My precious!

Is it a common thing for writers to protect their ideas so fiercely that they’ll likely never see the light of day?

The other day I spotted a writing contest on Writing Magazine’s Twitter feed calling for chilling horror stories. A decent cash prize for the length of story requested and publication in an issue of the magazine should be enough motivation for me to put pen to paper, but I didn’t.

A voice in my head told me to protect any flash of an idea I may have for the competition entry.

“What if you could turn it into a whole novel?”

“What if someone steals the premise and writes a better take on it, forever killing the chance of publishing a longer version?”

“What if people enjoy it, but you spoil whatever twist the story may have therfore killing any tension in a longer rewrite?”

I’ve responded to threads on writing forums and Facebook comments offering my (humble as it comes) advice on writing, and even then I’ve hit backspace in order to keep the words to myself.

“What if you can turn this into a blog post?”

“What if your examples could be turned into great stories, you shouldn’t just give them away.”

What if, what if, what if.

Will I have wasted or lost the ideas for good?

Or is this just a clever brain fart of procrastination, my terrified mind convincing me to not only avoid writing but to be proud I did so. As if I thwarted some mega conspiracy aimed at my mediocre and non-existent status as a writer?