Idea stealing

Status
Not open for further replies.

Anonymous Author

This may be a disturbing post, but I need to get something off my chest.

I am a published novelist, but lately, I have been troubled over some actions I did in the past. Namely, the fact that I pitched my million-dollar idea in front of a bunch of students at NYU. The reasons why I did this were mainly as follows:

1. Someone broke into my home and stole copies of my work, so I was trying to get witnesses to protect it in addition to the copyright registration.
2. I figured I may as well network at NYU, since it is a prestigious school and a lot of these kids have powerful parents.
3. I was stressed out and I really needed someone to give me feedback.
4. I didn't realize that all I had to do to protect it was send it out to production companies and publishers, even though the book wasn't yet perfect at the time.

After I pitched it in numerous classes, various students ended up hating me for my beliefs and could easily steal the idea. Not to mention the fact that none of the other students would have taken time out of their busy lives to testify for me should a thing have occurred.

A stupider thing I did was not sending out query letters immediately after I realized the idea was in severe danger, because I thought I should wait until the script was perfect. Instead, I waited until I had the perfect script, which was more than a year later.

In the end, I won. The idea is now published and mine to claim forever. In fact, it is being produced into a movie and gotten me a lot of high-paying jobs. However, I am still disturbed by how easily it could have fallen into the hands of those disgusting people. I can't help but shake the feeling that I won only because of luck that my stupid, self-destructive actions didn't cost me my life's work.

I know most people here will either ignore me or call me a loser, but I just needed to get this off my chest so I can write without it pestering me. I still don't understand how I could have been that dumb. I could have lost everything and been considered a loser by the writing community.

Can anyone offer me any feedback, positive or negative?
 

Mark Anderson

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
115
Reaction score
38
Well, since it's out there, being made into a movie,and safe, just what is your completely original million-dollar idea?I wasn't actually aware that a plot idea could be claimed forever...or that there were that many original ones left. Now I'm curious!
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,313
Ideas

Having students hate you because of your beliefs, particularly when those beliefs were in the form of a book, sounds a bit weird. The rest of your post concerns things I worry about not at all.

Nor do I understand just who you're calling disgusting people, or why you feel this way? Are you talking about those who hated you for your beliefs? That's an odd reaction.

I never register anything, nor do I know a professional writer who does. What's the point?

I certainly never, ever, under any circumstances, submit anything anywhere until I think it's ready. I'd never send out a book or script that wasn't ready just because I was afraid someone would steal the idea.

I talk about my ideas to anyone who'll listen. I don't believe there is such a thing as a million dollar idea, or even a ten cent idea. The only thing that really makes any idea worthwhile is how well that idea is turned into a book or a movie. Anyone who wants my ideas has only to ask. I have a million of them, and not one is worth a dime until talent and skill turn it into something people want to buy. Even then it isn't worth anything until someone actually shells out money for it.

Give a dozen writers exactly the same idea and you'll get back twelve very different books/movies in return. In fact, doing this used to be a fairly common stunt in SF circles.

In my experience, unpublished work is never worth stealing. Neither is most published work, for that matter.

I think your worries are completely unfounded, and a bit on the paranoid side. It's usually unpublished writers who have no experience in the publishing world who worry about their work being stolen. Especially when it comes to ideas.
This paranoia is normal for those who haven't been around publishing much, but it's needless.

The sad truth is that ideas are a dime a million, none of them are worth anything until talent and skill turn them into something, and no one really wants your ideas or your work, and almost certainly couldn't do anything with you ideas if you paid them.
 
pepperlandgirl

pepperlandgirl

American Aquarium Drinker
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
811
Reaction score
192
Anonymous Author said:
This may be a disturbing post, but I need to get something off my chest.
Click to expand...

I found it disturbing, but only because I expect a published author to tell a more coherent story. Honestly, I have no idea what the heck you're talking about.

Did the students hate you because of other beliefs or the beliefs espoused in the book/script/whatever?

Were you a student or a professor?

Do you honestly believe your idea is so original that nobody else could think of it? Shakespeare probably did it, and did it better. (I actually find that thought rather comforting. I sit down and say "Right, which Shakespeare play will I rip off today?")

And what do you want from us? Is this a cautionary tale and we're supposed to take heed? Offer you comfort? Say, "Well...that's a story..." and go to the next thread? Excuse the snarkiness of the post in general, but I can't muster an appropriate emotion because I really don't know what you wanted from us.

