For the second time in a week, I’ve been seized by a story idea starring characters that I do not own — corporate characters, that is. The first is a DC Comics character, the second a Disney property. Which leaves me, as someone trying to be a working writer, in a bit of a conundrum. I do believe that you should go where the inspiration takes you — when the idea hits your head, you’ve got to start working, because your first draft will never be as good as when that inspiration is still hot. On the other hand, though, I’ve got so many other things I could be working on — I should be working on — that it’s hard to justify the time working on stories that I really can’t do anything with.
I need to be clear here, I think. I’m not talking about writing fanfiction. I’m not disparaging fanfic — if that’s what you enjoy doing, by all means, do it. But fanfic is given away, a freebie conjured up by somebody who likes a franchise. Sometimes they take liberties with it, change the continuity, do crossovers, do all kinds of crazy things that would never happen “officially,” and again, that’s fine if that’s what you want to do. But that’s not what I want. I want to be a working writer. If I’m going to write a story with Superman or Batman or the Legion of Super-Heroes, I want there to be a shot of it actually being published someday, and that only happens if I find some inroads to DC Comics.
Sometimes when this happens, you can just tweak the initial idea, strip it of the existing characters, and use the plot or the germ of idea with your own creations. But if it’s really an idea about an existing character, that doesn’t really work. Could I whip up an ersatz Superman and tell the same story? Sure. Would it mean anything? Not at all.
So until I know somebody at DC Comics willing to listen to my pitch, I pound out the germ of my idea and then get back to work on my own toys. They may not be as profitable at the moment, but they’re mine.
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