# How to Steal Ideas



## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Jun 13, 2008)

I found this in my procrstinations and thought I'd share: http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/wc3-3.html

It's an interesting approach to being inspired by stories you love.

_ . . . sometimes I am filled with passion and wicked larceny -- what I read thrills me and catches at my gut and at my imagination and I just have to steal some part of it for myself. If you're a writer, you're a reader first -- and if you're a reader who writes, you've felt the same way at least once in your life. Something you've read has made your heart sing, and you've thought, "I could _do_ that. I could even do _better_ than that." 

And you should. 

The ideas that thrill you will be the ones you write best, and whether they originate with you or with someone else, they're the ideas you need to be pursuing. Stealing ideas is an art; stealing them well is a fine art. I won't tell you what I've stolen because I've hidden my treasures well, and I got away with the thievery -- but I'll tell you how you, too, can steal the ideas that set your pulse racing and make them your own. No plagiarism, no seedy ethics, no cheap knock-offs. 
_


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## makmakmob (Jun 14, 2008)

It's an interesting and reassuring, piece, but I have no idea what in the heck to say as a reply.


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## Monak (Jun 15, 2008)

honestly now a days you don't need to read a how to on snagging ideas , with people like james patterson railing off one ad-libbed steamer after another , most people are so complacent with what they are reading that the thought may never cross their mind it was stolen.  If we learned anything from john grisham , you can write the same story thirty times and no one will notice.  You really only find sticklers in Sci-fi and Fantasy cause they all love what they are reading and pay attention to fine details.  I hate the idea of releasing my hard work into a world that will only care when I am dead or it is made into a movie.  There are far too few books that gain the respect they deserve because they are either drown in a sea of crap , or out shined by the best seller list , which sadly in most cases is filled with crap too.


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## SlushPuppy (Jun 16, 2008)

Lol, my cousin is so opposite the "complacent" reader. There used to be nothing more exciting to her than telling me why all the books I was reading were bad. It usually ended up revolving around the writer's 'history' for whatever book I was reading. But she's as you stated, the caring fantasy reader!


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## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Jun 16, 2008)

Monak said:


> words



Did you read the thing, or did you just feel like ranting? It's not about LITERALLY stealing ideas, it's about being inspired by lit that interests you. The use of 'stealing' is clearly hyperbole to catch the reader's interest.


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