Dealing with ideas

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by Daniel, Jul 7, 2006.

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  1. Thufeil

    Thufeil Member

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    So unique! What kind of idea did you get usually? Any correlation with the traffic?
     
  2. Thufeil

    Thufeil Member

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    I wish i can do it too lol. Sometimes the dreams serve us lots of idea and unpredictable moment. How unlucky that I mostly couldn't remember the details when I woke up:p
     
  3. CaitlinCarver

    CaitlinCarver Member

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    I do like to write poems, but I'm also a sci-fi writer. Space Opera is my thing.
     
  4. Senko

    Senko Member

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    To me, usually when I am not trying hard to get ideas is when they come. Unexpected.
    And, many times, when I want to get inspiration to have fresh ideas, they just don't come.
     
  5. Alex R. Encomienda

    Alex R. Encomienda Contributor Contributor

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    I drink quite a lot of wine and sangria while listening to Cassandra Gemini so that's where half of my shit comes from but... Anybody listening to Cassandra Gemini would betoken their own brilliance. It could even make Albert Hoffmann think he was William Shakespeare writing The Monkey Situaton.

    I'm also an extremed introvert with nobody in my life but me so I have a mind full of... Metamorphosis? No, no... Ambiguity; of course.
     
  6. ToxicDeadlyMP

    ToxicDeadlyMP New Member

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    I've been posting a progress journal as well as some detailed information about the big book I'm writing, I was talking with a friend and she doesn't post anything online because shes really worried about her ideas and even her story being stolen. This got me worried since I started posting detailed information on my book in this site. Is this a real world problem or just groundless fear?
     
  7. jim onion

    jim onion New Member

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    Well, as long as you didn't delete your posts or your files, at least you could prove you were the original creator. I don't know how it'd all stand up in a court though. Ultimately I guess if you think you've got something good, I'd make a few friends on here and have them beta read it.

    Less eyes means less chances of anything bad happening (even though it probably wouldn't anyway).
     
  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I have two answers for you:

    1) All things that can happen eventually do happen.

    But...

    2) People who come to this site are coming with their own ideas held passionately to their bosoms. They don't want your idea. And I don't say that to intone that your idea isn't good enough to want, just that it's not the frame of mind. Also, if it's just at the level of ideas, then, I mean, honestly, it's all been done. All of it. Everything. Whatever ideas you may have already exist in other books. I guaranty it. You didn't steal them, obviously, it's just that the writing of stories has been around for literally thousands of years now.

    I've been posting on these boards for close to a decade. I've talked about my stories ad nauseum. Never in all my foruming have I come across someone else talking about my story as though it were their story.
     
  9. ToxicDeadlyMP

    ToxicDeadlyMP New Member

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    thank you that makes sense
     
  10. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yeah. Again, there's no way to give your friend any sort of guaranty, and for some people that's enough to be a deal-breaker. But, you know... there's no guaranty that I'm not going to get t-boned at the intersection close to my house when I go to the grocery story here in a few minutes. I'm still gonna' go because I've got a fridge full of nothing. :)

    If you do a little research as regards your ideas, you'll find a host of books already available. Don't think of that as a problem; think of that as a market for your book. I'm writing a story about romance and intrigue on the high seas between two fellahs' who fall in love despite being from totally different backgrounds. Guess what, Amazon is chockablock with gay high seas romance. :) Yay! Those books are selling, so if I do a good job with mine, that means there's folks a-buyin'. ;)
     
  11. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Is there any real worry about ideas/stories being taken?

    Not really. :) It is, of course, possible... but if someone stole your idea they would produce a completely different book (look at The Worst Witch vs Harry Potter, for example) which wouldn't preclude either of you publishing your version. If they stole your actual story it's a different matter, but the only cases of that I'm aware of have involved writers stealing published manuscripts and releasing them as their own, and those writers don't get away with it for long. In the nicest possible way, there isn't a lot of value to an unpublished manuscript (including mine - this isn't a personal insult to you).

    Also, ideas are the easy bit for most writers. I'm an exception here because I get about two ideas a year. :) But most people on this forum have more ideas than they could possibly write, and umm and ahh over which story to work on. The last thing they're looking for is more ideas, especially when they would be stolen from another writer.

    Getting critique means sharing your ideas and your work, and the benefits of critique outweigh the risks of sharing by a factor of about thirty-four million, IMO. To reduce the risk, you can share only small portions of your work publicly, and be selective about who you send the whole thing to.
     
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  12. Siena

    Siena Senior Member

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    I think this is a bit of a myth - can't be stolen if it's really well done and won't happen on the high end of the business.
     
  13. QueenOfPlants

    QueenOfPlants Definitely a hominid

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    I'd be happy if somebody stole my story and finished it. Because then I could read it and wouldn't have to write it myself. :D
     
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  14. Odile_Blud

    Odile_Blud Active Member

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    I get my best ideas at work. I think up entire scenes while I'm at work, dialogue, scenery and everything, but when it's time to get home and write it all down, it's all gone and I'm stuck with trying to recreate the scene, but for some reason, I can't come up with scenes as well at home as I can at work.

