Since the inception of my book idea I have been told countless times how similar it is to the animated series Avatar: the Last Airbender, but here’s the thing: I’ve never seen it. I don’t know what people mean when they point out these similarities. After the first person brought this up to me about seven years ago I even went as far as to swear never to watch it and remain selectively ignorant about the show in order to avoid being sued for copyright (if this sounds overly cautious and paranoid, don’t worry, I’m always like this). Yes, my books incorporate elemental magic, and yes, my characters use swords and spears but from what people have pointed out to me it seems like these are the only two things that make it similar to Avatar.
This last week it came up again, to the point where a critic was telling me I was basically writing fanfiction. Now, I have written fanfiction in the past and if I had been writing this as fanfiction I wouldn’t be offended, but I do find it insulting to have my original work questioned. I hope I’m making it clear here that my books have nothing to do with Avatar and I would rather my work be weighed on its merits by itself.
