They Stole the Idea Right Out of My Head!

Mystic Blossom · Jul 1, 2007

I was reading a description of a movie being made right now, and it seems to have close to the exact plot of a novel idea I had. I have not told anyone about it and the only hint that it exists to the real world is a quickly typed sentence in a text file on my computer, which to anyone else sounds nothing like this movie.

Of course I don't believe they could have in any multiverse stolen it, but it raises an interesting question. What do you do when you have an idea, and you discover after coming up with it that there's something very similar out there? Do you give up on it? Do you change it? Do you go ahead with it because you believe yours is better anyway?

Captain Morgan · Jul 1, 2007

Happened to me a few years ago. Threw the manuscript out the window because even if I had come up with it before the movie was even made, who is going to believe me? I'd just look like a plagiarizer no matter how hard I tried to convince anyone.

Guess that is a lesson learned... don't stall on a novel TOO long.

ChaosTitan · Jul 1, 2007

How does the saying go? There are no new ideas, only new takes on old ideas. Or something like that.

A few years ago, I was hit by a cool story idea. A guy has a dream in which he sees himself die. He wakes up, prevents his own death, but then the people he loves start getting hurt/dying because of his cheat. So he has a choice to make.

About a year after I started fiddling with this story, the movie "Final Destination" came out. Similar premise. Similar enough for me to shelve the story. I haven't touched it since. Does it mean I will never go back to it? Nah. Just means I've had a slew of better ideas since.

When you discover a "similar" idea out there, one thing to do is take a serious look at how original or cliche your story really is. If it's been done/being done again, it may not be unique enough. If you believe in the story, go ahead and write it.

Unless the story is a Harry Potter retread, or the movie you read about is a huge, blockbuster success, few editors will read it and go, "Hey, they ripped this off from such-and-such! Instant rejection!"

Claudia Gray · Jul 1, 2007

it depends. As ChaosTitan says, many ideas are variations on a theme, and if your variation has its own identity and personality, you should be okay. On the other hand, if you have an idea that is very like something that's already out there ("It's the Civil War, and this headstrong girl believes she's in love with a genteel aristocrat while failing to see that she really needs to be with a dashing blockade runner --"), it's best to either let it lie fallow for a while, to change it as much as you can or, in some cases, just to let it go. Only the degree of similarity can tell you which path to take.

Lauri B · Jul 1, 2007

Triceratops had a really similar experience, which if he finds this thread I'm sure he'll tell you about. The short answer is that he had a lot of interest in his novel about animatronic dinosaurs--and then Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park came out.

Will Lavender · Jul 1, 2007

I just got the idea for a story.

Writer comes up with an idea. Feverishly writes it. Early scenes show him/her night-sweating, feverishly getting out the idea, his face a rictus of determination and surprise. This is it, he's thinking. This is the one that's going to make me rich.

He writes the book/script, submits it to his agent (played in the film by Joe Pesci), and the agent...

...accuses him of plagiarism.

Pesci/Agent explains that an upcoming movie has the same exact idea. And not only the same idea: same character names, same details, same ending. Same, same, same...

The writer becomes obsessed with the film that's aped his idea. The screenwriter of the film is a strange cat; his Wikipedia entry is incomplete, there are very few photographs of him. The writer becomes more drawn to this obfuscated man. How could he have stolen my idea? the writer wonders. I never told anybody about it.

Turns out (and I'm just typing off the cuff here) that the scriptwriter has stolen the writer's idea through a mystic form of mind-meld. He's literally slipped into the writer's mind and pried out the idea.

Or, or -- if this is a psychological thriller, the writer realizes that the one person he's told about the idea is his fiance. But she is a sweet girl, such a beautiful person...could she have told about his idea? He becomes paranoid, his relationship with the fiance falls apart, and he tracks the scriptwriter in a homicidal rage all the way to Los Angeles, the scene of the book's cynical and explosive denoument.

If anybody wants that idea, it's yours.

