Screenwriting : Screenplay Competitions by Shaunia McKenzie

Possibly but that's the risk you run. You have to get your work out to the public for someone to see it otherwise you may as well keep it in a drawer. There's a chance a poor representation of a good idea may be stolen but I seriously doubt a good representation of a good idea will be.

You're right...but I also believe they can also lift a well executed idea because there's no copyright on ideas or even lift a well executed idea because copyright is hard to prove.

Story theft is actually rare in Hollywood and if you're paranoid about this, it will work against your ever selling a script. Another fact of Hollywood: that great concept you have for a screenplay that you're certain no one else has ever thought of? Odds are, there are half a dozen screenwriters who have just started a script on that concept, or have just sent it to agents, or have just sold it or are already in production. It's not the ideas or concepts that are critical in Hollywood, it's how you express those concepts in the screenplay. Bottom line: competitions can be valuable for screenwriters just starting in this business.

I used to believe that everyone was out to steal my ideas, until I started getting noticed professionally. After that people started coming to me to write screenplays for their ideas. Even a couple who wanted me to sign agreements that I wouldn't steal their ideas. The funny thing is that 90% of the time the idea was either not original or just plain wouldn't work. I've had a taste of what a Hollywood execs go through. Most contests get thousands of entries. Why steal an unknowns ideas when every wanna-be in Hollywood has a script for sale. If your script is good enough to steal, its good enough to buy and less of a headache later. Just make sure that the contest is reputable. Some just a scam to take your money.

I feel we have to see ourselves as a machine that can easily pump out creative ideas when needed. That way you don't fear copying too much as, for every one great idea you have, you have another ten ready to go.

Unlikely. Why would a writer steal your idea when they have dozens of their own? I will die with hundreds of ideas I will never have had time to script. Plus, it's the execution of the idea that's protected. The specifics of the script.

Everything has been done or thought of before. It's the execution and original take on something that elevates one's work. And, that execution is what's protected by copyright. Anyway, we all "lift" or "borrow" or "steal" bits and pieces from other creative works or ideas. In other words, we are influenced by everything around us -- that's part of being a writer. The point or key is to take creative elements and infuse them with your own twist, your vision, your voice and thus make something original. Word for word, line for line copying is really not done. Reminds me of the aphorism, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Caution only serves to restrict, and restraint in story telling undermines its very essence.

things go in trend cycles anyway so I suppose that even If you did put something into a competition and something very similar came out weeks later that doesn't necessarily mean that your idea was stolen, it just means you had an impact, you just added your own voice to the choir.

Interesting concept Matthew...

Hi Alle...So what if the story wasn't being worked on 10, 5, even 2 years ago. The "idea" or "story" only made it to a production company's desk within months that a number of screenplay competitions have happened/ended? And hey...I like to think of myself as a Somebody :-). Thanks for the suggestion but I already have a realistic perception/respect for what Screenplay Competions entail. So I get and understand that stories rarely get "lifted", but rarely also means to me that there is a possibility. Anything good or bad is possible, right? I don't think it's a definitive that my perception is limited, as I am open to even the rare possibility that ideas could very well get "lifted".

Shaunia, don't waste your creative energy worrying about this... Honestly. There's really no need. Focus on developing your screenplays. Protect your work, your execution. Keep calm and move on. :)

Thank you Beth...I will follow your sound advice :-)

You ever see that episode of What's Happening? Where Raj writes a sketch for a variety TV show and doesn't hear anything back? Then makes a point of calling up the show's producers and they tell him they rejected the script and couldn't use it. But then later the gang is all gathered around the TV and there it is, his sketch being aired on television. So with him pissed, they all go down to protest the theft of his idea. But quickly discover that his original idea, wasn't all that original, as one of the show's writer goes through the old scripts year after year pulling out script after script for sketches with the exact same story idea. Majority of which were written long before Raj ever came up with his idea. In the end an idea is worthless and it is priceless, but it is the execution and implementation of that idea that determines the difference.

Absolutely... but you can't copyright an 'idea'.