I know a good story is marketable for its writer but I wanted to know; is there anyone or any reference to buy a good idea to improve it to an excellent story? This question came in my mind because I have the idea of a good story which it happens in the world war two time but it is different with all the stories which may you have read in a book or seen in a movies till now. This story is not about the war itself but is about a soldier that encounters a wonderful adventure. This story will be an attractive story and I know, if it is written, it will be the basis of a popular movie. It is a mystery -romantic story which its result is a weird marriage but the next occurrences makes it very wonderful. I myself can write it very good, but am not patient enough to do that ( because may I am not hopeful to earn some money of writing it). So I wanted to ask, is there anyone or any reference to buy such ideas
If you know a guy who knows a guy, I'm sure if you marketed it right Hollywood would buy it (assuming it's good). A television network could buy it, but that also requires knowing guys who know guys. I don't think writers themselves would buy just an idea, though, if that's what you're asking.
It's easy to come up with ideas; it's the execution of the idea that's the hard part. So I doubt anyone would be willing to pay you for one.
Sounds to me like you're not looking for someone to buy the idea; you're actually looking for a ghostwriter, someone to write it for you.
As @thirdwind said, it's really easy to come up with ideas. Ideas are really cheap; everyone has a lot of them out there. The hard part is to actually convert those ideas into something tangible. And to do it well, for that matter.
Have you considered writing it in Farsi and hiring a good translator? Or writing it in English then getting a good editor? I'm unclear what about this story requires patience as opposed to other things you are interested in writing? As for ideas, I'm amazed I keep coming up with new ideas for scenes within my story. I came up with a whole new scene last night for a part I needed to add conflict and tension. It just took a goal and some contemplation time. A few years ago I thought coming up with an interesting fictional plot was nearly impossible. I don't think that now.
Well, as I understood from your comments, an idea is worthless per se and it must be turned into a good story to be marketable. So let me I explain about this idea free because I don't think it finds any buyer Meanwhile, my purpose of question wasn't that the users of WF buy the idea, I was seeking for a reference. An British soldier exposed an German mortar shell in one of the field in the WW II. some of the soldiers that are along with him are killed but he only survives. When he regains consciousness, he don't remember anything and is not able to speak. He takes off his uniform and walks on the battlefield wandered and without any aim. He goes toward German points while he doesn't know where he is going The German soldiers don't see him at first, and he enter their field aimlessly. After a while the German patrols find him in an abandoned trench. They suppose he is German and carry him to a field hospital... After a few days, he is transported to a hospital in one of the Germany cities...He doesn't know anyone, doesn't know where he is and is not able to speak so the hospital medical staffs can't specify his real identity and think he is a German soldier... This was a part of the story
What you are looking for is a reputable ghost writer. Give the ghost writer your story idea and outline to him/her how you want the story presented in print. The painful part follows. How much per word are you willing to pay the ghost writer?
I still don't understand why you aren't writing the story yourself? As for taking an idea of someone else's and running with it, I can't imagine it. It's not the story I want to tell. It's your story. Maybe there are writers looking for ideas but that's not what writing is for me. For me writing is telling the story that's inside me, that wants to be written, that I want to write.
He stays in the hospital about a year. There is a nurse that cares him everyday. He is a handsome man and the German nurse fall in love with him gradually. He can't speak and doesn't remember his past yet but he can to understands others points and affections gradually. When the hospital staff announces, he will release from the hospital soon, the nurse speaks to his parents and convinces them to take him to their home. After the months that he is released from the hospital and is taken to the nurse's home, She tell him that she has fallen in love with him and requests to marry her. They eventually marry. After a year the nurse bring a baby. At that time, Nazism is defeated in Germany and the war is finished. After two years she breeds another baby and three years later they travel to London for a vacation...
@Mans : That is actually very similar to a minor subplot in Jo Nesbo novel 'Redbreast'. I recommend you read that book and see how the writer used it to weave a bigger, more complex narrative. I second everyone else, ideas are cheap, everyone has lots of them, including the writers.
