Rick Daley, over at the Public Query Slushpile Blog (which I hadn’t visited before, too enamored of his personal blog My Daley Rant), is hosting a contest for writers: write a query and the first 5 pages of a novel based on the following premise:
Our protagonist has found evidence that the government is being lured into war. If the country engages in the conflict abroad, its military will not be able to deal with an imminent invasion by a rival nation. The problem is that the source of the information is a double-agent, and our protagonist is being set up to cause the war he/she is trying to prevent.
Rick wants to discern whether it’s easier to write a query or the first 5 pages (my answer: the query), and also to debunk the idea that a novel premise can be “stolen.”
I attended a seminar over the weekend with close to 100 writers gathering at the local library to hear an agent talk about the publishing world. She fielded many questions about copyright issues (should I mail my MS to myself? should I use the copyright office?). She valiantly tried to reassure them that copyright occurs as soon as you compose words on the page (see right here? copyrighted! Brilliant), but the authors in the room were unconvinced that their words wouldn’t be stolen as soon as they were out of their hands.
Do stories get stolen? Absolutely. I’ve seen it happen, and it uniformly happens when some talented writer has their story stolen by some less-talented writer (who is obvs a thief as well – I think we should re-institute 7 years of exile as a suitable punishment, see Gary Colby’s awesome post about historical punishment in Ye Olde England). Beyond the moral turpitude that goes with such thievery, the chances are vanishingly small that anyone who steals your ideas will be able to profit from it. Because it is in the craft of bringing those stories to life, that it’s possible to change a story idea into a salable novel.
So fret not. Onward.
As I cook up my story ideas for this contest, I’m already drawing on a delightful series of posts by Adam Heine about crafting slang for your story-world. And Matthew Delman’s series of posts on the origins of steampunk, along with MG steampunk novel Leviathan, have tempted me to try my hand at a bit of YA steampunk romance/thriller/mystery … in space. Actually on a different world, with political intrigue, male geishas, and the emergence of new technology that threatens to throw the world into war.
Go ahead. Steal my ideas! I double dog dare you.
Contest ends May 28th!
Cool! Thanks for the link to the article on crafting slang. I think Justine Larbalestier did it well in How to Ditch Your Fairy. It's hard to strike just the right tone!
Here's Justine's book, for those interested.
Totally with you on idea-stealing (yes, it happens; no, you shouldn't worry about it). I don't know if you saw this, but I wrote a post proving the odds of an idea getting stolen are about the same as the odds of getting crushed to death.
I like your steampunk ideas. It'll be cool to see what you come up with. Where'd you get the airship sketch?
One of the dangers of posting work online is putting it up there before it really should be seen, much greater danger than having it stolen. I've also heard of authors afraid to submit their work to a publisher, for fear the publisher may steal it. This seems beyond ridiculous to me.
@Adam I love your well thought out post, and not just because there's math involved. However, I am a little afraid of being crushed to death now. I mean, 1 in 2 million people get crushed every year? Just ew.
Airship came from Steampunk Chicago, but I think they got it from Deviant Art.
Oh the siren song of new ideas! It's not like I don't have 1,563,609 other things to do. But a new novel is like new love, even if you only plan to write 5 pages and a query! đ
@Karen Publishers: Please feel free to steal my work! PLEASE!
Seriously, you are right – the internet is eternal, and so is that bad flash fiction with the typo. However, I have hope that agents and publishers are generous/savvy enough to overlook your early efforts, once you bring them a novel that will make them money. Still, a certain modesty has its charm, although there is certainly a camp that believes in building platform by giving away your work.
Come to think of it, that's kind of like blogging … hmmm …
The contest isn't in my genre, otherwise I might take a stab at it. I love your double-dog dare idea to steal your idea! I think a lot more people steal ideas than get caught – they don't get caught because they get started working on that idea and realize how hard it is! Unless you're really commercial and into it for the money, why would you want someone else's idea? Your own ideas are like your babies. That's like someone wanting another person's kid when they already have a kid of their own that they love.
Hmmn, sometimes I DO want to trade kids. Maybe not such a good analogy.
@Margo Bahaha! Take my children, please! đ Just kidding, although I'm willing to lend them out for short periods of time.
About stealing ideas: I have to love an idea with the passion of 10,000 suns in order to spend hours, and hours, and hours writing a novel about it. No way that could ever come from someone else's brain child. But taking an idea, twisting and turning it and making it into your own – yeah, I do that all the time. đ
First of all–new follower! *waves*
I stumbled across your blog today and when I saw you write MG I had to click follow (though I'll confess upfront, my blog hopping has been a tad sporadic lately as I try to meet my agent's deadline). But there's so few MG bloggers–that I've found at least–that I had to say "hi" and click follow.
Looking forward to getting to know you better!
@Shannon Hey fellow MG writer! Thanks for stopping by and following! đ And we have more in common: I'm originally from So Cal, and the wee kittehs are frequent visitors here on Ink Spells. And yanno the MG-lit-love. I look forward to getting to know you too!
"However, I am a little afraid of being crushed to death now. I mean, 1 in 2 million people get crushed every year? Just ew."
I'm sure the odds are a lot lower for at-home-moms and -dads.
Sure, sure. *eyes the bookcase warily*