I'm trying so hard to avoid that from happening but it seems that I keep falling into the same trap. I'm actually basing this piece apart of me that was a real life story, only of course I'm adding some of the fantasy and sci fi elements and some slight changes to the twist. I'm not sure if many are aware of this. I don't get what to do? Here's a small bio of it. I know I mentioned my story before, but I have the basic premise or basic preview of the entire storyline. I'll use fake names for now. The MC is completely fictional but the story concept, the bad guys and anyone else in it is based on real. Back in the early mid 70's during the kung fu craze in NYC or NY, teenage Mitch had met this master who was from the Indochina wars or straight from China. This guy was a master of kung fu arts. Mitch had already previously trained in Japanese arts like karate/jujitsu from another master, but this Chinese master caught his attention. A few other students or friends joined alongside Mitch. The master would help train them and took them in from the goodness of his heart without charge for these willing students and that they would help out around the kung fu training hall instead. Mitch's intentions were not so good as he really joined for wanting to look good and maybe become famous and popular around the ladies. He indisted the master to make changes to get more sales for the school. The master was not on board at first but gave into his students wishes and allowed Mitch too what's best for the school. Eventually as mitch progressed he figured new ways to get more sales and kind of change the schools direction. Then some point they all split, Mitch brings with him his legacy of building his own greedy kung fu martial arts school empire which the beginning of Master Mitch's Roaring Lions. Mitch at some point met this ex military guy named Joe in the early to mid 90's who was in the special forces which were the Viper Ops and had some martial arts training already. He became one of Mitch's right hand guys, trained him and took Joe under his wing and bought Joe a school location which Joe got to be a kung fu teacher for that school. Overtime a student at the age of 12 entered the kung fu training hall where Joe is the instructor. The students name was Hunter. He has been picked on as a kid and never had friends. So his parents signed him up. He becomes the top student there in his teens and even brainwashed for many years to come and years go by as an adult he learns why his life went down the bad path in a dump and tries to correct his past when he comes across a kid who is being bullied, saving him then recreates the martial art a school himself with the name Roaring Lions again to help kids better themselves. Then the bad kung fu owner Mitch and military guy Joe return to the scene and take back the school overthrowing the MC and manipulate everyone to hate the MC and then his students against him. Then they get so big they end up eventually taking over the city and parts of the world with the intent to obtain this ancient scroll that gifts ultimate power, which was part of the Chinese masters lineage. Now the MC after being beaten, wounded, brutalized and imprisoned he must make a comeback and rise back up, fix this mess, team up with a female who was an ex employee of the bad guy with her bird motif, combine forces, only problem they are viewed as the villains because Joe and Mitch made everyone believe they are. Now everyone thinks Joe and Mitch are the saviors, they even have many advanced guards, police, military, other dojos on their side and even women by their side to support them. Why is this a Karate Kid copy?
I'm afraid of posting my honest opinion, because I'll end up offending you and probably quite a lot of other people too, and I'm already on shaky ground on this forum.
Seriously, right now just write your story and don't give a shit about what other people think. Like Stephen King said, "Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open."
I don't think you should be concerned if you mimic a movie/show in a lot of ways. Don't cross any legal lines and it's fine. There are a large amount of readers who want something almost like another thing they like, but slightly different so they can enjoy it again in a new way. It's why there are trends in fiction.
Personally? My current story is more event driven. There's a lot of character and action based moments, even with a bit of milieu, but it's more about the main "thing" that's going on and how it affects the world and people in it and their reactions to it. Think an anthropomorphic fantasy version of Gone With The Wind but where the fighting factions are Gallic-Roman armies invading a pseudo medieval Asia.
Good strategy, but my hopes are still down the fact that I'm being compared to being a duplicate of an existing show/movie. I guess this means some of my real life experiences were based off a real series that I never knew of? More character. But there will be lots of action.
That shouldn't be an issue. It's just insane to think that there are so many similarities to some of my real life experiences that are already existent in a movie/show. Bad martial art teachers, bullies, dojos, brainwashed by the bad teachers, etc. Thank you. I think this is kind of the idea I would have my story take. Character with events focused with a certain theme being the big premise.
When I read your original thread about this story it did seem like a karate kid remake but with this extended plot outline all it really has are the same base characters. I think the thing that pushes it over the edge into sounding too similar is the military antagonist. The first karate kid movie has the rival dojo run by an ex military special ops guy and the last karate kid movie has the ex-military's ex-military buddy twisting the MC into something he's not and hurting him in revenge for his disgraced friend under the guise of training. I'd say consider whether it's super important that the antagonist military guy needs to be from the military. Is it plot relevant at all? If not, consider an alternate background for him. Maybe he grew up in china or decided to become a monk or something else that brought him into contact with karate.