Ginger, the reason is that I am not confident enough. Money is not my goal in writing but I think it can makes me confident to turn on my additional motors and take off from the financial troubles runway
Juzzbel, I have learned English about 3 years up to now and I have not studied an English book wholly yet (even a long article). I even don't know the majority of the west writers except Hitchcock and a few others that I have read one or two of their books in Farsi, years ago. It is good you know, I even have not studied the novels of contemporary Persian writers except a little. I mostly have studied the poems and stories of the olden Persian poets and writers that lived hundreds years ago. So what I write is result of my dynamic mind. Basically, I hate to extract the stories of others because I want to be "myself" not " others". I am an inventor too, I am the same in this section as well and I don't like to copy the products of others, because it damages my independence and righteousness. In the other word, "I like to stand on my feet even though with a cane." Thank you for your viewpoint, Dr. Probably, I will try to read the novel " redbreast". I hope it is found as an Ebook in the internet but it is better you tell me the summary of the story. It will be like a shortcut for me Thank you again
I think reading actually improves your ability to write an original story. Not reading, on the other hand, we can think our idea is original even if it isn't, just because we don't know about it. Like your idea here, you thought there was nothing like it in movies, books etc, and yet I immediately thought of one that is very well known and contemporary, that is very similar. Since the epic of 'Gilgamesh' (and there were probably even older ones) we are all telling pretty much the same story. No idea is original, but our own themes, experiences, imagination and ways we express ourselves, are. Old masters are a great resource, but reading contemporary literature helps us learn how to express ourselves in a way current audiences understand. I can imagine that tackling a book in English with your current knowledge of the language would require a lot of time and energy. Do you have translations of English books into Farsi? If not, it's a pity. But you can definitely learn English well enough to comfortably read in it, in just a couple of years. If you can access movies and documentaries, watch them, graphic novels and comic books are also a great way to connect visual and written. E-books are great because you can highlight the word and read its meaning, so even if it's in English, the dictionary explanation could help with understanding. Jo Nesbo is an Norwegian crime writer. 'Redbreast' is a book in detective Harry Hole series, you can read the summary here . A subplot involving one of the characters goes something like what you described, during WW2. His style is quite dry and matter-of-fact, I think it isn't difficult to understand or follow. Another wonderful writer to read in English is Haruki Murakami. wonderful clarity of thought, lovely vocabulary and quite surreal and magical too.
good ghostwriters don't usually charge per word... and the going rate for ghostwriting a novel runs in the thousands... double-digit thousands! mans... your idea for a plot is what is called in the movie business 'high concept'... meaning it has good marketing potential... but nobody buys ideas... publishers and producers only buy completed book mss and scripts... and plot ideas/concepts can't be copyrighted, so anyone [or several people] reading this thread could take that idea, develop it into a novel and/or a screenplay, and sell it, without paying you a cent for the concept... you clearly can't afford to pay a ghostwriter $20,000 - $75,000 to write it for you, so you can either improve your use of english and writing skills to the point where you can turn out a marketable ms, or just give up on the whole thing... i would prefer to see you do the former, since you are very creative on the 'idea' side and could be quite successful as a writer of fiction, if you can learn to write on a professional level in english... a third alternative is to write your stories/novels in your native tongue and get them published/produced in your own country... that, however, may not be possible, given the current state of things in iran... which still leaves open the option of moving to either the UK or the US [ if that would be possible for you to do], where you will have the opportunity to upgrade your english writing skills and utilize your talent... i happen to love your plot idea... it has great commercial promise and i think it could be an enormously successful novel and/or film, if well-written by a pro... i hope you can find a way to bring it to fruition... if i can be of any help, i'm only a mouse click away... love and hugs, maia
Dear maia, I can write a story in English but slowly and sentence by sentence. I even can change this idea into an attractive story or script but the problem is that I haven't a serious motivation. Well, suppose I wrote this story in English completely; then what should I do? Who do I have to offer ? Where? Which publisher? Who will support me? How I introduce my book to a publisher that lives in England, America, Australia and other remote places in the west or east? At present, I am an unknown and non English writer, How I prove myself that I am an able writer,even though in English? Excuse me, I am talking about my abilities and don't want to show myself as an exceptional writer I offered this idea as a sample obviously to know what is the viewpoints of other writers. This helps me to be informed more about my ideas and story writing in English. So let me I tell the rest of the story in the next post Thank you
When he and his wife have sat on a bench in a park in London, suddenly he hear the sound of the Big Ben that is near the park. He stare to the Big Ben clock. It is like the sound of the bell is familiar for him. He tries to remember something but he can't connect to the past. After this event ( maybe a few days later) they go to a restaurant to have lunch. The manager of restaurant is a woman and waiters are a 12 years old girl and another woman. When that girl brings menu for husband and wife Mikel (that soldier) looks at the girl staring. When the girl show him the menu of foods, he takes her hand strongly and involuntary while he has stared her so. His wife is shocked and tell him in German to give up the girl's hand. When the girl go back to his mother ( the manager of restaurant), she tell her about that man's action. When the foods is prepared his mother bring them for those couple instead of his daughter. ( This is the climax of the story ) When she wants to put the foods on the table she looks at the man... Suddenly the dishes is released from his hands and fall on the floor...
