Ideas: A Hundred for A Dollar© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
So if I offered to sell you a hundred novel ideas for a buck,
would that be a good deal, a fair deal, or a lousy deal?
It would be a lousy deal. Trust me on this one. I can come up
with a hundred usable ideas for novels without breaking a sweat.
So can you. So can anyone. Novel ideas aren't unique, they aren't
rare, they aren't breathtaking. They are the nitrogen of the idea
world---plentiful, everywhere, and only useful if you know what
to do with them.
Why do I mention this? Because it will be a rare conversation
I have with a beginning writer that doesn't include within it the
question, "How do I keep other people from stealing my ideas?" or
"How do I copyright my ideas?"
If you aspire to write novels and you're worried about protecting
your ideas, breathe a deep sigh of relief now. You don't have to
worry anymore. Every idea you're ever going to have for the writing
of your novels has already been written more times than you can
count. And will continue to be written long after you and I are
dust (if civilization doesn't blow the planet into oblivion.) And
that is fine. Ideas aren't the engines that make novels run.
To prove this to you, I'm going to throw out a free idea for a
novel. Here it is. A man falls in love with a woman he can't have,
and determines to have her anyway.
Now let's have three different writers take that idea and run
with it.
Writer One wants to do a comic novel, so he decides that
the man, in order to be get past the overbearing family to the woman
he loves, disguises himself as a woman, takes up residence in the
household as a servant, and waits for his big chance to make his
presence known to the woman of his dreams. Unfortunately, the woman's
brother (who has a thing for rugged women) falls madly and wildly
in love with the hero, thus complicating the hero's life. (You could
fiddle around with this until it became Tootsie, but you could also
run riffs on it that would make it uniquely your own.)
Writer Two wants to do a science fiction novel, and decides
that the man and woman are separated, not by family, but by time.
The woman was a holo star who lived a lonely, tragic life, and died
young and alone before the hero is even born. He "meets" her through
her work, and decides that he will find a way to go back in time,
make her fall in love with him, and save her from herself. His obsession
drives him to develop time travel, though he spends most of his
life doing it. He goes back into the past, does indeed meet her
before she even becomes a star; she falls in love with him as planned,
but after their brief love affair, he dies of old age. She is devastated;
she goes on to become a great actress, never loves again, and dies
young, tragic and alone. (Or not---maybe writer number two came
up with a happy ending.)
Writer Three takes the same idea, and decides that the
man may love the woman, but the woman doesn't even know the man
exists. He, however, is wacko, and sure that she shares his passion,
and starts writing himself love letters that he pretends are from
her in order to more completely enjoy this love. And so on ...
It doesn't matter what idea you have (or take from a published
novel, or from a how-to book on writing, or whatever)---the idea
is not the core of the novel. You are. You and what you bring to
the book you're writing will be unique, because the characters will
come from you, and their reactions, thoughts and feelings will come
from you. And nobody can steal that.
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