Back to the Drawing Board

Today was going to be the big day. After months of planning, I was finally sitting down to start work on the first chapter of my new action series 'The Platypus of Doom'. Then I discovered that somebody else had got there first (see above). Unbelievable. You have the one truly great idea of your career, only to discover that it's not original.

I immediately shelved my plans for another series I wanted to write 'Mongoose Destroyer', because I assumed that would also have been covered in the above book, as one of the 'Other Nihilists'.

But I am not one to be held back easily. I picked myself up and set about plan B - to continue work on that self-help book I've been tinkering with for the last couple of years. I was very close to finally getting somewhere with it, but then I thought I should better double check that nobody else has already done it. And what do you know - there it was:

Yup, 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' is already out there. No doubt there's a copy in almost every household in the country, kept in that emergency box under the stairs with all the mineral water and duct tape.

Aha! Another genius idea. Wait, let me check whether it's been done before...

Damn. It has:

'Ductigami' - that's how I spent many happy hours of my childhood. And now I find out somebody else has already written the manual.

Doesn't look like there's much left for me to write now. It's all been done.

If only I knew how to come up with something truly original.

If only I knew what people really wanted to read.

And if only I knew how to avoid huge ships.

Oh, wait...