The Inevetable Progress Thread

The last couple of contests he has pulled a disappearing act when it came time to post. I have private messaged him to see if he is going to post.

I totally get that. I came up with a deity/demigod character one time that I was certain must have an analogue somewhere in world folklore, or comic books, or fiction. I'm not the best researcher, but after several several hours of digging I couldn't find anything anywhere that's shared his unique characteristic. I still assume someone somewhere came up with a similar being, but I'm still actively guarding my secret. he got lost in my sprawling world that I worked on for way too long without making progress. maybe if I get the right prompt here I can one day unveil him.

 anyway, I'm so out of my depth with getting ghost stories twice in two comps that I just go in assuming what I come up with has been done. I've now written more ghost stories than I've read, not counting posts on the forum.

Oh, that's great for you! Hopefully, someone will take a chance on it! 

As for me, thank you for reminding me that nobody has my writing voice. Good, bad, or ugly, it's mine. Nobody would execute it like I would. 

I understand the feeling of wanting to keep something under wraps and not share it until a significant portion has been written. There's the feeling that someone will steal the idea and be successful with it before you get the chance.

Years of writing has taught me that no matter what the idea is, nobody will implement it the same way as you will. Your narrative style will be totally different even if the plot line is the same.

Also, the whole 'there is no such thing as 100% original ideas', well, I disagree. I wrote a novel that I'm unable to find any comps for. I sent in a query letter to QueryShark who also said there aren't any novels that would compare to the idea, narrative style, and structure of mine. So, does that make my idea 100% original? Maybe. It also make it really hard to market.

My point is, if you're comfortable posting it to get feedback, then post it. If you'd rather keep it secret so you can nurse the idea, then do so. If you're worried someone might steal the idea and expand on it, well, there's the chance that'll happen but it won't be written like you'd write it.