Are you worried someone will borrow your ideas?

[Kikinumi]

Are you worried someone will steal/borrow your ideas if you let them read your work? Has this already happened to you?

Almost every time I show someone close to me my work, they end up having the same plot that I have in one of their stories, a couple weeks later. That's not a coincidence and it's very annoying, so I understand how some people may feel about this topic.

When asked, some people tell me they don't care if other people borrow certain aspects of their work because they are going to end up rewriting their stories anyway. What if they take the foundation of your work and claim it as their own?

When I create my characters, I incorporate a lot of my plot, world and society into the character, so sometimes I become shy about showing my character outlines to others because the characters are a big aspect of my stories.

[wingedcatgirl]

I'm not worried.

My novel doesn't contain stealable ideas.

[Byte Bandit]

Yeah. I've never had it happen to me, but I can be quite paranoid about my ideas.
That's why I never go into detail. Or I just write fanfiction about games no one has ever played.
XD

[Kikinumi]

billybobfred0

Oh. You seem very sure of that.

Lady Snookeroo

I go into detail, but people never know what I'm talking about so it works out well and I've never actually written fanfiction before, but that seems like a good idea, if it's working out for you. :]

[wingedcatgirl]

Kikinumi

billybobfred0

Oh. You seem very sure of that.

Yeah, so far it's just 16000 words of wandering around trying to find a plot.

[Kikinumi]

billybobfred0

Kikinumi

billybobfred0

Oh. You seem very sure of that.

Yeah, so far it's just 16000 words of wandering around trying to find a plot.

So, sort of fluffy? What if it's not the plot though? Have you ever worried about others borrowing some thing other than a plot?

It's nice to know that so many people are confident about their work.

[Muffers]

You don't need to worry about idea theft because you have to realize one thing: there are no original ideas left in the world. There are original methods of executing well-known ideas, but ideas are not original. Ideas are also not something you can own; it's like saying someone can steal your inspiration to do something. The way you perceive something--the idea, the inspiration--is never going to be the same way someone else perceives it.

If you see the same premises of stories you've written in the stories your friends write after reading yours, it's likely that they drew inspiration from your story -- particularly if they liked it. But unless they're outright plagiarizing your work word-for-word, they're not stealing anything.

Though someone may set a story in the same place you did, have characters similar to yours, and have a similar plot line, they'll never write it the same way you will. Your ideas will always be your own -- always. Don't ever worry about someone stealing your idea, because only you can write that idea the way you see it.

(If I came off as rude, I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend at all. =D )

[TT Snim]

No, not at all. Because of two things. One, my writing style is what make my stuff good (Or bad, depending on what readers like) and two my story is just a mash up of all the big Sci Fi out there. Star Trek, Star Gate, Star Wars, The Matrix. . .

So, really, my stuff is fan ficion with OCs. Have at all ye want. XD

[Kikinumi]

Muffers

I completely understand. (Actually, I think I have stumbled upon a 'quote' out there that says something similar.) Perhaps "ideas" was the wrong word, then.

I have had friends who word-for-word, plagiarized little bits of my work, The only times it wasn't word-for-word, was because that person forgot what I had written. :/ Whatever.

"Don't ever worry about someone stealing your idea, because only you can write that idea the way you see it." That's a nice way of putting and I really like your wording. Thank you.

No worries, I am completely unoffended and don't believe you came off as rude.

TT Snim

Have you ventured into the fan-fiction world, people are nabbing complete stories, word-for-word left and right. The only thing that proves the 'author' actually plagiarized is the time stamp on a website. Anyway, Sci Fi is awesome and I think it's crazy that you're doing a mix of so many popular Sci Fi out there. How has writing your story been, if you don't mind me asking?

[Mayor Gravity]

I just don't tell anyone about what I'm writing.

