If you have a story idea you’ll never do anything with yourself, but you think it has enough possibilities that someone ought to give it a try, is there anywhere one can send suggestions? I keep thinking someone could write a great science fiction story (or a collection of short stories by different authors) on the following theme: “Every sapient species is insane in it’s own characteristic way”.
Sure. Just announce that you’re publishing an anthology on the theme “Every sapient species is insane in it’s own characteristic way” and pay everyone who contributes the minimum professional rate of five cents a word. Then publish it.
Other than that, writers would rather slowly work you over with a potato peeler and douse the remains in super atomic hot sauce than have to listen to another in the long line of idiots who have a surefire idea for a great science fiction story but don’t want to do any of the work themselves.
No-no, don’t hold anything back. Tell me what you really think.
Ideas are five for a penny. Any competent writer has a backlog of hundreds of ideas of their own. They are rarely going to need to fall back on somebody else whose only contribution is some vague concept as a potential starting point.
I could list five reasonable ideas, just making them up right now, so you probably aren’t going to have much luck on forwarding your idea to someone else and getting any kind of finished product in return.
The forums at NaNoWriMo include an Adoption Society where people can post plot ideas, titles, characters, etc. that they have no use for themselves. I don’t know if that’s quite what you were thinking of, but it’s probably the closest thing.
Write a movie treatment and script… pass it on to somebody who knows someone in the film biz and watch your idea and movie be plagiarized, cannabilized, trademarked, and copyrighted by a corporate conglomerate whore with money, lawyers, and time. See it on the bigscreen a couple years later/ I recommend you take every hope and dream you have and crush it… sue yourself for your idea.
That’s certainly the impression I’ve received from reading various forewords, afterwords, and general anecdotes.
Personally, I write down a lot of ideas on 3x5 cards and file them away for a couple of years. When the time’s up, I dig them out and I’m amazed at what complete pieces of shit they are. Then I recycle the cards.
I’ve got it! A movie about a lazy guy with a terrific idea for a movie! Hollywood’s been waiting for this one.