Post Your Concept

@ Latia: Research is your friend. If you are passionate enough, you can always find a reliable source. Wiki is a good start.

Wow, and I thought the overview of U.S. Copyright Law was long (it took about five hours for me to read it all and note down everything pertaining to me). Sorry, Cygan.

As I said... Screw copyright in Australia :P

Seriously?

I highly doubt anyone is going to steal the work of some nameless slacking uni student who probably cannot write on the level of Tolkien or at the very least Roald Dahl yet. Too risky (As in, "why the fuck did I even bother with this shit?" risky)

You'd be surprised, Argeus.

There are millions of amateur writers out there, populating everywhere from LJ and dA to Fanfiction.net and Fictionpress, not to mention thousands of forums out there each having their own writer's corner/circle. Every single author out there think themselves to be great authors in the making. In truth, Sturgeon's Law is in effect hard, and I doubt anyone would bother with web novelists beyond their limited circle of e-friends.

Well, that's what I thought, at least. Maybe I haven't gotten the entire picture - do you have any example of web novelists being ripped off?

edited 26th Jan '11 3:43:47 AM by ArgeusthePaladin

Look around on Fictionpress.com.

I haven't been there for a few months, so I would have no clue. But if you look there, soon enough, you'll run into something you've read before- but under a different name, without permission of the original author.

I've seen it dozens of times. Just not recently.

So it's a "I steal your work and post it under another name so others could shower me with praise" rather than "I steal your work and make money from it"?

'I steal your work and profit from it'.

Not necessarily financially.

Ironically, if someone take my work and non-financially profit from it I'd get really mad, but if someone take it and successfully makes money from it, I would smile triumphantly. I've been told many times by my only friend that my works are not going to sell, and if it does sell I shall be overjoyed regardless of whether I get the proceeds or not.

I don't worry about someone taking my work. It's friggin long, I posted the unedited version online, and there is no friggin way that someone could possibly predict my story. That might sound egotistical, but if that's my one spot of egotism, then I am content.

That too. And let's face it, taking 200K out of a possible 1-2M and making up the rest isn't worth it.

Are you kidding? Copyright infringement = suing case = publicity.

Wait, what?

This concept is in a very early stage, but I think I would like to make something of it. I would appreciate helpful suggestions and ideas on what to do with it further.

It's something of an Urban Fantasy centered around the lifestyles of Pirates. Modern couriers, not the old type of swashbuckling ones. The Fantasy part of the Urban Fantasy would come most from the two types of magic I hope to have interspersed in. The Hatian Vodou, and other type of magic which I have yet to decide. Some kind of witchcraft I think.

I would like to have an interesting mix of regular piracy and digital piracy. While most of the pirates shown will be the modern vision, I have considered something of an Alternate History affecting the world, causing the romantic visions of pirates to still walk the earth.

I am trying to write this concept in the best way it could fit for a television show. Television has been very kind to Science fiction and Fantasy lately, so I'm not too worried about that.

@ AHR: What I am trying to say here is that it is impossible to steal my story, because at the most I have just written about several hundred thousand out of a possible 1-2 million, with so many twists to make the readers dizzy, let alone plagiarists. Sorry if I was being unclear.

@ Saturn: I believe shoehorning digital piracy into this concept is a little forced. You may have to rethink that aspect, IMHO.

I wouldn't really consider it shoehorning. I'm not trying to make it seem like Digital Piracy Is Evil or any other Aesop. I just think it would be cool and interesting.

What I am trying to say here is that there is almost no connection between romantic, seafaring pirates and digital piracy, which is just a naming convention. If you can make the connection, congratulations. If not... it may be best to drop the issue altogether.

Like I said, these are no romantic pirates. Yes, they are seafaring, but not all the time. Also, considering this is Urban Fantasy and takes place in an Alternate History of the current day and age, I don't see why there wouldn't be important information or files and usb's that would lead to Digital Piracy.

It can work, and I'll share how I incorporated it into my work:

The protagonist sees a child's toy in the bandits' stolen loot and asks the bandits why the hell the bandits would steal a toy. A bandit replies something like, "I need that toy to live, because I'm so poor I can barely afford this luxurious means to steal toys."

I have more going on in it of course, but this is just the basic means I used to tie in digital piracy.

