For screenwriters, when you are in the process of writing a movie, then you find out a similar script has?

Who cares?

With the number of scripts out there, it's likely that someone - maybe someone you're even talked to - has already started writing a script about the next time a giant meteor is going to strike the earth. Chances are someone out there in the world is going to be writing a romantic comedy *right now* that's going to have a boy meet a girl, boy fall in love with a girl, boy getting the girl, boy losing the girl, and the boy getting the girl back in the end.

And someone is going to start writing one tomorrow, too.

Should that disappoint you? Hell no! if you're afraid that someone is going to write something similar to what you're working on, you should never ever put pixel to screen. I guarantee you that you will be disappointed everyday for the rest of your life.

Writing is not a competition, it's a solitary vocation. If your work is good enough, and you market yourself right, every single thing you write will get sold.

I don't write many scripts, but it's hard not to feel discouraged, since a similar script having been optioned reduces my script's chances--for a while, anyway.

However, I'm then reminded that it's not that weird for "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Observe and Report," or for "Tombstone" and "Wyatt Earp," to be in production simultaneously.