I have a story where the plot synopsis came from a Tumblr thread. (The OP had a stupid prejudiced thought experiment, and then a bunch of respondents turned it into a dystopian YA story idea, and I figured I could write that.) All of the writing is my own, and the characters are mine except for the most barebones description. Is it possible to get something like that published? How should I go about giving proper credit to the people who came up with the plot?
I wouldn't do it, myself. I mean, I know how I'd feel if I contributed to a thread like that and somebody took my ideas and tried to make money off them. I wouldn't want to make someone else feel that way...
Well, but on the flip side, wouldn't it be the coolest thing ever if you had a thread about some good idea and someone actually took the time to make it a book? If it was good, I'd imagine the thrill of getting to read it would be worth the thought that you contributed a little to it, right?
If I knew that was the plan going in? Sure, maybe. But if it was done without that kind of prior agreement? No, I wouldn't care for it at all.
Ideas are worthless. I don't think a conversation which amounts to "Wouldn't it be cool if..." is particularly worthy of crediting. If I was in your situation, OP, I wouldn't have even thought about crediting for this
Track them down by username. Shoot them messages about it. If they don't respond, credit them in the acknowledgements (or even dedicate it to them.) Anyway, this thread saves me the trouble of asking when I myself eventually dip into the well of Tumblr book ideas for inspiration.
Welcome to Capitalism baby! It is up to you to credit them for giving you the idea as it is the honorable thing to do. Or you will bear the brunt of backlash for theft from those that were the source of the inspiration. Devil or Angel is the path you must choose. You should credit them, but then again you could go E L Fudge and not make mention of your evil deeds until after you have raked in a ton of cash. Riding on the coattails of others is a risky business. All depends on you and what you do. Rip any of us off, and there will be words...many words.
Well...not really, no. I mean, when I make a specific suggestion in the context of someone else's work, sure. But otherwise, not necessarily.
I don't understand the intent of those who put their ideas on Tumblr if not to share (and lose control... it being a public sharing platform and all). Or do you think they were intending to share only with the Tumblr OP?
They were intended to share in one format, with the poster's name attached. Not intended to share in a different format, without the poster's name. If I post a short story online and someone else takes it and publishes it, I will not be satisfied with the idea that I intended to share it anyway so there's no real problem. I intended to share in in a specific way.
Oh yes I certainly agree with you re your short story example. I thought these were ideas, and what I took to be (though with no basis, when I look again) random ideas thrown higgledy piggledy. But I hadn't considered your point re poster's names being attached either. Good point.
Perhaps a good way of looking at this would be to know how specific the ideas are. Are they high concept, "what if a dystopian government makes its subjects fight to the death as propaganda?", or more in depth, with subplots, and character arcs? I was thinking the former, which is why I said I wouldn't have even considered crediting. Other posters seem to be thinking of it more as the latter.
The "all characters are mine except for the most barebone descriptions" part made me think there'd been quite a bit of work done. But you're right, we don't know the precise amount.
I read "barebones descriptions" a little differently, apparently. To me, barebones description is something like "Tall, dark hair, has a short temper but loves kittens." (Or something more relevant to that discussion.) What do you think of as barebone description?
Something along those lines, sure. But if they're at the stage where they're developing characters, even in a sketchy way, they're clearly well past "a dystopian gov't makes its citizens fight to the death".
A description of what makes them important to the idea. For example: A chosen one story but instead of a teenager the chosen one is an old lady, accompanied by her skittish butler to make sure she takes her pills on time, and her many cats, armed with her stabtastic knitting needles. So it's not important that the lady has white hair or has a fondness for caviar in a "barebones description".
I guess without more details we're just lobbing speculation around, but from what I know of tumblr, I wouldn't be surprised to see a thread like... P1: "What if there was a shitty government." P2: "Yeah. And they make citizens fight to the death." P3: "They'd be games the government hosts to keep people in check." P4: "Omg yes! and there'd be this strong willed girl who is good at archery" P2: "and a tall guy with dark hair and a short temper but loves kittens. Jensen Ackles could play him in the movie." Even if that went on for a bit longer... I don't know. I'll stop lobbing speculation around.
That's pretty much what this thread is like. The character details are essentially just gender, sexual orientation and occupation of the protagonist and her love interest, and the world setting detail are basically as detailed as your example.
If that's the level of detail we're talking, I wouldn't bother with crediting, really. At that point, a dozen writers could take up the idea and produce a dozen different novels.