Discover Top Posts Tagged with #stealing ideas

athena is reading bobbys will and it says eddie- buck, along with a dowry of a penny, a paper clip, a rock, and some lint due to bobby and athena still not having a house

#yet again stolen from tiana #typical me #stealing ideas #buddie #in which kaz rambles

Umm… did they decide to give him an anti-possession tattoo over his heart from Supernatural???

#stealing ideas #spn #supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #kevin bacon #the bondsman prime

How to tell when someone is fishing you for ideas.

So a while back I was pitching an idea but the editor kept trying to say the pitch wasn't good enough, but to resubmit the proposal. But it turned out that editor was fishing to try to make the existing article in their roster better WITHOUT CREDIT.

And I get that ideas are a dime a dozen to some people who don't spend months researching to come up with one, but I wanted to give a guide on how do you know an editor/writer is fishing so this sort of thing doesn't happen to you.

And I know some people will auto-call me a trouble maker, because ya know, Asian, etc. But I kinda feel like in light of this:

We need to talk about fishing, why it is wrong, (though it should be obvious, WTF) and the signs that agents, editors and your fellow writers are fishing.

Asking for diversity when there are none on their roster/all of their clients are problematic.

Agent asks for PoC/queer authors CONSTANTLY. They are in your feed everywhere, but when you look up their client list it's filled with authors who do Nazi Romances, have problematic writing of PoCs/queers, or are in a scandal. And you ask yourself why?

If they are constantly going on about it, but will not clean up their client list to think about why their roster is say, all white and straight, it's a pretty good sign they are either really incompetent at understanding diversity OR they are fishing.

Don't be desperate.

2. They keep asking you to repitch and "give them more angles." and give them more information and/or all your sources.

Fuck that. If they don't like your pitch, move on. If they want another angles and "more information" then move on. I had an editor do this to me, and then they refused to publish me suddenly when I thought I was working with them, and then they gave it to an Asian man who had an article up and then that person edited their article with *my* information I hard won. Fuck them. (I asked fellow writers to blackball them).

Don't let people fish you for what should be in your article. They either like it or they don't make them give you a contract first so they have to pay you for your ideas.

3. They ask you for the whole article without payment.

Don't work for free. They should like the pitch first.

4. They send unprofessional notes to you in the interim when you don't have a contract.

"I have a ___ friend" or "I have a friend who is ___" No. That's a strike. Move on. Contract first, write article later.

5. They keep asking you more and more questions, asking you to give everything to them.

I fell for this once and gave a writer my outline when I asked them to help me with my story, they STOLE the outline, waited until I was gone and then published the story. Was I PISSED yes beyond belief.

Did I get revenge? Not really, but I think their agent now knows the kind of person they are. Because they flushed out all of my diversity out of my story. But I hope to write it the way I would have written it, with the diversity all intact rather than flushed down the drain because they were an asshole.

If it's not relevant to your question, do not answer those questions. I know there is trusting and friendly, but you do not have to share.

And if you're reading this, you asshole, you know who you are and what that idea meant to me and why I wanted to own it because we TALKED about that and you still did it.

Objections

But ideas are a dime a dozen

The ideas I post up to Asian writers found on this blog often take me a month or two to develop. I think carefully, I research the viability. I look into the current, past, and future market. (Future marketing is looking at current trends). While not everyone who has ideas is like this, I do know that writers think hard on development of those ideas. That's why people like stealing them. Stealing someone who works months on an idea, does years of research means that the person entering knows its viable, which then is ethically wrong.

I throw out nonviable ideas too, but doing the same process.

But everything is in the execution.

There are some writers that legitimately asked me for my ideas, though some of them never gave me proper credit like they promised and even stole the idea's title as their book title. Ascension (and boy, do I have good documentation for that one). I don't hold a gripe about this one because at least she had diversity.

But then when I gave the idea, they could not develop it with their own twist. I never gave where or how I came up with the idea or the hours of research I put into it. They should be developing the idea.

Execution is not the same thing as development.

Sometimes writers are not bold enough to go bar none and really put the work into doing the research. They think that research is boring (it's not for me), that it will make it "ununique" (You know how niche you can get with research?) but development, not execution is where the idea survives past the middle passage and gets to have a good ending. It's the thing that makes the hook satisfying. The old adage that everything is in the execution often is repeated by the likes of Neil Gaiman and JK Rowling, both of ummm... have a reputation for all out stealing without making more development.

I'd argue that development is more important. Because you can have an execution without development. You put some pretty words on it.

Some of the writers that have taken from me really put some effort into the execution, the research, development, and delivery and MADE IT THEIR OWN. This is what I'd love to see.

There was a teacher in my first grade class art that would draw random marker lines on paper. And then ask the students to draw what they thought they saw from it.

I was the kind of kid to see 2-3 things it could be. I wanted to deliver a safari if I saw a giraffe. But I would twist the paper and see other things too and I asked the teacher since I couldn't decide what I should do. And she being the good kind of teacher said, "Well, do all of them."

But copying doesn't produce true development (also why Gen AI is evil) You end up with only the giraffe because someone copied your paper. You don't get to see the acacia trees, elephants, etc. (BTW, I was watching a lot of nature shows as a five year old. So First Grade me would most definitely have attempted to draw acacia trees. I told you that my lifelong dream as a 5-year-old was to be a nerd. Know a little about everything....)

Most of the time people who copy are being lazy, and don't want to do development. These days I beg the writers who take from me to do research and actually do the development after one bad Chinese drama, where it had a personality change in episode 8 and they started copying Hana Yori Dango and none of the viewers liked it because the first 8 episodes promised something light and funny. (This is the set up episodes for Chinese dramas around 6-8) And that was a loose idea I shot off, but then after that, it went the other direction and it was all dark and broody and viewers hated it.

Take away:

Taking an idea means you have to also research, find a different angle from the person, find something that MATTERS TO YOU, that makes your heart sing, and something truly unique. Agents and editors shouldn't be stealing from you and neither should fellow writers. Understand the power structures before you and what it would mean if this idea was taken from a poor queer PoC writer and straight and whitewashed.

This isn't to say you can't ask people for help, but understand the basics of consent and put in your won work.

#fishing #publishing industry #stealing ideas #don't be the asshole

Me: *wanting to join a d&d party* gotta make a character.

My brain: wanna watch d&d character videos for inspiration?

Me: *watches video*

Tulok the Barbarian: has a video on how to make The Lamb in D&D

Me: This is my character, now.

My brain: just need to find a party, now

#my brain #cult of the lamb #dungeons and dungeons #dnd #d&d #d&d character #stealing #stealing ideas #cotl #Tulok the Barbarian

Hey @skelly-survival-guide @anneimaginesundertale I know I probably don't need to ask but you guys are doing it and I don't wanna seem like a copy cat. It just seems so fun, so I'll ask anyway, would it be ok if I did the ask thing for my skeleton bros???? ^^;

#asking permission #from my friends #cuz I don't wanna step on anyones toes #just making sure #don't wanna go ahead #and be a copy cat #stealing ideas #^^;