In deeply unsettling news out of the coffee shop where you’re on a third date, your date just called you his muse – which, as you understand it, means he has every intention of taking all your ideas and passing them off as his own.
“When he called me his ‘muse,’ it felt extremely sinister,” you told reporters. “It made me rethink every conversation I’ve ever had with him and make a mental list of every hope, dream, or passing thought I’ve told him.”
“Am I going to take all of her ideas, verbatim, and act like I came up with them myself? Of course!” your date brazenly informed reporters. “But is that stealing? Absolutely not! She’s my muse. Not sure what’s so hard to understand about that.”
You said that you were just glad you didn’t end up sharing your completed screenplay with him like you’d been planning on doing.
“He definitely would’ve just slapped his name on that bad boy, called it his own – in spite of the fact that he has never shown any interest in screenwriting before, and called my input ‘inspiration,’” you said. “Word-for-word, comma-for-comma inspiration – because that’s a thing.”
“What? She inspires me! Is that so bad?” your date asked. “All of her ideas are so good that I want to make them mine. Shouldn’t that be flattering?”
An impromptu poll of everyone in the coffee shop found that – overwhelmingly – no, that would not be considered flattering.
In response to the negative backlash from those in his immediate vicinity, your date hastily attempted to justify his actions, saying, “Every guy needs his muse! I know that from artists and philosophers and scientists. How else would anyone come up with anything? Plus, it’s not like she was going to do anything with those ideas, anyway, which is something I have never actually asked her and just decided independently to make myself feel better. See? I have a conscience.”
“She’s not really the creative type,” he added, uncertainly. “At least, I don’t think so. I’ve never checked. But everybody wants to be someone’s muse! I told her she’s the source of all of my creative inspiration…what more could she want?”
You told reporters that sufficient credit for your work or, even better, not taking your ideas without your permission in the first place, would be a good start.
