Has Hollywood stolen your story?

[CharleyH]

For two freaking years I have been pouring through movies, docos, history books and autobios taking notes and fashioning a plot structure, jotting down potential snippets and motifs I might be able to use, devoting free time trying to fashion a fiction from facts. This morning I wake and the first titbit of news that pops up on my MSN is none other than ... my idea!

A Sensitive Hangman

I am not so vain to think that I am the only person in this world to come up with any idea. In fact, I'm willing to bet that for every story idea we each have there are about 100,000 people with the same concept. Fortunately, my perspective is different from those other 100,000 people and of course, over the years my idea has shifted in a direction (thankfully) away from Pierrepoint.

Still, to see this blurb on MSN, especially since over the past two weeks I've devoted even more time to this particular story, I couldn't help but wonder in some sort of Celestine Prophecy way, whether this was a sign to hurry the hell up and write it or completely give up. Of course, my decision is to continue writing.

In any case, it had me wondering about how other writers perceive their story ideas.

How original do you think your story ideas are? As writers, what exactly is, or how do you/ should we define "originality"? Is it the idea/concept that's original, your perspective on the topic that makes it unique, or is it something else?

 

[gauchecritic]

As they say; there is nothing new under the sun. I usually point out that there are always new people.

It's perspective that brings originality.

If you recall 'The Jolson Story' I think it was in part two, when Eddie Cantor as Jolson meets Eddie Cantor who is going to play him in the film and he tells the writer that people who visit the theatre don't want to see the seamy side of Jolson they want to see the joy and happiness.

The writer was scripting Jolson's life story, Jolson wanted the showman's story. I think they waited til he'd died before making part two and including Jolson the regular guy.

I think there was a writer that said his ideas come from the ether. Ideas are just hanging around waiting to be used and often there is more than one person that plucks the idea and writes it or invents it. (eg the telephone, the surfboard, television)

I've been working on a story (when I say working I mean casually thinking, researching and occasionally writing) which includes the events of 1066, recently I've discovered at least two other people that are working on stories to do with exactly that.

I think serendipity has a lot to do with this.

 

[NoJo]

That was a very good idea for a story, Charley. Personally, I'd take heart from the fact that it was turned into a movie, it shows your ideas to be commercial.

I was driven by a sense of panic when I wrote one of my screenplays, thinking that any minute somebody else would take the idea. But five years on, it still hasn't happened, to my knowledge.

 

[flavortang]

It happens all the time. We derive our ideas from a collective subconscious. We watch the same movies, the same news programs, commercials, .etc. I was reading here in the forums about a Lit author's series of novels. I'd basically had the exact same idea years ago. Ideas are easy to come by, but making them into something tangible that can be read, that's much rarer.

 

[angelicminx]

I agree with the 'idea pool' concept. I don't think my ideas are incredibly original, but where I take them sometimes... (Thinking Lustful Leeves here.)

I've got three huge ideas rattling around in my brain, and I'm sure none of the three are anywhere close to 'new'. I'm also sure that the road I take them down will be unique. There's only one me.

 

[flavortang]

I agree with the 'idea pool' concept. I don't think my ideas are incredibly original, but where I take them sometimes... (Thinking Lustful Leeves here.)

I've got three huge ideas rattling around in my brain, and I'm sure none of the three are anywhere close to 'new'. I'm also sure that the road I take them down will be unique. There's only one me.

Yeah, ideas are real easy to come by, but it's the people who can take those ideas and put them into a narrative body that makes a reader feel something that separates them from the pack.

 

[CharleyH]

As they say; there is nothing new under the sun. I usually point out that there are always new people.

It's perspective that brings originality.

If you recall 'The Jolson Story' I think it was in part two, when Eddie Cantor as Jolson meets Eddie Cantor who is going to play him in the film and he tells the writer that people who visit the theatre don't want to see the seamy side of Jolson they want to see the joy and happiness.

The writer was scripting Jolson's life story, Jolson wanted the showman's story. I think they waited til he'd died before making part two and including Jolson the regular guy.

I think there was a writer that said his ideas come from the ether. Ideas are just hanging around waiting to be used and often there is more than one person that plucks the idea and writes it or invents it. (eg the telephone, the surfboard, television)

I've been working on a story (when I say working I mean casually thinking, researching and occasionally writing) which includes the events of 1066, recently I've discovered at least two other people that are working on stories to do with exactly that.

I think serendipity has a lot to do with this.

Obviously, a bit tongue in cheek about Hollywood stealing stories (though I am certain that in reality it happens from time to time ).

I agree that perspective makes all the difference in the world when it comes to 'originality'. No two people have had the same experiences, no two people make the exact same choices etcetera, therefore even if the topic is the same (particularly when writing a fictional account including true life people/events, ie. Pierrepoint) it will be written from one of an infinite number of perspectives/ possibilities.

