Ideas are not stories

09/24/23 • 45 min

In Tuesday’s Summer Series session on marketing, a writer asked how she could protect her idea at pitchfest. She was going to share it with agents and publishers and didn’t want them to steal it or give it to another writer.

Interestingly, the same thing had JUST come up on an episode of Suits which Charlie is watching and I’m giving one ear/one eye to when I’m between songs on Spotify or stories on my kindle. In the episode, a writer wanted to sue the bookstore/publisher she worked for because she had shared an idea with her boss and her boss had shared the idea with an established author. That author then wrote the book and the publisher and store was selling the book. The writer, a clerk at the store, claimed she’d had other ideas that the publisher took as well.

When the clerk first told the lawyer this story, I responded, “Write the book. The idea doesn’t count until it’s written.”

Anyway, the story went on with the lawyer trying to help the clerk only to finally turn on her saying, that same idea could have been any one of these titles and present her with a stack of books. The point? Ideas are nothing. It’s the work of writing the actual story that counts.

So, after delivering this same advice to the woman on the Summer Series session I said, “Have you written the book?” She said no. I said, “Don’t pitch. Don’t query. Go somewhere and write that book. Then query and pitch. No one pays for ideas. They pay for finished books.”

Previous Episode

Turn Right to Go Left

So last week we did time travel and I have to confess, it was a LOT so I could think through my own time traveling vampires novel and the needs, uses, and functionality of time travel in the plot. So thanks.

This week we’re doing the mentor-apprentice relationship and once again, I’m using it for my own purposes. See, I’m writing about a new-ish vampire, Blue, and his sire, Raven, and the hero-worship of progeny to sire – especially given the rules of their faith – and how eventually Raven will betray Blue because, well, some might say our heroes always let us down.

What is the mentor-apprentice relationship? So this link talks about the mentor specifically and defines it as: The mentor is a source of knowledge, wisdom and support to the main character, and is typically a side character who is static.

The mentor’s role in the story is to be wise and unwavering, to offer an objective view of the hero’s struggles and to instruct and teach the hero. They’re usually experienced, have some wisdom the hero needs, and can show up in the nick of time to save the hero or bail him out of a tough spot.

Next Episode

Special Episode: Roger Jones, author of The Final Victory

A debut novelist, Roger Jones, author of The Final Victory, joined Kasie and Rex in the studio on January 20, 2024.

Welcome to the studio, Roger Jones. The Final Victory is set to be released April 30th and is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

The Final Victory follows Tripp Avery, a prominent businessman whose life gets disrupted by a cancer diagnosis. Tripp decides, during the peak of his battle with cancer to coach a mixed masters dragon boat on its way to the national championships. While the rowers work through their own cancer battles, personal lives, and identity crises, Tripp finds himself pushing himself and everyone else to overcompensate for being dealt a bad hand.