Ziljon · Jul 1, 2007

Mystic, if the movie is being made right now, but you haven't even started writing, just go for it. So many things can happen between here and there; the movie could be a flop, it may never even make it to wide release, it may be a big success but your book will take a year to write, six months to get an agent, six months to sell, and a year to be printed, so, three years after the movie--your idea will be fresh again.

larocca · Jul 1, 2007

Back in the 1980s, I sent the Star Trek franchise a novel featuring a menace remarkably similar to The Borg. There are no new ideas. That's why copyrights cover words, not ideas.

Would you like to be sitting in an office somewhere reading manuscripts and deciding if an idea is new or not? Actually, it'd be a plum job. You could rightfully claim nothing is new, then go surf the Internet for the rest of your shift.

Write your novel in your voice, which is the one thing that only you have and that makes it yours.

If you read VIGILANTE JUSTICE, note that I gave my protagonist AIDS before ER started that story arc. Note also that I wanted Rick Shroeder for the movie before NYPD BLUE gave him a job. There are no new ideas. Just move on. (Or move out...)

Like it says in my newsletter, I'm not able to get rich by stealing ideas from William Shakespeare, so I damn sure can't do it stealing from you. It's luck of the draw. And damn annoying. :tongue

So what? Write on.

maestrowork · Jul 1, 2007

Think about it -- there are 6 billion people on the planet. Do you really think there is ONE -- ONE -- single idea that is unique?

It all comes down to who does it first and/or who does it better. It's about treatment, presentation, characters, etc. and many other variations.

Will Lavender · Jul 1, 2007

maestrowork said:
Think about it -- there are 6 billion people on the planet. Do you really think there is ONE -- ONE -- single idea that is unique?

It all comes down to who does it first and/or who does it better. It's about treatment, presentation, characters, etc. and many other variations.

And even if you do come up with an original idea, there are bound to be markings in the story that are similar to something (some detail, some conflict, the ending) that has come before. All stories, after all, pour forth from the same two or three paradigms.

Shady Lane · Jul 1, 2007

This happened to my sister. She thought up this great story idea, had just started to write it...and then came The Lovely Bones.

Akuma · Jul 1, 2007

I was appalled when I was in elementary. Somehow, they had stolen my idea for an Inspector Gadget movie.

Will those bastards stop at nothing?

CoriSCapnSkip · Jul 1, 2007

ChaosTitan said:
A few years ago, I was hit by a cool story idea. A guy has a dream in which he sees himself die. He wakes up, prevents his own death, but then the people he loves start getting hurt/dying because of his cheat. So he has a choice to make.

About a year after I started fiddling with this story, the movie "Final Destination" came out. Similar premise. Similar enough for me to shelve the story.

There's a "Twilight Zone" marathon on Sci Fi starting Tuesday. If they're showing an episode titled "One for the Angels," see if you can catch that. And remember, Rod Serling was accused of plagiarism many times, and sued successfully for it four times!

(Still, I sympathize with you guys. It sucks when this happens, and I've worked myself into a lather many times being afraid someone will come up with something "the same, or better" as mine while I'm still working. The amount of time you "stall" on it has nothing to do with it--someone else may be working at the same time!)

CoriSCapnSkip · Jul 1, 2007

Yeah, I got mad when I learned of the story "Stowaway to the Moon." I had written a story with an identical premise without knowing anything of the original. Unfortunately, mine was written about three years later. :e2bummed:

I didn't know until three years after mine was written as that's when the movie came out.

This is free to anybody. Has anybody written a story about a writer who has a fantastic idea, but only trusts the word of one or two people, who tell the writer it sucks and to give up, because it turns out they want to steal the idea? :e2brows:

The Lady · Jul 2, 2007

Shady Lane said:
This happened to my sister. She thought up this great story idea, had just started to write it...and then came The Lovely Bones.

