Before I even knew anything about LOTR I constructed my world's history, geometry, culture and story line. But there is one big problem: My books have multiple similarities that are almost Identical to LOTR.

First of all my lucifer turned his brother into a deformed creature; this creature (the silver krog) is small emaciated and has two personallities because of the decaying evil mind placed in his that ate up half of it but I won't get into details. anyway he leads them through the enemy land; this character was made before I knew about LOTR and this means only one thing: GOLLUM

secondly there is the character who sacrifices himself for the rest of the world, the son of the king; in disguise. earlier in the books he says he is the heir to a city neighboring the enemies land Krog. Once again this happened before LOTR. What does this sound like: ARAGORN AND GONDOR

thirdly while a small group of about ten sneak past enemy lines to capture the last shield and return it to the king. A large distraction war rages somewhere else. I don't even have to explain this to you.

fourth..um...ly There is an elf; He formerly served as a scribe for the king. He set up a council that rules the plain elves: even their names are similar: Elris...ELROND

There might be a few more but these are the only ones I can remember right now, any advice? And if this was plaigerism I would not be posting it on here. Thanks for reading.

Oh and Some dialoge that I came up with showed its face in the movies and even the wise men in the nativity story. Not that you have to help that one or anything just wanted to let you know.

That is a hard situation. I found out the same thing about my book and Christopher Paolini's books. I ended up caunging all of my names and most of my plot because of it. but, guess what it turned out better!. You may just have to do the same because the people who will be intrested in your book as fantasty readers have probably read Lord of the Rings and you don't want to be called uncreative and a copy cat. Just my advice.
Elisabeth AKA Ana

OK, thanks what happened in your books that was similar?

Oh where do I start... First of all I had a blue dragon named Sapphire that was ridden by a teen named Murtagh whose father was evil and gave him a scar on his back as a child. Murtagh had a mother who had his half brother with his mentor. Murtagh was also in love with a Elf that was a lot older then him.
My world's name was also Alaisa, a lot like Alagaesia, huh? And yes, this is what my Musicthiss story used to be. Now it's a lot different but I love it a lot better. Hope that answers your question.
Elisabeth

Kind of funny how things take certain patterns. I had a character perfectly laid out, and then I read a new book with an almost identical character, and it spooked me out. But anyway, I changed him, and I like him better as he is now then I did as he was then.

Sometimes these sort of things make you look at your characters more in depth.

I had a similar problem. Two books into my series I discovered a fantasy movie (I had never seen it before) that had a forest named exactly the same as mine! And though the character didn't have the same name, there were plenty of similarities in physical appearance and personality.

I can honestly say I didn't know what to do, but I came up with a solution. Give it some thought. Pray about it. And then think some more. Whatever you do, be sure not to do it without God's guidance. He's a wonderful teacher!

There are many things that naturally reappear in stories. They are not originally created by anybody, and so you cannot plagiarize them. Don't spend all your time trying to avoid 'copying' other authors, just focus on making a really well developed story. No one can be you, and so no one can write like you. The more you develop your story, the more unique it will be.

Well, Ecclesiastes 1:9 says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (NIV)

I'm not sure how well the verse applies to situations like these, but I thought I would mention it anyway.