Im reference to my works...

[Jacob Swift]

Haha, caught ya! Sorry, but I feel tense and would like to talk to other writers. The creative people I hand around with just are not helping me so much. Maybe you guys could help me out. I don't have anything really for anyone to read, but then again, I'm not entirely sure if it would be polite to ask other writers to take time out and read something from someone whom they only know by their screen name. Anyway, enough with the rambling, here are my problems.
The piece I am currently working on (one of the many; can't stop ideas from keeping me up at night) is actually based on a game that I have played. Take a guess of which game if you wish; you might win a prize. Now, I am not running the game, but playing along other people. I had decided to write down the stories of what has happened in the game. So it turns out, it would make a really good novel series, if one did a lot of editing and actually formed dialogue. The problem that I have is that the man who is running the game wants 'in' on the work that I am doing. This started over a year ago, and I did not think about it before I agreed. Now, he is trying to rewrite everything that I have worked on, saying that "What I have is not what really happened, and he knows the truth". Basically, he is taking my story from me, and using my writing abilities in order to form an actual story out of simple method acting.
Granted, I had agreed to helping him in the first place. Now that I have realized what he wanted by 'help', I am wanting out. But, I have already invested, or should I say infested, enough time and effort into this, and I am like any amatuer author, greedily protecting my works. Also, none of it is copyrighted, so I could be a real bastard and just sign it over in my name, but I'd rather not be so cruel as to do that.
What do you guys think? That is it in a nutshell.

Jacob Swift

[Kalshane]

I'm not sure what to tell you. When I wrote my first attempt at a novel, it was also based on an RPG I was playing in. Thankfully, the ST was simply interested in my progress, rather than actively trying to shape it. He did give me suggestions here and there, but no more than any of my other friends who were reading along did. I also tried to stay as faithful to the game as possible, which hurt the story flow a bit (as what makes for a cool game session doesn't always make for a good chapter in a book, and story threads get dropped fairly often in an RPG, whereas the reader will murder an author that leaves too many loose ends.)

The best advice I can make is to tell him that you're writing a book that is 1) based on the game, not a word for word transcription 2) from the perspective of this/these character(s) who are not omniscient and thus wouldn't know every little detail about what is really going on. 3) It's a story, not a biography, so it doesn't all have to be "true".

[Belial]

Interestingly, as soon as you write it, it's copyrighted.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wwp

"Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is “created” when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time."

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However, the obvious problem with -not- going and registering you copyrighted it, is proving that you wrote it, and that you wrote it first.

More than that however, is that, unless he was running a module of some sort (in which case, the idea would belong to the company/person who wrote the module), then the rights to the idea and the storyline would be considered to belong to him (providing he has notes and such, as almost all GMs do).

The greater problem than this would probably be the friendship though. I can't really give much advice on that, you'd be a bastard to rip his ideas, and it sounds like he's being a bastard by trying to change the work of which (it seems) you are being the primary writer. 

It really sounds to me like this is a no win situation. You dump the project, and you risk the friendship (possibly, i don't know what type of person this guy is) and you waste a year of work. Dump him from the project, and you definately risk the friendship (I know that i would be extremely angry if such was to occur to me), and if you were to ever get published from this, there would almost undoubtedly be legal contestation, and even worse, he'd most likely have a fairly good case against you.

Really, I can't tell you what to do in this situation, my best advice would be to try to talk it out with him. Try to come to some agreement.

As a note, I don't have any legal training, so don't take my advice here as definate. This is just my understanding, since, as a writer I try to understand copyright law so that I don't get screwed over .

Now, just as one more note, I would say that this is why I try to avoid collaborative works, not that they don't work, I'm just a control freak. I want it to stay how I make it, and while I'll listen to other people's opinions, it doesn't mean I'll change it. I've actually done writing from a D&D campaign before, what I did however was to take my character (whom I created on my own, as I wanted him), and put him on his own, with my storyline, and with the Gods I created for that world (I help come up with some of the content of the world in the campaign, which i happen to guard ferociously as my own. Even if it might piss other players off, I'll claim it as my own just so that I can avoid circumstances such as this... and the DM is my best friend... hrm.)

Well, this is just my two cents... if you'll excuse me I think that I'll go try to find out when I became such a control-freak and when I became so paranoid. O_O

[fjeastman]

IMO ... as a (former) teacher I would say ... keep at it, even though you've got this schlub screwing up the works and making things difficult.  It's good practice for the rest of your life.  You'll always be working with other people, especially in a professional environment, and they'll often have some form of emotional or actual control over what you're doing ... and they'll usually be total idiots.

Usually when I taught I didn't put it quite like that, but there it is.  Think of it as an exercise in patience, humility, and resolve.

Second ... I would suggest finishing the project just to experience finishing the project.  Don't look at it as salable fiction.  Look at it as a first/early work.  Examine where things go wrong.  Compare it to similar works in similar genres.  Write it all the way to the end. 

Then, at the end, stick it in the closet for a month or three, pull it out, read it again, and decide if you're going to submit it or offer it up on the pyre as learning.

My pyre was even literal.  Cathartic, that.

--fje