It was not until recently that I happened to stumble upon my first lesson
in keeping my mouth shut when it comes to what I share on the Internet. I
realise for some of the creative sorts out there (especially writers) this is
as a no brainer of a statement to make. However, I learnt very quickly that if
you want to keep anything for yourself then, sometimes, you have to bite your
tongue like it or not.
I’m lucky enough to have an endless stream of stories to tell. They
seem to come at me from all angles at any point in the day, and more often than
not, if the idea stays with me long enough, I get around to telling them.
It was sometime after setting up the second incarnation of my blog that
I went shopping and stumbled upon the rather vivid idea of what it would be
like if the store sold human body parts in the freezer compartments. And what it’d
be like if you could actually pick and chose what meats you want to eat by walking
over to the deli counter and saying “I’ll have a bit of that please.”
My muse dumped on my head in a big way that day, and I couldn’t get it
out. In fact, I was so entertained by the idea that I actually came home and,
at a point of empty headedness, blogged about it! Imagine that.
It was a stupid thing to do, granted, but I did it in all honesty and without
thinking too much about what I was doing at the time.
I had always intended to write it, I just never got around to it.
But someone else did. About six months later, I see the idea of my
story racing up the Amazon short story chart.
The thing I remember about it the most was thinking “that could have
been me” and then finding a subtle anger in reading about how the author had
stumbled upon the idea while walking around the supermarket. I can’t say he got
the idea from reading what I had already written on my blog, mostly because he
accredited the original inclination of the story to his wife, but I can’t help
but wonder if two identically detailed stories can be stricken upon by two very
different authors. Maybe it can, and maybe can’t. I don’t know for sure.
If I had thought about it a little more before I decided to blog I
would never have put the idea out there, but, like I said, I did it in good
faith.
The point is I should never have done it. I long since lost all proof
of the facts that I had the idea on my blog way back in June of 2012, having again
crazily deleted everything of my old blog, but it continues to leave a sour
taste in my mouth nonetheless.
As it turns out I have other ideas, and the nightmare surplus at the
back of my mind is not quite on empty yet.
So I guess I have to let this one pass.
Comments
Post a Comment