But the military antagonist is important. Reason is I'm basing a lot of these characters off of my real life experiences, and there really was a bad guy instructor that was at my martial art center I used to go to. He was an ex military soldier that said he was special ops, who had plenty of stories to tell just how badass of a killer he was and could take out anyone, was even abusive and very persuasive. He was the instructor at that school. Not only that but even part of the story I plan has importance to him being from the military as it will connect things later to things like super soldiers, cyborgs, private militia groups(pmc's) police, drones and other things to hunt the MC down. That alternate background I already have planned for the CEO kung fu owner of the school franchise that he had multiples of. He's the guy who ran the school in real life who was owner of the schools headquarters. So the kung fu headquarters CEO guy should be the guru master that was trained by a Chinese monk warrior. So the CEO guy who hired the ex special ops soldier into his dojo should be the one who went to China to meet a monk. Or maybe he met the master in CA or NY since many masters have traveled around out of China. Actually in real life the American guy who ran the schools did learn from a real kung fu master from China who was visiting the US in Chinatown. this kung fu master trained at a temple in China and was drafted during the 2nd World War when China was dealing with the Imperial Army of Japan. Then the American kung fu school owner hired and trained the x military guy in some kung fu arts and allowed him to be a head teacher at one of his schools he owned. Now I know this sounds very similar to Karate Kid III where Terry Silver ran the company of Cobra Kai dojos and bought Kreese, "the bad sensei guy" his own dojo to teach at. Similar to real life how this nasty bad rich kung fu guy owned these dojos and then gave one school to this crazy badass ex military guy who was abusive to teach because he became friends with him. Only difference is in real life this ex special op guy was not a US Vietnam veteran. He claimed to be in the Israeli special forces and probably was. Maybe I could say he was an ex Israeli spec ops guy who was an expert in krav maga before he met the kung fu owner of the school and started to become a martial art instructor? Or I could keep the ex military guy an American spec ops guy that fought during the Gulf War or Afghan War maybe?
@TheMyst7885 your plot certainly has many similarities to quite a lot of Asian movies I saw. Rivaling dojo's, cruel masters, underdog students, none of this is new. One could even argue, that Karate Kid in itself could be a rip off of some ancient Asian movies (though, it's at least a westernized version of the genre...). The sometimes annoying thing is, that no matter the idea (or even real life experiences), chances are high it already exists as a movie/show/novel. Heck, I once saw a movie, which came frightening close to my own past, it wasn't even funny anymore... ...however, I think the secret is, to find something that makes your story stand out (or apart) from similar stories, some unique spin. Just look at the fantasy genre, how many stories/worlds borrow from the same pool of elves, orcs, dwarfs, and what-have-you-not? There are certainly many who are just the same as any other, just with different names and characters. BUT, there are also many that stand out with unique ideas or exceptionally good story telling. So, just write, look out for any legal lines you could cross (as @marshipan already said) and maybe watch some of the older asian movies, it could help you to find a unique spin for your own story.
I get what you're saying. But since I'm basing this off of real life experiences and people that are not being ripped from any movie/novel/show/etc, how can I write if what I draw from my own experiences happens to accidentally mirror what already exists in a real story plot? That is pretty scary when you think of it. Like someone knows what happened ...just kidding. I tried watching some old martial art films. I have some good ideas for the bad CEO American kung fu master guy that was trained by a Chinese monk who owns the franchise schools. that is not a problem. though since he is a bad martial art instructor he will get compared to Karate Kid and other movies with similar villains. the issue is the ex military guy who will easily be compared to the main bad guy teacher from Karate Kid who was also ex military. I might have a legal problem if many are going to compare this bad martial art teacher who has a military background to that guy Kreese from Karate Kid. It's as if the guy in real life was trying to mimic Cobra Kai and Kreese or Terry for that matter lol or has seen the movie in the past and wanted to be just like him before teaching kung fu? If I made him an Israeli spec op soldier with krav maga training would that make him different enough than that ex soldier guy Kreese from Karate Kid? The guy I knew in real life said he was ex Israeli special ops & detective. Edit: sorry it's krav maga not maya, that was a typo.
Well, legal issues would appear when you straight up use the same characters from Karate Kid (or from other works in that matter). I am not an expert on legal matters, but I am pretty sure that it is the characters who are subject to copyright/intellectual property. Your 'bad martial arts teacher' can certainly share a few points with other characters, but should differ enough to be a different character, and thus your character. Sure. It might even not be a bad idea to keep as close to your real life experiences as possible.
Based on that alone I severly doubt that this guy was anywhere even near SpecOps. People who are don't advertise, and as for abusive... he wouldn't have made it through the screening process. I suggest you reconsider telling your reader that a villain based on this real-life guy was ex-SpecOps. Or if you do, you could expose him for being a liar.
