Does anybody else have a hard time sharing ideas?
I always start to panic and feel like I’m sharing too much and will end up having my ideas stolen. Like I personally have never had that happen to me… minus the fact that someone wanted to rewrite one of my stories to make it straight…
.
Meh, I try not to get like that.
Mainly because I don’t really care.
If my ideas get stolen, so be it. I can always do another idea that is better than my stolen idea. It will take time, but whatever.
Does this make sense?
Also, it is understandable to feel like that way.
I’ve posted some of my plot bunnies on my blog, but none that are truly sacred to me. If someone else steals any of those plot bunnies and writes a book:
a. I might want to read it since it has such an awesome plot!
b. it wouldn’t come out exactly the same way I’d write it anyhow, so I wouldn’t worry
¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
Gosh darn you, you made me come up with the craziest idea for my story that I wanted to combine the two plot ideas!
I’m not mad just shocked that it just came to me.
LMAO! 
I feel bad about it sometimes, but then I always think, honestly, if they write a story with million reads based on my idea, good for them. It’s not the idea that makes the story big. And if I could have had a story with millions of reads, I would already be there.
If I stole your ideas you wouldn’t be able to recognize them.
If you stole my ideas I wouldn’t recognize them.
I have no worries about my ideas being stolen because I’m egotistical enough to think that most people who would deliberately steal my mind-worms are incapable of continuing to deliver at the level I think on. Depending on what measurements, I’m in the 90th percentile, think I was scoring on the 96th percentile in highschool, IQ tests were always borderline genius, and that’s just the analytical side of things. To make matters worse, while it could be argued that I was the dumbest and least experienced member of my immediate family, what could NOT be said is that they all surpassed me on general creativity. Now, mom was likely my equal, there, but my father and my brothers? No. No competition, there.
Not that always amounts to anything. I’m generally the type that does this arrogant set-up to remind people that being a jack-of-all-trades means you’re a master of none. You wind up not having enough invested in a singular field to make you the pre-eminent person to go to.
I’ve also lived a life that observed some pretty dumb people do some brilliant things. You don’t have to be smart to write. You don’t have to be creative to write. Those things help, don’t misunderstand, but I guarantee you that some people whose books I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed are plain not as potentially capable as me–and they did great! Sometimes it’s because they have worked their asses off to pick up what they lack. Sometimes they have plain found themselves and got their niche. Occasionally it’s because less is more: sure, I can think 20K things but if I cannot stabilize it with a core minimum, the story is going to be all over the place, confusing, and might actually be declared crap for “trying to much”.
So, I plain walk in here with a different set of anxieties than everyone else, like this one:
Just because I’m awesome does not mean anyone else will see everything that’s great about me. I’ve BEEN in situations where I’ve been declared a moron by people who can’t string two sentences together–let alone hold two thoughts. So since I’ve been where it doesn’t matter that I have this mountain of ability behind me because I don’t matter. It blows my mind that people have this low-tier imposter syndrome (where they aren’t good enough), when they can be the best at everything since sliced bread and still not be accepted as genuine articles. Just who do you think you are that “good enough” has a damn thing to do with it? I’m serious, I walk into a random room and 9 out of 10 people are NOT my equal and that 9 aren’t going to accept anything about me. Most the time, I’m going to be dismissed as unimportant, and the rare time I’m not, they are going to be crabs in a basket, trying to find something they can stand on top of me for. That’s just how people are. We’re little monsters that need to learn to outgrow our egos.
Anyway, I constantly give quick-fix ideas, “what would make what you do even more unique”, options to make x or y issue smooth out just because it’s like doing a mental puzzle. It’s just fun to do, sometimes, and those ideas I give are free to take because I’m not worried about them being owned by someone else.
But things I’m personally writing on? I answer questions about what I’m doing, and don’t really fear someone stealing the idea because I don’t think most people want to write what I write. That simple.
Now, some practical ideas:
I have too many thoughts and not enough fingers to write every single idea that I have. If I’m honest about the years I’ve written through, I can say I’ve completed an average of 1 book, maybe 3 mostly finished drafts, easily a half dozen tests-of-concepts a year. That’s it. Beyond that, I have daily or weekly ideas that I do nothing more than either give to others outright, or I jot down and don’t visit again because it’s out my head, finally.
The point is, I have too many ideas to worry about one or two being swiped. I plain can’t write everything that comes to mind. If someone came and took my idea for something and wrote it before me? It’s probably not even the one I’m going to finish. What am I going to do, hoard them? I mean, I know I have a fairly draconian personally but dang, this type of treasure has less value if I keep it to myself.
