Me and My Great Ideas
Ideas are funny things. Especially
comic ideas. But that’s not what I meant. All
ideas are pretty interesting. The way they happen, I mean.
First there’s nothing, then in the
space where there used to be nothing, there now sits an idea. It could be an
abstract thought that just occurred to me, or an idea for a new story.
What makes that idea appear? It could
be a number of different things. Our senses contribute a lot. Something we see,
hear, read, whatever, reminds us of something else, and a connection is made.
Maybe something wonderful or traumatic that happens to us makes enough of an
impression that we think, “I need to write about that!” And now that we have
the experience, we can write about it with authority.
Or maybe something that we
experience makes us think of something completely different, or think of
something in a different way. As an example, I was watching an episode of Castle a while back. In a scene after a
murder, the characters were exchanging information about the victim. A very
serious and sober scene, but something clicked in my head about a really
awesome way this scene could be made funny.
Okay, obviously not what was called
for in the show, but it found its way into my latest novel, Poked, still in progress. (You’ll just
have to wait to see how that turned out.)
Speaking of ideas in writing (or
other forms of artistic expression), copyright law has a limited application.
According to Wikipedia:
In some cases, authors can be granted limited legal monopolies
on the manner in which certain works are expressed. This is known colloquially
as copyright, although the term intellectual property is used
mistakenly in place of copyright. Copyright law regulating the
aforementioned monopolies generally does not cover the actual ideas. The law
does not bestow the legal status of property upon ideas per se.
Instead, laws purport to regulate events related to the usage, copying,
production, sale and other forms of exploitation of the fundamental expression
of a work, that may or may not carry ideas.
This is why, for example, similar
movies may be released at approximately the same time. Two examples come to
mind: In September of 2006, The
Illusionist was released, a movie about a Victorian-era European magician,
and the jealousy and obsession of a monarch over how his trick is done. It was
followed the very next month by The Prestige,
a story about rival magicians in Victorian-era Europe, and one’s jealousy and obsession
over how the other’s trick is done. Very similar ideas, but quite different
applications.
In an even more dramatic example, in
May of 1998, Deep Impact was released,
a movie about a comet on a collision course with earth, and the launch of a
space mission in an attempt to destroy it by planting nuclear devices inside
the comet. Relatively few people remember Deep
Impact, though, because it was eclipsed by Armageddon which was released in July, a movie about an asteroid on
a collision course with earth, and the launch of a space mission in an attempt
to destroy it by planting nuclear devices inside the asteroid.
In this example, the ideas for both
movies are identical. If you read the description alone, without the title, you
wouldn’t be able to determine which movie was being referenced. The idea is not
covered by copyright law. The execution of it, though, in the form of a
screenplay, and the movie itself, is
protected.
One could easily imagine ideas being
thrown around in a Hollywood studio in a pitch for a movie. If it doesn’t pan
out, the pitch man could have moved on to a different studio, pitching the same
idea. The idea, though, since it’s not protected by copyright, could take root
in two different minds, and could end up being implemented by two different studios
without any danger of infringement.
For this reason, I tend to be
somewhat secretive about my ideas until I’m ready to release them. I don’t
claim to be completely unique and original since, like every writer, I’m
influenced to some extent by other writers and other ideas. But I like to think
that my stories do display some originality of application and expression.
Incidentally, the idea for Profile
actually came from the jealous suspicions of my wife at the time. I spent a
fair amount of time on Facebook, and my ex who was not on Facebook saw our declining relationship and developed the
idea that perhaps I was involved with somebody else, if not in person, then an
emotional relationship with someone online.
She warned me that people online
might not be who I think they are. Her suspicions were entirely unfounded, but I
was left with the idea of a person misrepresenting himself on Facebook,
suffering some consequences as a result of his actions, but eventually finding
love.
And Profile was born. That idea developed into a complete story fairly
easily, pouring out in a flood faster than anything I had written before.
Due to be release next month, 1684 was a very different story, literally. The
idea presented itself while I was still working on Profile. But it took longer
to develop and I came up against a number of blocks while working on it. And since
it’s not out yet, I’m still being somewhat protective of the idea and
storyline.
The current book I’m working on, Poked, began with a simple concept. But the
idea seemed almost like the premise of a science fiction story, which I didn’t
want it to be. So it’s taken a lot more research and finesse to make (and keep)
it plausible in the real world, and the number of blocks I’ve come up against
has already exceeded those in 1684,
and I’m less than half done with it.
But it’s a good idea, so I’m
confident it will work out.
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