Only similarities would be by coincidence and his story is still different. Different character, different face, even different fighting skills, so hopefully I'm in the safe zone? I was thinking this too. Only thing is I hope he doesn't know so he doesn't try taking any legal matters Though I think if I alter a little bit of his appearance, maybe change the hair or his height a bit, it should work. But ex Israeli commando might already be obvious and he'd already know lol. But if I make him an ex US Green Beret or Delta or say he was in Operation Desert Storm, would it still sound too much like John Kreese? Making him ex Israeli special ops might sound exactly like the real guy but it could make an interesting angle so there is no "bad karate ex soldier from Karate Kid" connections and I could give him a krav maga background before he became the kung fu guys right hand instructor? You're probably right, and people who get over their ego like this tend to overexaggerate their truth. But this story is fictional so I can make believe he really was just some crazy ex ops guy who was a real A*** or I could even make him a fraud as it could be a nice parody based on him But if I make him other than ex special ops it might ruin the ideas I had planned for the character. Unless I use the idea of a special ops guy for a complexity different bad character and make this bad teacher guy just a regular kung fu/martial arts instructor or say he was a sports coach turned to martial arts?
Am I guessing correctly, that his origins are not overly important to the story? Why not switch his origin to a neighboring country of Israel? There's Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, I am sure they have special forces too. And a krav maga background should fit for any spec-ops character, regardless the country. I think it has become quite popular among special forces around the world. Plus, there are also krav maga classes for civilians. And not to forget competitions, like for most other martial arts too. Oh, and for the real guy taking legal actions: you should be fine as long the character is not straight up the real guy, with real likeness, real name, and real everything. If this is not given, he should have no basis for legal actions.
If it's important to the plot then keep it. You seem to want to keep the backgrounds as accurate to your knowledge of them as possible. All I can really say now is that even if the premise sounds similar to Karate Kid your story isn't going to be a rewrite of it. There's a lot of differences here now that you've expanded on it that make it unique on its own. One other thing, the characters in Karate Kid are solidly one note apart from the MC. Terry Silver is manipulative, Kreese is arrogant, the bully kid is the cookie cutter bully of 90's movies, Miyagi is, well he's Miyagi and he never changes. Not a single character over the three films has personality development aside from the MC and even that is superficial and short lived. Avoid having 1 trick pony characters and no one, when reading the story, will think hey this guy is like such and such from Karate Kid. They may make the initial connection because karate stuff but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Everyone connects new things to things they've already come into contact with, it's how we bring meaning to our world. Also, we're getting to a point in time where Karate Kid is almost a classic film. I'm a film student and I hadn't seen them until a couple months ago. Without having watched the films I can tell you that Karate Kid is not so well known that those who haven't seen it wouldn't make a connection between the two.
The krav maga they teach in Israel is a little different than the kind of stuff they teach in North America. Over there it's all about ending a fight as quickly and efficiently as possible and not really giving consideration as to whether the loser will walk away from the fight, or ever again, so I'm not sure how that would work in a competition setting. They'd probably need training somewhere else to balance that out.
My point was, that it is not difficult to learn krav maga in general, regardless if spec-op or civilian, for that purpose I mentioned martial art competitions. Also, a quick google search indicated that many special forces outside Israel learn krav maga, sure, maybe not as intensive as Israeli special forces, but an ex-spec-ops guy knowing krav maga regardless of country doesn't seem unrealistic. There's also the question, if the character even needs to know the 'more lethal' krav maga they teach in Israel, or if the 'less lethal' krav maga they teach anywhere else would be enough. I mean, let's oppose the OP makes the character a fraud, who just lies about being an ex Israeli spec-ops, then it would fit that he learned the 'less lethal' variant of krav maga, presumably even as an ordinary civilian. The OP could also come up with 'illegal ways' of how the character, who is supposed to be a bad guy anyways, learned the 'more lethal' krav maga. The character could also be Egypt, but has distant relatives in Israel, who happen to have contacts to someone who trains Israeli spec-ops and is willing to teach an outsider in exchange for a nice sum of money... ...I am sure there are more ways we could come up with on how the character learned the 'more lethal' krav maga variant.
I know you want this story to be as autobiographical as possible, but you also must consider that people will always make connections, be it in their own lives, rooting for the underdog or a movie/book connection. My best advice is to write your story as you see fit and then put it a way for a month or two. Return to it with fresh eyes and fresh perspective and never ever be afraid to rewrite a scene or the entire book. If I were so stubbornly stuck on the first version then I would have never added all the emotions, all the wonderful descriptions that catches my beta reader's eye, nor would I have rewrote the ending and allowed a bit character to have such an impact upon the story as to become a partner to the MC. I also would not have fleshed out my villain and made him almost as interesting as the hero himself. What I'm saying is get the story out of your system, then do a lot of research on your writing craft, I think Mary Buckham and Judy Renner is is in local libraries/book stores, possibly even Rayne Hall. There is always room for improvement, be it a noise to draw the reader into the world, (noises do happen around a battle) or the ray of sunlight glinting off a sword in a heated sword fight. Why, even in movies there's sounds going on around the climatic fight, be it people dies around the focus characters in an epic war battle. They even pause the battles for a tiny effect like that sword glinting and shimmering down a blade or to show the opponent in the reflection.
