Ask Sally #8 Copyright and Ideas

I sent my story, about how a girl met this nice man at the allotment, in to Woman's Weekly two weeks ago. Last week they sent it back. But this week, they've got a story in about how an OAP met a nice man in her friend's garden. They obviously got the idea from MY story. What can I do?

I can understand why this might be frustrating and upsetting. I often have stories turned down only to read one similar in the same magazine a few weeks later. But it may not be as sinister as you believe. Magazines choose stories for their issues many months ahead, so the story that appeared in this week's issue might well have been accepted several months ago, long before you submitted yours. It's also very likely that yours was turned down because they already had the similar story in the pipeline.

However, even if they have used your basic idea, getting an in-house writer to put the story together, there is no copyright on ideas. You'd only have reason to complain if they'd used exact phrases from your story. This is from Wikipedia:

Copyright law covers only the form or manner in which ideas or information have
been manifested, the "form of material expression". It is not designed or
intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which
may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work.

The problem with writing any stories is that, after many thousands of years of civilisation and the arts, there is no such thing as a new idea. If you've thought of it, chances are someone else has. The trick is in writing a story that approaches the theme in a different way.

Kay Sexton in her blog recently, discussed themed writing contests and how to avoid your story being the same as everyone else's. I think the advice stands even if we're thinking up our own themes. For example, if you have an idea about a man and woman who meet in an allotment, think about how you can make that story different to the usual boy-meets-girl romances. Make a list of all the ways you can approach it, then discard the first few as being the way everyone else would do it, and look at your later ideas that might seem a bit off-base but gives the theme a new angle.

More Links

Wikipedia Article on Copyright

Kay Sexton