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So, now that I have decided to really try to write a book about my cancer experiences, I will need to go through all the blogs about lymphoma and print them out, along with the comments and pictures that Karyn drew of the hitler-cancer. From there, I will have to somehow get it all back into the computer and decide how to put the ideas into chapters.
From the chapters, I can add the emails to the deb group (my loving writing friends) and then stick in the stuff I dared not write to the public.
Might make for some funny stuff.
But then, selling it.
I've never encountered anyone who was interested in non-fiction.
I will certainly need an agent to try to get this sold.
Okay, so this is the plan.
I think it might work.
Problem is, I have to figure out how to get all the stuff back into the computer. Here's a thought: I'll do what I'm doing with the serialog! When I copy it into the computer, I do it right after printing it out. I'll have to remember to print it to make hard copy, then put it into a file.
That's the ticket! Not as hard as I thought!
****************************************
Now, I have a word of caution for writers out there.
Recently I went to visit the blog of someone who had friended me. She's a good writer. I went to her website, too, and was dismayed to find that she had written down potential stories with little blurbs about what she intended to do with them.
Call me paranoid, but that was an open invitation to someone else to steal the idea.
Back when the Lusty Ladies critique group was in full swing, one of our members had this dread fear of someone stealing her story idea. The one she was working on was pretty lame, truth be told, a romance with a happily married couple isn't what I'd call a romance, but she wouldn't let us keep any of her chapters for fear someone would get hold of it and use it as their own.
Trust me, we all had plenty of ideas of our own, and wouldn't have needed hers, but still, it did get me paranoid about story idea stealing.
Think of all those editors who pass on book mss. they have read. Then they come up with these ideas to give to their trusted posse of writers...I'm willing to bet those editors don't have those ideas all on their own. Something somebody else has written, possibly poorly, sparks an idea and they run with it to somebody else, someone they know can write a better story.
There are thousands of mss. sent to these editors yearly.
I'm not saying they actually do this, but a little spark, just a part of an idea, might stick in their brains.
I do know for a fact that they will ask an author to write about "such and such" which is "hot" now.
And then there are authors who listen to people who say "I have this idea for a story" and the author shrugs and says, "they why don't you write it?" and something about that discussion sticks in their brains. You cannot copyright an idea. You cannot say, "I have an Arthurian story" and then when somebody else comes up with a story about King Arthur with the same elements (let's face it, Tintagel, swords, knights, Guinevere, Lancelot, Grail...there must be thousands of stories published about those things already) YOU STOLE MY IDEA!
But to list the ideas you have planned to write about, um, well, that may not be such a hot idea, really.
We as writers really do have thousands of ideas running through our heads all the time. The other day I came up with a totally preposterous idea..The Lone Ranger and Ramesh. Instead of a native American side-kick, the do-gooder has a sub-continental Indian side-kick. I voiced it to Herb who thought I was insane.
Okay, consider the possibilities.
A cop takes on the first Indian partner. Maybe he has to investigate murder in an Indian conclave and has no clue how to behave. Much like a story in which a Christian cop has to investigate some foul deed in an Hassidic community, he or she would need someone who actually understood the culture to solve the crime.
And that person, usually a loner type cop, a Serpico shall we say, is the Lone Ranger in need of a Tonto, but this Tonto (I feel bad that in Spanish that word means 'stupid') is named Ramesh.
That is the only Indian name I know for sure, no offense meant anywhere. I just pulled it out of my head. Oh, wait, there's that golfer, Vijay Singh. I guess that's another male Indian name.
Anyway, get where this story could go?
And since I have absolutely no intention of writing this story, I just set out a terrific idea for someone else.
Only, well, only those who are reading this blog will ever see it.
On a website, it might be another story, especially if one has a slew of regular readers and no way of telling who or where they are.
Caution. Always write with caution in public places.
And if you write anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the NY Times, don't.
copyright 2009, Irene Peterson
From the chapters, I can add the emails to the deb group (my loving writing friends) and then stick in the stuff I dared not write to the public.
Might make for some funny stuff.
But then, selling it.
I've never encountered anyone who was interested in non-fiction.
I will certainly need an agent to try to get this sold.
Okay, so this is the plan.
I think it might work.