Jazzabel gave you a really good advice there. I can't do anything but to agree and support everything said up there. While I haven't read Jo Nesbo, I definitely can recommend Murakami too. I've read Hard-Boiled wonderland and the end of the world and Norwegian wood, and they're both marvellous.
what all book writers do... edit it and polish it and work on getting an agent and publisher for it... there are listings of agents and publishers available online... i keep lists of agents and publishers in the UK and US, canada and australia, to pass on to mentees and clients... that's what an agent does... the same way anyone living anywhere in the world does--by email or regular post... again, the same way all book writers do... by writing an effective query letter to agents, or directly to publishers who will accept unagented queries... why?... for what purpose?.. if you're not going to write this book, or do the work it will take to learn how to write marketable prose in english, what benefit does posting your story idea provide? this site is not meant to be used for just having people read ideas or stories for pleasure, but to help the writers with writing problems, or advice on how to get their work published... and if you're not going to work on getting your writings published, why keep posting ideas and stories that you are not going to work on to make them readable in english, so they can be published?
You are right. I am thinking about your guidance and advises... Let me I speak sincerely... Because I don't get writing serious and I suppose, it hasn't any profit for me... I think, why I must to spend my time fruitlessly when I don't know whether the English people choose my story or not( because I love to write in English as a new language). If you see I sent my idea in the WF, it was because of this reason. I want to know, what is the opinion of English writers about my work. am I capable? Is my idea noticeable ( before I start writing the story)? Is the idea that I have created, lovely for European, American and other people that speak English? Is it logical for me that I improve the idea to a story?
and the answer to all but the first of those questions is that there is no way to tell... because even the worst idea ever can be turned into a great story, by a great writer and even the best idea ever can result in a poor story, in the hands of poor writer... as for that first question, the consensus, as you've seen from all the pieces you've posted here is that you are not a capable writer in english... which does not mean you can't be a good writer in your native tongue, but only that you are not capable at this time, of writing readable, marketable works in english... so, the bottom line is that it's not at all logical for you to improve the idea of a story written in english, until you improve your ability to write in english... do you understand the difference?
Yes maia, I think I understood what you explained for me but I am trying to don't believe in the reality that you hinted to Do you know why?... Because, I am pretending that I know English...It helps me to simulate myself to a person that know English really, and so, one day I will become an expert person in this language. Also, I am inspiring myself, " Don't worry, you have learned a noticeable part of English till now by yourself. You have walked to this distanced point during three years, so continue the rest of the way. You just now, can write an English story and it is enough that you will and determine to start. To do this, you need to spend time and resist against impatience and hopelessness. You can. So go on..." Dear maia, If I want to start this story, I will be more careful about writing English and I will observe the rules more than a conversation in a forum. Afterward, my story will need modifying, editing and polishing, and as you know, it will not be a difficult work for a mentor and editor as you or other editors