So, in conclusion, good luck with the upcoming movie and future projects and I hope that you don't lose anymore sleep over this. You're fine now, everything is fine.
 
zeprosnepsid

zeprosnepsid

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
1,006
Reaction score
90
Location
LA, unfortunately.
Yeah, I'm confused about this post. It's not about the idea, it's about how you do it. If someone stole George Lucas' idea for Star Wars in the 70s and made a rip-off film would it have made Star Wars any less successful? I doubt it. I can't think of any movie or novel that stands on its idea alone (oh wait, I take that back, perhaps the Da Vinci Code, but it was not the first, second or third book to write about that idea).

Ideas are recycled all the time, it's how you use it. I mean I have one gimmick idea that I'm holding on to that someone could steal and then it'd be less novel if I did it. But it's a gimmick, so it's really only a matter of time until someone uses is. And if I could use it better, it's not a matter of being first.

I have a friend who writes great high concept scripts. But his ideas are always being 'stolen' in that other people also have them. They're high concept, anyone could come up with them. But as long as his are better.

Also, 'stealing' ideas in the movie industry, if it's a script your talking about, it common place. Tarantino doesn't have an original idea in his body, he takes from others. So does De Palma -- so what?

But anyway, I'm confused by this 'anonymous author' who would come here and make this his first post. And put it in novels when it seems like he/she may be writing about a screenplay. It seems a little odd to me.
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,313
Ideas

pepperlandgirl said:
I sit down and say "Right, which Shakespeare play will I rip off today?")
Click to expand...

I do exactly the same thing. And just for fun, I'll also occasionally open a TV guide, read all those little plot synopses, find one for a TV show or movie I've never seen, and use it to write something. It's fun, and the resulting piece never bears any relationship to the actual TV show or movie I "stole" the idea from.
 

Anonymous Author

This is a complex issue. To clarify the confusion:

I was a student. People hated my opinions and were also racist toward my ethnic group. My idea is one of those high concept ideas that would be less novel if anyone else did it before me, which is why I don't understand why the hell I would go around pitching it to NYU students instead of sending it out to producers and editors.

Also, it is a novel and a screenplay.

I can't tell you what my book is otherwise you'd know who I am and I'd prefer to be anonymous in this case.

Yes, I am looking for comfort, but not begging for it. I welcome negative responses.

Eraser, you can write about this idea because it's not something people will shell out money to see.
 

BlueTexas

Back from self-exile land.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
1,159
Reaction score
220
Location
Aledo, TX
Anonymous Author said:
Eraser, you can write about this idea because it's not something people will shell out money to see.
Click to expand...

Well, if he does it right, people will shell out money to see it, or read it. And I think that's what everyone is saying. It's not the idea, it's what you do with it, and I don't think there's a new idea left on the planet, personally.
 

rich

C'mon, you've written enough to let us know that you're full of shit.

Odd stuff, but I thought this was funny and coincidental. Somebody on some other topic mentioned that a lot of stuff that they've published show up on the net when he/she published it in the exact wording used. I tried one phrase that I used, and it showed up. The author was Anonymous Author.

include you within that pool of wayward guppies.
 
Susan Gable

Susan Gable

Dreamer of dreams, teller of tales
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
3,110
Reaction score
755
Location
Pennsylvania
Website
www.susangable.com
Anonymous Author said:
This may be a disturbing post, but I need to get something off my chest.
I am a published novelist, but lately, I have been troubled over some actions I did in the past. Namely, the fact that I pitched my million-dollar idea in front of a bunch of students at NYU. The reasons why I did this were mainly as follows:
1. Someone broke into my home and stole copies of my work, so I was trying to get witnesses to protect it in addition to the copyright registration. ?
Click to expand...

Uh, huh. How did they know you had this masterful plan on your computer if this happened before you spoke about it? And ummm...have you not heard of the police? They generally make the best witnesses. I presume there is a police report regarding this incident? Ideas are not copyrightable, so what did you submit to the copyright office for the registration?

Gosh, I hope your million-dollar idea didn't/doesn't have as many plot holes in it as this post did.

Anonymous Author said:
In the end, I won. The idea is now published and mine to claim forever. In fact, it is being produced into a movie and gotten me a lot of high-paying jobs. However, I am still disturbed by how easily it could have fallen into the hands of those disgusting people. I can't help but shake the feeling that I won only because of luck that my stupid, self-destructive actions didn't cost me my life's work.
Click to expand...