Tell her to get back writing. The Lovely Bones failed to deliver IMO

maestrowork · Jul 2, 2007

It really is about writing and not the idea. You may come up with a killer, high concept idea but it always comes down to the writing. The Kite Runner is nothing but a coming-of-age/immigrant story set in America and Afghanistan -- we've seen that show a thousand times already -- but it's sold millions and is now a classic. It's the writing that really matters.

jnesvold · Jul 2, 2007

I wrote stories all through high school about anthropomorphic vegetables, then, three years later, VeggieTales comes along. With the same vegetable as a lead, a broccoli. Of course, mine was gritty and violent, and had a jalapeno as co-lead, and didn't have any good morals.

Foinah · Jul 2, 2007

Sounds like an episode of either Twilight Zone or Outer Limits I saw when I was about 12....
The guy kept submitting to his editor and they would come back asking him where he got off thinking he could steal other people's works?! He was picking up the ideas right after the other writer wrote them.

Will Lavender said:
I just got the idea for a story.

Writer comes up with an idea. Feverishly writes it. Early scenes show him/her night-sweating, feverishly getting out the idea, his face a rictus of determination and surprise. This is it, he's thinking. This is the one that's going to make me rich.

He writes the book/script, submits it to his agent (played in the film by Joe Pesci), and the agent...

...accuses him of plagiarism.

Pesci/Agent explains that an upcoming movie has the same exact idea. And not only the same idea: same character names, same details, same ending. Same, same, same...

The writer becomes obsessed with the film that's aped his idea. The screenwriter of the film is a strange cat; his Wikipedia entry is incomplete, there are very few photographs of him. The writer becomes more drawn to this obfuscated man. How could he have stolen my idea? the writer wonders. I never told anybody about it.

Turns out (and I'm just typing off the cuff here) that the scriptwriter has stolen the writer's idea through a mystic form of mind-meld. He's literally slipped into the writer's mind and pried out the idea.

Or, or -- if this is a psychological thriller, the writer realizes that the one person he's told about the idea is his fiance. But she is a sweet girl, such a beautiful person...could she have told about his idea? He becomes paranoid, his relationship with the fiance falls apart, and he tracks the scriptwriter in a homicidal rage all the way to Los Angeles, the scene of the book's cynical and explosive denoument.

If anybody wants that idea, it's yours.

Will Lavender · Jul 2, 2007

Foinah said:
Sounds like an episode of either Twilight Zone or Outer Limits I saw when I was about 12....
The guy kept submitting to his editor and they would come back asking him where he got off thinking he could steal other people's works?! He was picking up the ideas right after the other writer wrote them.

You mean I subconsciously stole an idea about...stolen ideas?

Somewhere, a tear in the universe just opened up. The ghosts of L. Ron Hubbard, Carl Sagan, and the monkeys from 2001 walked through.

maestrowork · Jul 2, 2007

You're all a buncha thieves!

BenPanced · Jul 2, 2007

Somebody stole the idea I was going to come up with for surfing penguins and they're calling it Surf's Up. I wuz gonna think of this idea next week. Thank ghod somebody's already done the work for me. My brain hurts.

Mr. Fix · Jul 2, 2007

Egypt invented the pyramids, no wait, the Aztecs...

Write the better story!

Dave.C.Robinson · Jul 2, 2007

Just so long as they don't need to drill into your head to get the idea it's all good.

Memoirista · Jul 2, 2007

Can we talk about nonfiction, too? I had the idea, I did the research, I wrote it up extremely well, and got a PhD for it. Three years later, I gave it to the lead researcher in the field. Eleven years after the dissertation was published, the lead researcher in the field and his team do the research and write the article that is basically my idea and insights.

If they had published ten years after my dissertation they would have had to go back that far in reviewing the literature, would have found my work, and at the minimum, given me credit--assuming they were and are ethical. Eleven years, it's dropped off the face of the earth--it's too old.

CoriSCapnSkip · Jan 17, 2010

CoriSCapnSkip said:
This is free to anybody. Has anybody written a story about a writer who has a fantastic idea, but only trusts the word of one or two people, who tell the writer it sucks and to give up, because it turns out they want to steal the idea?

Answering my own question, I saw part of an episode of Monk where a writing teacher was trying to make a student look and believe herself crazy, to steal her story.

They Stole the Idea Right Out of My Head!

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