How do you stop people stealing your ideas?

[Jason Latnar]

I do not want to sound like a tin-foil-hatter but how do I stop people stealing my ideas?

[Jason Latnar]

* Bump *

[Matthew Brown]

I’m sorry Jason. I thought you had seen this post.

I wrote, “relax no one is going to steal your ideas” mostly because of your question. I should have posted a link here. Please forgive that oversight.

Relax, no one is going to steal your ideas

[jeffjohns]

What happens if someone does steal your ideas though?

[Matthew Brown]

There are only a small number of actual plots available. Let’s say you had the idea to write a story about a child that goes to a magic school. Is that Harry Potter, The Worst Witch, The Books of Magic, The Magicians… The way you unfold your idea is what makes it yours. Even if 100 people said, “I like your idea, I’m going to use it”, they would produce 100 totally different stories. Yours would be totally unlike the others because you wrote it and told your story.

How many YA stories feature a “chosen one”? How many authors have written about vampires? The same is true of zombie movies. There are so many zombie films and TV series that it is almost its own genre and yet no two are anything like each other.

Your idea is safe because only you can execute your idea your way.

[Jason Latnar]

Are you saying that ideas cannot be stolen or are you saying that when they are “stolen” they change and become something else? I’m confused. I really don’t want to do years and years of work only to have some thief take all the credit. It happens in Hollywood all the time.

[Matthew Brown]

It is a bit of both. Only you can implement your vision for your idea. If anyone else tries it will be their vision for someone else’s idea. Pretty weak, right.

You are right, idea “theft” does happen in Hollywood. That’s because writers are often only selling an idea. They pitch it to executives and some of those think they can make money by “stealing an idea”. That is why there are often several movies that come out close together with similar themes. You may also notice that some are miles better than others. Guess what happened with the better ones? The writer with the passion for the story was probably behind it. As opposed to the cheap cash-in movies.

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