very well be a benefit rather than a drawback in the agent’s eyes. Agents consciously look for books similar to bestsellers all the time. For instance, after GIRL ON THE TRAIN became a big hit, lots of them were flat-out saying, “I’m looking for twisty thrillers with unlikeable, unreliable female narrators, like GIRL ON THE TRAIN.”
And if, as you’re saying, the other book wasn’t a very big deal, it’s irrelevant.
Honestly, don’t give it another thought. It’s your book.
Thank you for your reply, Bryn. You have no idea how much better this all makes me feel. Now I can get back to work. 🙂
Thanks for this post Bryn. My agent’s been shopping around my middle grade manuscript and it even got longlisted for a prize last year. I’ve spent 10 odd years writing and reworking it. And this morning I woke up and read about a middle grade book with the exact same premise as mine (a magic library that contains every book ever written). I know libraries and magic are not new in middle grade, but this book is very similar in premise to mine. Of course our plots are vastly different, but it still filled me with dread and sadness. This post makes me feel a bit better. The book (first in a series as mine will hopefully one day be) has done well it seems and been listed as an Amazon Best Book of the Month. But I feel quite anxious about how my book will compare and whether it’s as good. I don’t know whether to be pleased the premise is sellable and engaging or sad because mine now won’t be as new and fresh.
Hey, me too! At least, partly. I’m only about halfway through writing mine, and and today I started reading another book where an important part of the protagonist’s background is almost exactly the same. Plus, the author has worked closely with another author that I’ve done some website editing for, and even though that isn’t a *super* close connection, it still makes me even more uncomfortable about the situation.
But the thought of scrapping everything is pretty depressing. I’ve had a lot of fun writing so far, and seeing that I’m hardly the first person to run into this helps. And I’m sure I’m much more sensitive to this specific similarity than others will be. After all, it’s not like there aren’t other tropes in the book that aren’t found in other stories. But, as mine has a completely different setting and the characters themselves are different, I’ll trust that things will be okay.
Anyway, congrats on your book! And thanks for your post, Bryn! 🙂
Hello! I have been having the same struggle with a story that sounds so eerily similar to my unreleased graphic novel that I have been working on ever since high school. This similar story I saw is actually a cartoon that is about to be released sometime. I saw the premise and got a bit worried. Victorian steampunk, ominous force and spiritual themes?? They even have a character design that is similar to mine. I wouldn’t be so discouraged if I knew people would be understanding that sometimes ideas come around by coincidence. But hey, what does that matter. I’ll publish it anyway! It’s my passion project, haha.
Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it at all! Good luck with your story!