    I've been wanting to carry a little notepad in my pocket and write everything down, but the problem is when I have to deal with customers or I'm busy I won't be able to write it, and I lose my train of thought.

    Any advice?
     
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  15. Lifeline

    Lifeline South. Supporter Contributor

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    Use sticky notes, that's what I do. Or scrap paper. There's always one lying beneath my keyboard, for things I note, related to work or something else :)
     
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  16. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    I always carry a notebook and pen/pencil with me. I get my best ideas at inconvenient times, too. In your case, you might want to use a voice recorder (maybe your phone has one). I bought one years ago to use while driving, and it helps. You just talk into it and record your ideas.
     
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  17. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I agree with the ideas above, but I think there's also value in the idea of... trusting your subconscious, maybe? Something about no idea ever really being lost, just being cycled back in to feed your creativity?

    I used to really worry about lost ideas. I carried notepads, recorders, everything mentioned above. But, really?

    If the idea was something concrete, like a solution to a plot point I'd been struggling with, I almost always remembered it later, even without the hints. If it was something more nebulous, something conceptual or a fun flash of dialogue or whatever, I'd often forget it, but that was okay. I would come up with something else just as good later.

    Being excited about your projects (and having a boring job, as it sounds like you may have) means you'll think about your writing a lot. But a lot of that thinking can be just sort of rolling it over in your head, priming the pump of ideas. If you came up with a great idea while you were at work, you can probably come up with a great idea in different circumstances. Nothing is lost; it's still in your brain somewhere, and it will come back when it's needed.
     
  18. Mckk

    Mckk Member Supporter Contributor

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    Maybe you're trying too hard to recreate the idea you had and not trying hard enough to just be creative there and then, on the spot, and write whatever actually does come to your head? Of course we won't remember every detail of some floating ideas we had half a day ago - and trying to salvage all the details in their exact form as you thought you remembered it will create a block on your creativity rather than help it. So just know that you had a cool idea, feel free to jot down a few key reminders, but when time comes to actually write - let it go. Write what comes, not what you think you should write. And you may suddenly find you're a lot less blank.

    And don't be afraid to lose the original idea. Sometimes these thought processes are just a process - like a cake in the process of baking. What you come up with later may surpass the original idea, especially because you've had time for that idea to sort of simmer in your head and mature a little.
     
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  19. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    I use Keep. I jot down the ideas as they come; dialogue, similes, whatever. I'm quite good at misplacing notebooks and pens, so had to give up on those. At work, I can have Keep open in separate tab or just quickly use my phone to write the ideas down.

    Then again, I also write at work instead of waiting to get back home, but not everyone can do that. It's just that sometimes I feel the idea or vision I get won't be "the same" when I finally get home, so I kinda get where you're coming from. Maybe if it's a very urgent vision you can slip into the bathroom to write it down. :p
     
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  20. MrsAnne

    MrsAnne New Member

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    Is there a name for someone who either gives or sells writers ideas/inspiration?
    I am one of those people who constantly have ideas, all through out my day-ideas, themes, snippets of beautiful dialogue, descriptions, story lines etc pile up in my head (and some of them could actually be used by profession authors). My problem is that I don't have the skill to write out these stories, nor the time to invest in learning, so I was wondering if there is such a thing as selling/giving your ideas to an author? If so what would be the title of such person? Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question.
    Mrs Anne
     
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  21. dragonflare137

    dragonflare137 Member

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    While I don't know the exact name, nor the specifics that go along with it, I do know that this is a thing. An example I know of is the World of Warcraft series. While there is someone who has the idea for the story, they hire an author to actually write out the idea in the form of a novel. There may not be a special name for these types of authors, but I do know that they exist.
     
  22. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    You mean somebody who comes up with ideas for writers to buy? Not that I know of. What would be the point of that? Coming up with ideas is the main component of writing.

    Sounds like @dragonflare137 is describing some kind of ghost writing, which would be totally different. People with ideas often pay writers to write novels for them, but I've never heard of a writer paying somebody else for their ideas. That's wrong on so many levels. If you can find a writer dumb enough to pay you for ideas I'd milk them for all they've got.
     
  23. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Hey @Homer Potvin , I'll give you three fitty. :supergrin:

    @MrsAnne I have never heard of such a title. And Ghostwriting
    is basically writing someone elses story as it is dictated to them,
    and that is not the same thing.

    Who would sell ideas to writers? Please provide sources and materials
    of this bizarre job, if it is actually a thing.
    Though I would have to agree with Homer on this.
     
  24. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Sure: A crazed motorcycle gang of writers terrorize Middle America, moving from town to town and correcting all the comma splices the can find at gunpoint.

    You can keep your three-fifty. The first one is free, kid....
     
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  25. dragonflare137

    dragonflare137 Member

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    Haha I must have misread what OP was asking XD. ahhh I'm dumb XD
     
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