Problem is, I have to figure out how to get all the stuff back into the computer. Here's a thought: I'll do what I'm doing with the serialog! When I copy it into the computer, I do it right after printing it out. I'll have to remember to print it to make hard copy, then put it into a file.
That's the ticket! Not as hard as I thought!
****************************************
Now, I have a word of caution for writers out there.
Recently I went to visit the blog of someone who had friended me. She's a good writer. I went to her website, too, and was dismayed to find that she had written down potential stories with little blurbs about what she intended to do with them.
Call me paranoid, but that was an open invitation to someone else to steal the idea.
Back when the Lusty Ladies critique group was in full swing, one of our members had this dread fear of someone stealing her story idea. The one she was working on was pretty lame, truth be told, a romance with a happily married couple isn't what I'd call a romance, but she wouldn't let us keep any of her chapters for fear someone would get hold of it and use it as their own.
Trust me, we all had plenty of ideas of our own, and wouldn't have needed hers, but still, it did get me paranoid about story idea stealing.
Think of all those editors who pass on book mss. they have read. Then they come up with these ideas to give to their trusted posse of writers...I'm willing to bet those editors don't have those ideas all on their own. Something somebody else has written, possibly poorly, sparks an idea and they run with it to somebody else, someone they know can write a better story.
There are thousands of mss. sent to these editors yearly.
I'm not saying they actually do this, but a little spark, just a part of an idea, might stick in their brains.
I do know for a fact that they will ask an author to write about "such and such" which is "hot" now.
And then there are authors who listen to people who say "I have this idea for a story" and the author shrugs and says, "they why don't you write it?" and something about that discussion sticks in their brains. You cannot copyright an idea. You cannot say, "I have an Arthurian story" and then when somebody else comes up with a story about King Arthur with the same elements (let's face it, Tintagel, swords, knights, Guinevere, Lancelot, Grail...there must be thousands of stories published about those things already) YOU STOLE MY IDEA!
But to list the ideas you have planned to write about, um, well, that may not be such a hot idea, really.
We as writers really do have thousands of ideas running through our heads all the time. The other day I came up with a totally preposterous idea..The Lone Ranger and Ramesh. Instead of a native American side-kick, the do-gooder has a sub-continental Indian side-kick. I voiced it to Herb who thought I was insane.
Okay, consider the possibilities.
A cop takes on the first Indian partner. Maybe he has to investigate murder in an Indian conclave and has no clue how to behave. Much like a story in which a Christian cop has to investigate some foul deed in an Hassidic community, he or she would need someone who actually understood the culture to solve the crime.
And that person, usually a loner type cop, a Serpico shall we say, is the Lone Ranger in need of a Tonto, but this Tonto (I feel bad that in Spanish that word means 'stupid') is named Ramesh.
That is the only Indian name I know for sure, no offense meant anywhere. I just pulled it out of my head. Oh, wait, there's that golfer, Vijay Singh. I guess that's another male Indian name.
Anyway, get where this story could go?
And since I have absolutely no intention of writing this story, I just set out a terrific idea for someone else.
Only, well, only those who are reading this blog will ever see it.
On a website, it might be another story, especially if one has a slew of regular readers and no way of telling who or where they are.
Caution. Always write with caution in public places.
And if you write anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the NY Times, don't.
copyright 2009, Irene Peterson
The way I see it, those little blurbs will never contain more than the barest hints of the story I'd write. If someone else were to take one, it would evolve in ways completely different form the direction I see. No one else will ever write Rachel's encounter with the antagonistic, vampire-flunky-hating detective at the airport that way I did. No one else's vision of mummies running a strip club will ever be identical to mine. Part of the beauty of writing is that what we put to paper is so individual to the life and experiences of the author. *hugs*
You don't know how many editors have turned down stories because they "just bought one along the same lines". I've seen it time and time again.
Your ideas are so valuable! They're yours. You don't want to see even the faintest hint of one of your babies written by someone else with a similar imagination, do you?
Then you'd have to go through the forehead slapping grief and all. Just be careful, sweetie.
When push comes to shove, the big girls can squish you like a bug. You do not want that.
Maybe I'm just too paranoid, but you see, someone stole something from me before I was published.
Bugged the hell out of me. And I couldn't do a thing.