Re: I'm new and I have a question...
A really great, original idea is. It may not seem like it, because getting a great idea for a story doesn't involve physical labor or even sitting down and typing. But when you get one, you can bet your mind has been working on it for a while, if only unconsciously. Putting together various little bits from your experience and things you've seen and read until they coalesce into something that could be a story.
And if it's truly great and original, and you haven't seen anything quite like it before, then it's possible only you could have come up with it. If you're comfortable with risking the theft of an idea like that, then go for it. Me, I wouldn't take the chance even if it was one in a billion.
Consider this: You say everyone who writes from the same idea is going to come up with a very different script. I'll grant you that. But suppose you have one of these truly great, original story ideas, and you put it in a public place where it could be stolen. And suppose (again, granting that this is a highly unlikely occurence, but is within the realm of possibility) someone did steal it. And finished a script and registered it and shopped it around before you could do the same with your own. Suppose further that this person managed to get the script into development.
Now along comes your script. It may have been your idea, and you may have executed it in a completely different way than this other guy. But there's no chance in hell you're going to sell it now. At best, you're going to be told "Sorry, this is great, but there's already a script like this in development." And at worst, if the concept behind both scripts is really a unique idea, people are going to think *you* stole it.
Yeah, it's very unlikely all these events would come together like that. But as long as the odds aren't zero, why wouldn't you at least take the simple precaution of making sure whatever you post in a public place -- logline, pages, etc. -- is from a script you've finished and registered?
It's not paranoia; I think it's common sense.
Ideas aren't work.
And if it's truly great and original, and you haven't seen anything quite like it before, then it's possible only you could have come up with it. If you're comfortable with risking the theft of an idea like that, then go for it. Me, I wouldn't take the chance even if it was one in a billion.
Consider this: You say everyone who writes from the same idea is going to come up with a very different script. I'll grant you that. But suppose you have one of these truly great, original story ideas, and you put it in a public place where it could be stolen. And suppose (again, granting that this is a highly unlikely occurence, but is within the realm of possibility) someone did steal it. And finished a script and registered it and shopped it around before you could do the same with your own. Suppose further that this person managed to get the script into development.
Now along comes your script. It may have been your idea, and you may have executed it in a completely different way than this other guy. But there's no chance in hell you're going to sell it now. At best, you're going to be told "Sorry, this is great, but there's already a script like this in development." And at worst, if the concept behind both scripts is really a unique idea, people are going to think *you* stole it.
Yeah, it's very unlikely all these events would come together like that. But as long as the odds aren't zero, why wouldn't you at least take the simple precaution of making sure whatever you post in a public place -- logline, pages, etc. -- is from a script you've finished and registered?
It's not paranoia; I think it's common sense.
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