Hi, folks. I'm new on the boards, an as-yet-unpublished writer who would like to place an idea of mine out for public disection, primarily because the idea itself was partially inspired by "American Gods" and I'd like to know just how heavily I'm stepping on Neil's toes with this idea before I go any further forward with it:

A grifter/conartist/thief son of a well to do business man in America runs afoul of an uncommonly Nordic community while on the run in Northeastern Canada from American authorities. Dragged to and inexpertly hung from an enormous, crooked tree beside a large black pond, he spends several painful days dangling half-strangled, staring down into the pool before blacking out.

When he awakens to the cold water of the pond lapping at his face; his neck has been permenently twisted, but he is alive after the bough he'd been hung from snapped off the tree.

The town and its folk that hung him are no where to be found.

And, to abreviate what I expect will prove to be a long story, the grifter finds that he has developed enormous powers of entropy and a tangible air of chaos about him...the Legacy of Loki.

I had intended that the tale be a serial for a web-zine of a friend of mine named "Scorched Earth Publications" involving Loki's scion traveling parts of Canada, the US and Latin America, stumbling across and often running afoul of the remnants of other archaic gods and spirits, including Native American Raven,Coyote and Wendigo, the followers of Christianity and Buddha, anthropomorphic manifestations of the Wild, a European griffin, a North American thunderbird and a crafty South American coatl.

My primary concerns about this idea are that, like Neil's American Gods, the protagonist is directly affected by the Norse pantheon and after his first 'divine' encounter continues to collide with divine forces of varying religious beliefs.

I'd appreciate any input anyone had on just how much crossing the line I'd be doing here. I've made a point of avoiding direct involvment with any of the deities Neil referenced, but you never can tell what people are going to consider a 'rip-off' of another, better work.

At this point, I'd settle for being a pale imitation.

Raven Stromdans

Raven,
Welcome to the boards, fellow yet-to-be-published-writer! Come over to the World's End forum and introduce yourself. People give you stuff. It's cool.

As far as your story goes, I don't think you're talking so much about plaguerism. You could always try asking Neil in his journal (just try not to tell him any specific details about the story). But my thinking is this: Neil's used Loki in a bunch of his stories (okay, maybe just American Gods and Sandman), but he didn't actually create Loki. So I would guess you can pursue your story without any worries in that area.

That being said, there's always room for people to say you're "ripping off" this or that, and there are some parallels. I guess the question is, what makes your story different? If you think you've got something different to say, I'd wish more power to you. And I think you being up front about Neil inspiring your stuff is good, too, especially if you acknowledge him somewhere in your story.

Hopefully some of the others will chime in soon.

I've written stuff that used another author's technical methods, even similar scenes - and rather recognisably so.
But I turned it into something completely different at the end. Even the message of my story was completely opposite to this author's.
I could still never publish it, lest I be accused of plagiarism. But it worked for me and for my readers.

The key thing is to be completely up front about your source of inspiration.

Q: when does inspiration becomes plagerism?


A: when it works.

gods are gods. "God", "Jesus", "Loki", "Zeus", "Anubis", etc. are all public domain, as part of organized religions and ancient 'mythology'. and if the tree-hanging is symbolic in any myth, folktale, or religion, well, just because neil did it doesn't mean you can't too.

sounds like you have some good ideas for this; i'm looking forward to it.

From the looks of your summary, the one possible issue you may have is the character's background.

To me it sounds like you took Shadow off of the tree and decided to have him walk a differnt road.

Give your character a better background / beginning and you'd be fine. Id advise you to research Loki and make something to better fit Loki's misadventures as opposed to Odin's being hung about a tree.

It would make the story more credible and interesting if you focus more on the mystery aspect - the main character doesnt understand that Loki has given/passed his powers to him.

You could then have him do various things to out Loki, Loki perhaps to help free him from his burden ( and trust me being charged wit hthe Legacy of Loki is a burden ).

All of the Norse gods are public domain AFAIK, so you wouldnt be ripping off Neil in that aspect.

Essentially you have this background story to the story you want to tell and the fact is the background story is not going to fit well or make much sense because its tailored to Odin when you want something about Loki.

I am not sure if it would be plagarism to use the current background you have, but I do know it would be a burden to your story to use it.

Overall Id say you have a decent idea going, you just need to redo the background of the main character ( which of course will effect the whole story ). Your story seems to be more about the character's interactions with other beings as opposed to the story Neil told about modren gods clashing with older gods.