Don’t you hate when you’re describing some project of yours and someone replies “Oh, so it’s influenced by [work you’ve never consumed], obviously, right?”
Ughhhhh. And it’s VERY POPULAR so nobody’s gonna believe you that you didn’t get the idea from them. . . .
Psst–you can still do it. If you didn’t actually rip off the thing, it won’t actually look like you’ve been influenced by it, and you’ll just have to change how you approach pitching. . . . Pretending it just doesn’t exist isn’t a good idea, by the way.