Young Writers Society

You have a great idea for a novel; an idea so wonderful, so magnificent, so exquisite that it will surely win you a pulitzer prize! Only problem is, the idea is not yours.

You see, you got the idea from a fellow YWS friend, but she merely mentioned it in passing. However, you're a good person so you ask her if you can use the idea.

She answers "No! It's my idea and you can't use it!"

So you begin to think that ideas aren't copyrighted, and that the words used in the novel would still be completely yours, even if the idea is not. Besides, it may win you a pulitzer prize...

Would you use the idea and ignore your friend's statement?

It depends on how well I know the person. If it was a close friend, then no. But if it was at most a passing acquaintance...then I don't know. This idea could make me rich, not to mention famous and a record in the history books for winning a Pulitzer. So in all honesty I gotta say that I would write it anyway. I'd feel bad about it, especially when people congratulated me and I'd know I didn't deserve it. But for someone like me who doesn't have a lot of money, the call of fortune is strong.

Someone I know really well, and admire, and get on well with, then no.

Someome I hardly talk to, then I'd take the idea. I probably wouldn't feel that guilty. After all, it's only an idea, and ideas can be thought of very quickly, so I'd use it. But only if they didn't try and write a story on it too.

I'd probably write the story but then feel really guilty because I would know it's not my own idea. So then I would delete it and feel really bad lol.

I would work around that idea, putting in a few of my own.

Or if I can't I won't bother.

Of course I would use it. Not the exact idea of course. I would disguise it and make it my own. Even If you suggested to everyone in this group to write a story about a certain idea, everyone would come up with something different. When I wrote my first novel, all I was really doing was a retelling of a contemporary fairy tale known as Jim Henson's Labyrinth. It's not the idea that matters. It's what you do with the idea that does.

I don't have the patience to write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, or any novel for that matter. So most likely not.

Maybe you could ask if he/she's interested in co-writing it? That sounds good to me.

If it was a close friend, no. If it was just someone I ment walking down the street one day or something then, yes. And if it was a close friend maybe we could co-write it, like niteowl said.

I wouldn't do it. I might take elements from it and twist them around (Mesh mentioned a few things that sparked my interest, for example) but I won't take it directly from that person. I'd ask if I could help edit, since I would probably have a different idea of where it was going. But I wouldn't steal it. I'm too innocent for that. *laughs*

Crysi innocent?! (!) Call the newspapers!

Dependant upon how well they wrote, how well I knew them, and if I had more ideas to expound upon it with, then I might.

I would write it, adding my own little details, which would take me probably years, so by the time I won any prizes for it the person might have forgotten about it anyway...

There's no harm in writing it, I guess, it's just what's done with it afterwards.

if they said no I wouldn't.

Hell no.

No I wouldn't take the idea, I'd ask if we could co-author together though and tell her ideas we could put in.