This week I
came across a list of things writers are afraid of that they shouldn’t be, and
at the top of the list was: other people stealing their ideas. And it’s true –
I have yet to meet an author who wasn’t trepidatious about sharing their work
because they were afraid of their ideas being stolen. It’s not just that
someone could copy our work – it’s the fear that someone else might take our
ideas and produce something with them before we do. Even worse, what if they
produce something better than we do?
There were
to incredible arguments about why writers don’t need to fear their ideas being
stolen. The first was that, quite simply, authors have so many ideas of their
own, they aren’t about to go around stealing someone else’s. It’s true. Every
writer I have ever met has had more ideas for what to write than they could
ever write in their lifetime. I know from personal experience that for every
book I write, I end up with two more book ideas – I’ll certainly never need to
steal from someone else!
I found the
second argument even more compelling. Even when you share an idea with someone,
their vision of that idea will be completely different from your own. We all
view the world differently and, as a result, the way we flesh out ideas are all
completely different.
The reason
I found that argument more compelling was because I have personal experience
proving it true. Many years ago, a friend shared an idea with me. She said she
wanted to write a story about a haunted piano. I thought this was brilliant! A
ghost haunting a piano sounded absolutely fantastic to me and I was very
excited to read the story.
Once she
had written it, however, I was very disappointed. The story was very well
written, but it didn’t come close to what I had envisioned from the idea. It
was a tale (as near as I can remember) of someone who acquired an old piano,
and then the piano had possessed them and they proceeded to waste away their
lives playing the piano – writing music and reaching for an impossible
imperfection.
I was so disappointed
in the results that I wrote up a story of my own so I could share my take on
the story of a haunted piano. This was a piano in a secluded alcove that could
play itself. A person, coming upon the piano but not knowing how to play,
played a few random notes. When they went to leave, the piano played the notes
back – and then proceeded to build a marvellous song around those notes, to the
awe of its audience. To me, it was such a compelling scene that I built it into
the first novel I ever wrote.
Both
stories stemmed from a single idea, yet that idea took on extremely different
shapes for each writer. How would a third person interpret the idea? A fourth?
I couldn’t say, but I do know that I’m no longer as worried about people
stealing my ideas.
What about
you?
Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.
Also, make sure you check out
my wife's blog and her
website.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
