All Nolan's Think Alike

To clarify I don't believe that just because my surname is Nolan that it means I'm related to director Christopher Nolan...although that would be kind of cool. And in a way explain a lot.

Normally my writing doesn't irk me to the point where I need to tell someone, let alone a forum full of people. But a particular story that I'm working on has got me irked, really, really irked.

I started working on my novel in late 2009 early 2010 after the plot developed separately from yet another unfished fanfiction. It has absolutely no correlation to the fanfiction what so ever. Anyway, so I got working on the characters, location and everything else that goes into pre-writing development.

Then, during the latter half of the year, a group of friends and I went to see Inception. Overall I liked it and followed the craziness for most of the movie. However, when I got back to my novel I had an OMG! Moment. In my story the main characters use a drug that helps put them in an ‘altered state of consciousness’, I haven’t worked out all the kinks/details yet. And, you can probably see my predicament, Nolan had a similar concept. There are obviously differences between our stories, e.g.: mine has a romantic element, but I can’t help but focus on the similarities and the fact that people will automatically say, ‘Oh, so it’s kinda like Inception.’ Ahhh!!

I know this probably sounds pathetic and crazy, but I had such hopes for my novel and now…now every time I try to work on it I only think Inception! I don’t know if I should keep writing--I don’t know if I can anyway. Originality is hard to come by, I know that, and some of you will probably think or tell me to just keep writing. But the fact we had the same kind of idea has got me irked!

Advice? Anyone…?