Child slave labour

Hillgate · Feb 25, 2009

My son came into my room last night to give me a film idea. It was 1am. He's under 16. I listened, bleary-eyed, then watched him plod back to his room. Then I picked up the pen next to my bed and scribbled down his idea.

I woke up the next morning. The idea will work. It's great. I now have a new, unpaid, enthusiastic ideas-generator and development executive.

Does anyone else exploit their own children in this manner? I mean, I will obviously use all proceeds to pay school fees...

Yours guiltily

icerose · Feb 25, 2009

My kids come up with crazy ideas all the time. My daughter wants to be a writer/artist when she grows up (I can't imagine where she gets that from...) so I tell her to write her own stories. I bought her a special diary for Christmas along with special pens. There she writes down her stories where none of her other siblings can scribble over them.

She has the book halfway filled and she's only 7!

clockwork · Feb 25, 2009

I don't have kids but I've got a younger brother who's devastating with his assessment of my ideas. I pitch something and he'll find the one flaw that means the whole idea is worthless. I'm sure he's got an exciting future in running Paramount or as a judge on American Idol.

Rainy Night · Feb 25, 2009

Guilty...

My son wants to be an actor/racecar driver and my daughter wants to be a set/costume designer.

indiriverflow · Feb 25, 2009

Hillgate said:
My son came into my room last night to give me a film idea. It was 1am. He's under 16. I listened, bleary-eyed, then watched him plod back to his room. Then I picked up the pen next to my bed and scribbled down his idea.

I woke up the next morning. The idea will work. It's great. I now have a new, unpaid, enthusiastic ideas-generator and development executive.

Does anyone else exploit their own children in this manner? I mean, I will obviously use all proceeds to pay school fees...

Yours guiltily

At least give him co-writing credit. Then it can be guilt-free. So can making him handle submission clerking.

That might even be the gimmick that sells it.

JulieJames · Feb 25, 2009

I wish I had an idea generator! sheesh! My writing is only mediocre (spelling I know, but why did God let spell check be created???) but i have a following at work. All they ever want is more stories... they never give me any ideas! Oh how I wish I had an idea generator! (Are you listening god???)

zeprosnepsid · Feb 25, 2009

Hillgate said:
Does anyone else exploit their own children in this manner? I mean, I will obviously use all proceeds to pay school fees...

I believe George Lucas does this.

Hillgate · Feb 26, 2009

zeprosnepsid said:
I believe George Lucas does this.

I'll start growing a beard.

And so will my son.

The force is strong within him.

And I am his father.

Anyone got a spare black helmet?

Raghu · Feb 26, 2009

JulieJames said:
I wish I had an idea generator! sheesh! My writing is only mediocre (spelling I know, but why did God let spell check be created???) but i have a following at work. All they ever want is more stories... they never give me any ideas! Oh how I wish I had an idea generator! (Are you listening god???)

Belive it or not, there are idea generators and plot generators used by novelists and screenwriters. Some seem serious, while the others are downright funny. Just check out these links.

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Link 5

Link 6

Link 7

Link 8

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Link 11

Link 12

Link 13

Raghu

icerose · Feb 26, 2009

Ideas are something I've never had a problem with. I have over 200 saved in a file. I had two more last night.

My problem is finding the time to write them all!

Hillgate · Feb 26, 2009

icerose said:
Ideas are something I've never had a problem with. I have over 200 saved in a file. I had two more last night.

My problem is finding the time to write them all!

I know - I also get what I think are 'good' ideas - nothing like 200 - wow!! - but in 90% of cases they have a fatal flaw so I rarely get any really good ones.

icerose · Feb 26, 2009

Hillgate said:
I know - I also get what I think are 'good' ideas - nothing like 200 - wow!! - but in 90% of cases they have a fatal flaw so I rarely get any really good ones.

Yeah, that's just in the past 6 years too. And I can deal with fatal flaws. I have a brainstorming session with my sister on how to fix that fatal flaw and make the story better. Of course picking which idea I'm going to run with is always the hardest decision.

ALLWritety · Feb 26, 2009

icerose said:
Ideas are something I've never had a problem with. I have over 200 saved in a file. I had two more last night.

My problem is finding the time to write them all!

MY problem is writing them down before someone else has a simular idea and they write it before me! WAH!

Kev

Staceyp67 · Mar 4, 2009

I personally think I have too many ideas floating around at the same time. I can't write them all tonight although they are all in my head ready for me to put on paper.... LOL!! Adam Sandler, I think, said that the last movie he did came from his kids. So, you are in good company!

Stijn Hommes · Mar 14, 2009

I don't have kids yet, but I don't need any to generate ideas. I've generated more than enough of them in the past 10 years. Now all I need is the time to flesh them out...

Child slave labour

Hillgate

On location

icerose

Lost in School Work

clockwork

In the zone...

Rainy Night

INFJ

indiriverflow

JulieJames

boldly going nowhere...

zeprosnepsid

Hillgate

On location

Raghu

Slumdog Screenwriter

icerose

Lost in School Work

Hillgate

On location

icerose

Lost in School Work

ALLWritety

One Step closer, I hope!

Staceyp67

Stijn Hommes

Know what you write...