Copycat

I got a critique today on my latest story, and the very sharp fellow-writer mentioned Lorrie Moore's "You're Ugly Too."

I read that story for the first time last year, long after beginning two of my stories, both of which have been around for years. I've workshopped them locally and at Gotham, before I read "You're Ugly Too."

One story, the one that was critiqued, has a plot similar to "You're Ugly Too." Single woman deals with a life that's just not what she wanted. Zoe, the protagonist of Moore's story, has a scan that looks like the moon.

The opening line of my other story is about a an infertile couple, and it references a scan that looks like the moon. It's one of my favorite things I've written, and I won't give it up.

I felt like a thief after reading Moore's piece--derivative, even though I'd never read that particular story before writing my own. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a Margaret Atwood line turned up whole in one of my pieces. In fact, I cut a line from the infertility story that sounded like a line from the Handmaid's Tale--when Offred is in the bathtub and doesn't want to look at "something that defines me so completely." Meaning her body.

I wonder if any of my fellow writers have come across something like what they've written in another writer's work after writing it.

Also, I started a long post last night about my cat. I thought she had a cut on her paw, but it's a fibrosarcoma--cancer. It's weird because this trip to the vet felt like a short story unfolding. There was this giant dog there--his owner was telling the people sitting next to her about how the dog had broken her ankle jumping on her, and also how she would get glasses from the sink and they would break in her mouth.

The vet had just told me he the cat could have a tumor, and they might have to amputate her paw or even her leg. This giant dog was barking extremely loudly and straining against his leash and I just wanted to get away. Then this poor old man came in, yelled at the receptionist, and it turned out he was upset because his dog needs pain meds and he can't afford them

It was just so sad, and it seemed to be echoing other things much on my mind.