[TT Snim]

Kikinumi

Have you ventured into the fan-fiction world, people are nabbing complete stories, word-for-word left and right. The only thing that proves the 'author' actually plagiarized is the time stamp on a website. Anyway, Sci Fi is awesome and I think it's crazy that you're doing a mix of so many popular Sci Fi out there. How has writing your story been, if you don't mind me asking?

Steel or copy my stuff? 3nodding
I am in the process of writing one huge Naruto fan fic that's been on pause for a little while while I get other works done. If people quote/steel that then maybe they'll fix the spelling and grammatical errors, and I can just sort of take that fixed version and re-save it as my own... It would help tremendously. xp

(Note this Naruto fanfic is just sort of me rewriting all of Naruto so Naruto isn't an idiot and Sakura isn't a sociopath, and will take years and years of my life from me, just so I can pleasure my self in the character's possibilities that Kisimoto just out right ignores. It's been my practice ground for my other works too. While I'm invested in it, it's not mine, there for, meh, what ever. Take it. I know who wrote it, and so do my fans.)

As for my Sci Fi, it's going a bout as well as I could hope for for some thing that came out of a blender. A space opera that's not in space but a computer makes for an interesting logistical challenge, to say the least. The characters are fragmented as each one doesn't rightly know what base character to be at any given moment, and the plot is mocking me. (b*****d) BUT so far I've managed to beat every thing in to the the shape I want it in, and the story has a followable cohesion that makes me look like I might actually know what I am doing. Finlay.

I haven't posted any of the story it's self on Gaia, yet. It does exist on line as a Pre-story comic from many a moon ago is on my Deviantart page. All seven glorious pages of it. It was literally meant as a throwaway hobby at the time, but darn it, I LIKED it to much to let it die. *Shakes a fist*

And thus I have lost reasonable amounts of sleep as I try hopelessly to make Denny Crane and James T. Kirk look like they BELONG in one body, while schooling them in the Richard Dean Anderson's world of "Fix it", but with guns rather than duct tape. And that's just the Captain.

Don't get me started on the Spock/Data/Uchiha character. stressed

So how is it going?

I have to much time on my hands. It's going to well. Far to well. I'm waiting for the realization to sink in that it's all just Fan fic trash rather then a well thought out OC. . . story of. . . awesome. . .

Um. . .

. . .

. . . Well $#*%. . .



....



It's going well. Thank you. I'm at 26K at the moment of writing this and hope to get at least 2K more done before I crawl off to bed.

[Chouryou]

I am not yet done.
>>>>>>>>>>

I'm more worried about my novel being too 'generic'.

Ideas are not really unique. With that in mind, I don't really mind if someone borrows my ideas (that I borrowed from everyone else and re-worked) and creates something original out of it. I'm pretty sure the borrower will be mixing it up with ideas they'll be taking from other stories anyway.

Now if it's copy-pasted and not re-worked into something their own, I'll be pissed.

<<<<<<<<<<
WITNESS.

[Mutant Husband Erik]

There are some reasons to be paranoid about people stealing your ideas. It does happen. But the reward of someone looking over your work/having someone there to talk to you about it outweighs the paranoia that someone's going to steal your sh*t. It's always better to have a pair of fresh eyes on a piece of work. If you're the only one that's looking over it, you're limiting yourself.

Plus, even if someone does steal your idea, you should be able to write it ten times better than them, anyway. Your writing style is what makes things your own, and no one can steal that.

tl;dr - Was worried about that when I was younger, have since gotten over it.

[Tender Sweets]

none of my friends write. So not in that regard; however i have had people online steal my stories; especially on gaia. People are such pigs.

[Kikinumi]

TT Snim

Nice idea. xD Your story sounds really interesting and I'm glad the writing process is going as well as it has been. 26K is a nice place to be at. I hope your story turns out better than you hoped. C:

Chouryou

Yeah, I don't care if something is reworked, it's just the verbatim stuff that really pisses me off.

Mutant Husband Erik

I really like your response and I agree that not having other people look over one's work is having the person limit themselves.