While I do not recall the Jolson story, I enjoy the interesting and informative little blurb - thank you.

I wonder how another person would write our individual personal life stories and how different that bio story would be from our own autobio?

I suppose autobios are written by those who do not want anyone else telling their story? Perhaps written by those who want to narrow the public focus/opinion to their own personal perspective about who they are and what they have or have not accomplished. Interesting.

 

[jomar]

I don't think my stories are very original at all - variations on a theme.

Like you, Charley, I think a lot of people come up with ideas, but few act on them. We've all probably had ideas only to see them in a store a some years later (roll out camping chairs with aluminum frames, those folding "soccer" chairs anyone?).

 

[CharleyH]

I was driven by a sense of panic when I wrote one of my screenplays, thinking that any minute somebody else would take the idea. But five years on, it still hasn't happened, to my knowledge.

lol

I'm not particularly over-protective about any story concept that I have, I like to share because I like to hammer out thoughts, and I'm at least confident that my perspective is different from others. Yet I have known some people that get so possessed with the paranoia that someone will steal their idea that they can't even send it to an editor to review it let alone a publisher for fear that it will be stolen.

It brings up an interesting thought regarding a writer's fear of success/failure.

 

[gauchecritic]

they can't even send it to an editor to review it let alone a publisher for fear that it will be stolen.

It brings up an interesting thought regarding a writer's fear of success/failure.

I'm certain that this has happened. (I've told this story many times before and then been told about happenstance and I still don't believe in it)

Many many years ago I submitted a TV sitcom idea to as many production companies as possible (v. expensive) only to get rejections from each one. The single company that returned the idea with any crit at all was that the reader didn't like the characters.

About two years later, lo and behold, my exact characters in a new sit-com by the same company. Back then I didn't have the nous to make any sort of challenge, which they probably would have denied anyway and being a doleite at the time was a daunting financial prospect.

Hollywood seem to do this a lot, with two or three or more different companies bringing out very similar movies at the same time. A bit more than co-incidence I would guess.

 

[Dar~]

I agree with the 'idea pool' concept. I don't think my ideas are incredibly original, but where I take them sometimes... (Thinking Lustful Leeves here.)

I've got three huge ideas rattling around in my brain, and I'm sure none of the three are anywhere close to 'new'. I'm also sure that the road I take them down will be unique. There's only one me.

Lustful Leeves were an idea collective too if you remember...

 

[flavortang]

I'm certain that this has happened. (I've told this story many times before and then been told about happenstance and I still don't believe in it)

Many many years ago I submitted a TV sitcom idea to as many production companies as possible (v. expensive) only to get rejections from each one. The single company that returned the idea with any crit at all was that the reader didn't like the characters.

About two years later, lo and behold, my exact characters in a new sit-com by the same company. Back then I didn't have the nous to make any sort of challenge, which they probably would have denied anyway and being a doleite at the time was a daunting financial prospect.

Hollywood seem to do this a lot, with two or three or more different companies bringing out very similar movies at the same time. A bit more than co-incidence I would guess.

I can't believe that with all the garbage being churned out on TV, they all of a sudden had 'high' standards that your project didn't live up to. The readers didn't like the characters? Have these people watched TV? Most of the characters on TV are written to be intentionally unlikeable husks of self-serving humanity. Ugh.

I agree about the movie thing, with similar movies coming out at the same time.

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[neonlyte]

As they say; there is nothing new under the sun. I usually point out that there are always new people.

It's perspective that brings originality.

If you recall 'The Jolson Story' I think it was in part two, when Eddie Cantor as Jolson meets Eddie Cantor who is going to play him in the film and he tells the writer that people who visit the theatre don't want to see the seamy side of Jolson they want to see the joy and happiness.

The writer was scripting Jolson's life story, Jolson wanted the showman's story. I think they waited til he'd died before making part two and including Jolson the regular guy.

I think there was a writer that said his ideas come from the ether. Ideas are just hanging around waiting to be used and often there is more than one person that plucks the idea and writes it or invents it. (eg the telephone, the surfboard, television)

I've been working on a story (when I say working I mean casually thinking, researching and occasionally writing) which includes the events of 1066, recently I've discovered at least two other people that are working on stories to do with exactly that.

I think serendipity has a lot to do with this.

I like the plucking notion, the wife subscribes to the philosophy that 'ideas' hang around waiting for someone to grab them, it is what they then do with them that makes their idea original.

Most of my story ideas devolve from a semblance of fact, I keep 'the fact' and weave a fabrication to support it.

By the way, it's three. We should compare notes... though I'm more interested in 1064 than 1066.