Now, that is just ideas. Plain plagerism? Hell no. It’s one thing to “steal my idea” that I haven’t worked out in detail, its another to go into my work and steal what I did word for word. You taking my idea and writing a story is having your take on what I thought, it won’t be what I write, ever (yay, back to that ego). But just up and taking my work is you not giving back your own take on it, it’s you wanting recognition that I’m not even getting for my work. That’s just crazy.
But the point for you is have some faith that if someone else swiped your idea, they wouldn’t be able to make it work the same way as you. Your work is going to be unique enough to withstand a very rare coinciding plot idea. No one is ever giving away every deta of what they wrote in a conversation, they are only going to see small points about it.
nah, i got too many and it’s not like they’d write it the same anyways. If they do it better, good for them, I’ll read it. I write stuff that I like so why wouldn’t i want to read something based on the same or similar ideas?
Personally, I don’t have a hard time doing it because I love sharing my ideas in full detail.
However, this is because ideas actually can’t be stolen. If you give twelve people the same ideas for a writing assignment, you’ll get twelve different stories because people will change or create a story that differs from the original idea based on their personal liking. No idea is truly original, either. There’s millions upon millions of stories out there—from plays, TV shows, movies, to books—and while some are fairly similar or seem like the same thing, they have different ways of telling the story.
For example: the Hunger Games and Divergent. When Divergent came out, everyone said it was the same thing as the Hunger Games just because the ideas were similar. But they’re two completely different stories. Yes, they both feature sixteen year old girls. Yes, they both feature dystopian worlds with a corrupt government system. Yes, they both feature a world that’s separated from one another (factions for Divergent and districts for the Hunger Games). Yes, they both feature romances. And yes, they both feature the main character trying to save everyone. But they are both individual stories.
The Hunger Games is about how the government puts kids from 13-18 in a gladiator tournament until there’s one survivor left. They take two kids each from all twelve districts (separated by resources within the area—District 12 for instance is a coal mining town) and put them in. Katniss hates the Games, hates the government, hates everything but she volunteered to replace her sister and because of her straightforward attitude and “inability to properly socialize,” she gets people to like her and sponsor her, along with Peeta, the kid who tags along with her in the games and tells everyone he’s in love with her which makes everyone sad.
Divergent is about how the government wants to take over all of futuristic Chicago (which is separated into six factions, based on personality type—Abnegation for instance is a place filled with selfless people whose purpose in life is to serve others, with the Factionless being the ones who are homeless and don’t belong to any of them). Tris finds out she’s Divergent, meaning she belongs to more than one faction during a personality test, and has to keep it quiet because of the government seeking out Divergent people and ending them. Through an orientation when you’ve become of age (at sixteen), you get to choose which faction you want to be in based on that personality test, and Tris chooses Dauntless (the fearless, brave, and strength), and while she goes through a series of extra tests to see if she truly fits in Dauntless (along with many others who chose Dauntless), she finds out the government (who is particularly from Erudite, the smart and curious) wants to use Dauntless soldiers as mindless robots to do their dirty work for them, and how Divergent people are immune to their technology.
So… yeah, completely different stories with similar ideas. Katniss wants to survive and Tris wants to save people.
In the end, whether your book is published or not, if anyone comes across such a storyline, they can be inspired to write one of their own. It can be similar or close enough to the actual thing, but it’ll still be different. The only thing can truly be stolen would be the original source material… which is plagiarism.
yeah, but tbh not because i’m afraid of people stealing my ideas (though i do fear that very occasionally) - rather, i’m just shy and feel like a burden talking about my stuff lmao. i’d love to talk about my concepts more if i didn’t have the looming feeling of “this is cringe and everyone hates it” berating me every two seconds 
also, if someone did that to me, rewrite my story but Straight, i’d yoink that sucker right back and write it again but Gayer. More Gay. You Cant Escape The Gay.
I hate that feeling.
it’s even worse when you’re medically diagnosed with paranoia lool. 0/10, would not recommend.
Yeah, I don’t think I word get that diagnosis, just guessing at my behaviors, but even doing it without that, it’s still a pain.
oh yeah no doubt, was just noting how it particularly affects me. regardless of whether or not it’s a small fear or an all-consuming doubt, it alwaaaays sucks. we just wanna vibe in peace, not worry 