A three act opera taking place in a fictional news station reporting assorted Real Life events between the years 1948 and 2008. It's heavily stylized, as the reports, despite being separated by years in chronology, segue into one another as though it was all happening at once, and the same anchors stay throughout the play. Though recounting the events is an important goal, development of the characters is another important goal. Makeup and staging considers the development of television, though it cares more about how to change things with the three-act-structure. For example, Act One ends with the Cuban Missile Crisis (That Was Awfully Close), which happened in 1962, but only between Act One and Act Two do the actors take off their black and white makeup (grayscale boards are also removed from all of the tables and such. Television quit being so grainy a long time before 9/11 (the finale of Act Two) but only between Acts Two and Act Three are the pieces of cotton hanging in front of the stage removed. Examples of characters include:

• The manager of the station, who announces changes such as the switch to color, the addition of new anchors, etc.
• A pair of dueling left/right commentators (both of which sometimes are strawmen, and both of which sometimes have points).
• Those Two Guys who run a comedy-style talk program.
• A woman, a black man, and a black woman who get added to the station one by one despite the initial objections of everyone other than the station manager.
• A weatherman who's called in whenever something weather-relevant occurs (he gets a solo for more important hurricanes and tsunamis, for example).
• A Republican candidate and a Democrat candidate that act as every Republican and Democrat president or presidential nominee ever.

• The Eleven O'Clock Number is Obama winning the election.
• The Act Two Finale is 9/11 (and it's an Epic Song).
• The Act One Finale is the Cuban Missile Crisis (That Was Awfully Close).
• The opener is "Dewey Defeats Truman".

• I think there may be some pairing storylines but I'm not sure.

edited 29th Jan '11 11:07:34 PM by OOZE

Sounds pretty good to me.

I have a two at the moment actually:-

• The Ballad Of Psychopomp: On the day of his wedding, Eric invites his old bandmates in order to perform for the first time in six years at his reception. Essentially a series of flashbacks pertaining to the group's short lived career as an alternative indy band set against the wedding and the lead up to the performance. Semi-biographical in nature. Largely an experiment involving music in the comic medium.

• Dancing Blue Lights: After a near death experience, depressed children's illustrator Alan finds that he can see and commune with the dead. He also finds himself being haunted by the ghost of his long dead grandfather, Frank. Given a new lease on life, Alan decides to re-evaluate his and sets about to make it better with Frank's guidance. Story deals with Alan's relationship as he tries to gain acceptance from his ancestor. Story is interspersed with fragments of Frank's own life. Semi-biographical in nature. Really serves as a personal excercise.

@Anyone

I'll try and elaborate on my concept the best I can. What I was getting at with the magical girl thing is try and analyze what would drive the heroines or anyone to go out and fight Eldritch Abominations on a daily basis. I had seen some deconstructions already such as Mai Hime, Sailor Nothing and the recent Madoka Magica and I wanted to see if I can try my hand something like that. I wanted to try and create a typical sotry where it starts off like any magical girl series then it divulges into a character study and psychological analysis of the heroines, the mosnters they fight, the quirky miniboss squad and the villain. I also want to show the potential problems as well as potential that comes with wielding such great, awesome and even terrible powers. I also wanted to dive into the background of the characters to see how that will factor into the story, how they will interact with each other, what would happen if those monsters realy came to life, how I can play with certain tropes and just what would drive the heroines into fighting monsters. I also wanted to see how the scenarios would play in the real world without it being anvilicious. That is my concept so far.

As for the other stuff, I am mostly thinking about those.

Something that has been rattling around in my mind, all though I don't know when I'll have time to write it:

Our protagonist is the assistant to the headmaster of a study center of high standing, but the headmaster’s otherwise good reputation is being damaged: He has always been eccentric, but lately his behavior have gotten stranger and stranger, until the general opinion is that he’s a madman.

Despite it all, the assistant struggles to stay loyal to her employer and mentor, until one day, he reveals to her that he has been experimenting with magic – something that is seriously frowned upon. Oh, and also only exists in fairy tales. He urges her to think about it, but she refuses to listen to anything he says.

A few days later, the headmaster dies.

After his death, it is discovered that he left the ownership and responsibility of the study center to his assistant, and it is now up to her to not only preserve the knowledge, but also to repair the centers reputation, win the respect of disapproving nobles (and preferably stop them from trying to assassinate her) and, perhaps, also figure out what this magic-thing nobody wants to talk about is …