Okay, professionals know that ideas are not copyrightable. (Let's just look at the example several summers ago when we had two movies in the theatres about astroids blasting into the earth. Same idea. Totally different movies. Because the characters make the difference. How the author handles it makes the difference.)

And if you won the victory, then why are you here? Searching for absolution? If you just needed to get it "off your chest so you can write without it pestering you," well, most authors I know also know the value of a private journal. Or of writing something down and then burning it. That's thereputic. Most don't seek out an audience to blat it to. There are no writing priests here to grant you absolution.

If you really want to impress us and improve your credibility, stop hiding behind "Anonymous" and give us the name of the book and the million dollar idea. I mean, if it's already in production, then we can't steal it like those nasty people at NYU. (Well, actually, we COULD steal it. It's all pretty much been done before. And it will be done again.)

Susan G.
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,313
Racist

Anonymous Author said:
This is a complex issue. To clarify the confusion:

I was a student. People hated my opinions and were also racist toward my ethnic group. My idea is one of those high concept ideas that would be less novel if anyone else did it before me, which is why I don't understand why the hell I would go around pitching it to NYU students instead of sending it out to producers and editors.

Also, it is a novel and a screenplay.

I can't tell you what my book is otherwise you'd know who I am and I'd prefer to be anonymous in this case.

Yes, I am looking for comfort, but not begging for it. I welcome negative responses.

Eraser, you can write about this idea because it's not something people will shell out money to see.
Click to expand...

You know, sometimes people hate you because of the ethnic group you belong to, and sometimes people hate you just because you're an *******.

Hiding behind "anonymous" doesn't cut it. I don't really care who you are, but if you want me to believe anything you're saying, don't hide your identity.

As for an idea that hasn't been done before, I've yet to see one. High concept, low concept, who cares? An idea is an idea is an idea. But even if you did come up with one that was completely original, it's still worthless unless it's turned into something worthwhile by talent and skill.

If you really want me to believe any of this, stop hiding. I can't see what possible reason you have for not letting your name be known. It isn't as if you molested a chipmunk. So you pitched the idea in front of some students. Welcome to the real world where this is done day in and day out all over the country.

This makes me wonder if you've ever been near a real writing class, novel or screenwriting. Pitching ideas played a part of every college level class I've been involved with.
 
pepperlandgirl

pepperlandgirl

American Aquarium Drinker
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
811
Reaction score
192
Inspite of myself, I am deeply curious.

Maybe I'm just looking for a completely original idea to steal....I've never seen one before, I wonder what they look like in the wild.
 

rich

Ah, I can tell you they are furry. Born in Spring, and have no concern about their future. They play a lot and don't like things getting in the way of play.
 
James D. Macdonald

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,787
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
  • Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.
  • Feist's Corollary: There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.
Click to expand...

For more fun:

The Evil Overlord Plot Generator
 
zeprosnepsid

zeprosnepsid

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
1,006
Reaction score
90
Location
LA, unfortunately.
Anonymous Author said:
People hated my opinions
Click to expand...

Then why would they take your ideas?

And there's nothing wrong with practicing pitching. I think it would help more than hurt. We pitched our ideas in film school all the time and no one ever stole one.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being cautious. If was Chris Nolan and his brother writing Memento, I wouldn't tell anyone. I wouldn't want anyone to do it before me. But I could also be reasonable. For instance, if someone else did something similar than I couldn't get too upset, it's not a truly original idea.

And why get so upset now when you've already been successful? Nobody did do your idea before you. But I suppose you've learned to keep your mouth shut if your going to be paranoid about it. It's good to get feedback, but next time run it by people you trust.

And it's not to say you haven't experienced prejudice in your life, but in New York, at NYU, there must be many other people of your ethnic group. It's not like you were in a place known for prejudiced white people.

And losing your idea would not make you considered a loser in the writing community. What you've done here clearly has. Who would think that about you? How would the 'writing community' even know what happened?

And lastly, if you have sold your multi-million dollar idea, you should have multi-millions. If I had multi-millions, I would probably not be spending my time here (no offense everyone, you could still e-mail me in Maui, but I don't know if I could pull myself away from my Martini on the beach to write on the board!)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.