 

[neonlyte]

For two freaking years I have been pouring through movies, docos, history books and autobios taking notes and fashioning a plot structure, jotting down potential snippets and motifs I might be able to use, devoting free time trying to fashion a fiction from facts. This morning I wake and the first titbit of news that pops up on my MSN is none other than ... my idea!

A Sensitive Hangman

I am not so vain to think that I am the only person in this world to come up with any idea. In fact, I'm willing to bet that for every story idea we each have there are about 100,000 people with the same concept. Fortunately, my perspective is different from those other 100,000 people and of course, over the years my idea has shifted in a direction (thankfully) away from Pierrepoint.

Still, to see this blurb on MSN, especially since over the past two weeks I've devoted even more time to this particular story, I couldn't help but wonder in some sort of Celestine Prophecy way, whether this was a sign to hurry the hell up and write it or completely give up. Of course, my decision is to continue writing.

In any case, it had me wondering about how other writers perceive their story ideas.

How original do you think your story ideas are? As writers, what exactly is, or how do you/ should we define "originality"? Is it the idea/concept that's original, your perspective on the topic that makes it unique, or is it something else?

Pierrepoint's family moved from Old Warden in Hertfordshire to Yorkshire eventually settling in Bradford. One branch of the family moved to Canada, the other branch, in Bradford, spawned my mother.

 

[jomar]

I'm certain that this has happened. (I've told this story many times before and then been told about happenstance and I still don't believe in it)

Many many years ago I submitted a TV sitcom idea to as many production companies as possible (v. expensive) only to get rejections from each one. The single company that returned the idea with any crit at all was that the reader didn't like the characters.

About two years later, lo and behold, my exact characters in a new sit-com by the same company. Back then I didn't have the nous to make any sort of challenge, which they probably would have denied anyway and being a doleite at the time was a daunting financial prospect.

Hollywood seem to do this a lot, with two or three or more different companies bringing out very similar movies at the same time. A bit more than co-incidence I would guess.

Sorry to hear that. I think Art Buchwald sued over something like that.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I had a couple of ideas that I thought would be perfect for MacDonald's commercials. I got in touch with the corporate headquarters to ask where I could send them to-- they told me on no account to send anything of the sort, that it all gets returned unopened.

This makes complete sense to me-- since they pay a bunch of guys a lot of money to be doing that same thing, and no idea is utterly original. One of them thinks of what I just thought of, and I try to sue saying they stole my idea. It's cool, I'll use those ideas somewhere.

 

[R. Richard]

One of the problems with being an author is that most authors are also readers. The author reads a story at some point in time and then 'forgets' the story. However, deep in the author's subconscious, the story remains. After a time, the author writes 'a new story.' The new story is, however, really the old story filtered through the author's subconscious."

JMHO.

 

[Pure]

the story reminds me of the award winning film "monster's ball."

i think both theories are correct: ideas do hover about and get plucked; in math, the calculus was invented independently by Newton and Leibnitz.

designs for the first bicycles were floating around several different countries. this is true, iirc, for the telephone.

hollywood, and the music industry do steal (or the screen and song writers do), as many lawsuits attest. usually the writer remembers reading a script but claims he didn't borrow anything by the skeleton from it.

 

[Stella_Omega]

George Harrison was successfully sued for plagiarism-- his song "My Sweet Lord" was judged to be far too close to "He's So Fine" for it to be coincidental. Harrison said afterwards that it was probably so, because he'd loved that song when it came out. So even the best do it once in a while...

 

[SesameStreet]

I haven't seen any movies that seem like my E-Books. I wish that I did. All of mine are about men and women over 45. How many movies do you see that portray women in their fifties as being exciting, sensual, sexy women?

Not many............if any.

 

[gauchecritic]

How many movies do you see that portray women in their fifties as being exciting, sensual, sexy women?

Not many............if any.

Unless you count skin care commercials by Jane Fonda. (rrrowr)

 

[CharleyH]

Unless you count skin care commercials by Jane Fonda. (rrrowr)

LOL

Actually, Sesame? There are hundreds of them.

 

[angelicminx]

Lustful Leeves were an idea collective too if you remember...

I remember. It was one hell of a collective too. Each of us took the collective idea and went wild. You and DP took the story idea in a direction I wasn't expecting, and it was awesome to see what you both did with it. Then Svenskaflicka picked up the idea and ran with it too. That was so much fun!

It's part of what I love about chain stories. One basic idea, many different perspectives.

 

[shereads]

No. Hollywood has stolen my idea for a combined entertainment mecca and insular residential community in the foothills above a vast, densely populated valley. The community's name, which would have been spelled out in giant letters visible for miles, was to have become a metaphor for decadence, ambition, and the cult of celebrity. I was going to call it Madison, Wisconsin.