There is nothing more repulsive to a competent author than people who think they have a great idea for a novel but have no technical capability nor the perseverance to carry out the very tough task. Authors don't need ideas shoved at them. They have sufficient ideas of their own.

There goes Sand again, being just so positive and helpful.

Anyway, you can Google on something like "freelance writers for hire" or buy a copy of Writer's Digest magazine and look at the ads. You'll find plenty of people who won't criticize an idea just because they didn't think of it first.

thanks, mbelle! i figured someone had thought of this but didn't know how to find a collaborator. i'll check out your suggestions.

The concept that waving a raw idea in an author's face is an innovation reveals how out of touch the poster is. As long as there have been professional writers people who have no idea of the processes of literate creativity have imagined that all a writer needs to embroil him or herself with a long tough struggle to turn out something worth reading is an original idea. No doubt an idea is of some use but good writing is a process involving the intricate psychological configurations of an individual creative mind disciplined to all sorts of peripheral capabilities and wide personal experiences and a rigorous work schedule over an extended period of time. The idea is the least of those qualities and it is insulting to believe that it is the paramount object in writing.

Maybe fiction writers have deep philosophical conversations with their muse and only write when all the emotional and moral stars are in alignment. However, some freelance writers are more accommodating. Many will listen to the idea first and then make a decision whether they think it's worthy.

This would be especially helpful for sci fi works: Maybe you have a brilliant premise, but you don't have any technical background on the subject, and you think perhaps someone else might like an idea to write about.

I don't know, I think an idea repository might solve a little problem called Writer's Block. I hear it happens to people.

And, anyway, isn't that what this site is, um, all about? Should I be worrying about shoving my ideas in other people's faces, when they're busy trying to work up the proper chakras to make the mystical and unknowable process of innovation happen? I guess we mortals should leave inventing to the inventors, and writing to the writers... isn't that going directly against the entire attitude of this site?

Such already exists in the motion picture industry. Rough out your idea, talk to a specialized lawyer, and, if interested, a studio will do the rest - screeplay, storyboard, etc. They can then write a book, based on the screenplay/story.

They're called "ghost writers," and it's a time-honored tradition for the writing-challenged to hire them. Depending on how much they're paid, they may or may not get to share writing credit, but did you really think those airhead celebrities wrote their own books?