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Plagiarism vs. influence vs. parameters of a common subject

novella

novella

Active Member
watercrystal and I were getting into this on another thread.

Sometimes, as an editor, it's hard to distinguish one from the other.

Sometimes as a writer it's hard to recognize one's influences.

There is such a thing as unintentional plagiarism. There are also the countless little reactions and absorptions we make in the course of life.

And then there's the problem, commonly faced by biographers, of researching the same subject in the same places, working through a finite body of information, and coming to the same conclusions.

While intentional plagiarism is criminal, what about other forms of copying/influence? Do you notice them? Do you accept them?

All thrilling movies owe something to Hitchcock. All mysteries owe something to Conan Doyle. Sometimes things are described as "homages" when they are merely capitalizing on a predecessor's popularity.

"Hamlet: The Prequel" anyone?
 
novella said:
There is such a thing as unintentional plagiarism. There are also the countless little reactions and absorptions we make in the course of life.

And then there's the problem, commonly faced by biographers, of researching the same subject in the same places, working through a finite body of information, and coming to the same conclusions.
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I once named a copper in a story, Morse. He was Corporal. My critique came back fast. 'Inspector Morse?' I had never before read an Inspector Morse series, nothing - I promise - from Colin Dexter. So where did it come from? I invariably had to rename my good fella, Corporal Moose, making him the epitome of a geek.

Sometimes, reading a published book, I go 'Damn, the fool!' Because I have a similar idea in my unpublished one, now I have to change mine - because the bugger got his published first. But we've never met. How do different beings from different worlds and different ages conceive something so similar?
 
It seems like ideas flow into everyone's mind at the same time sometimes. Makes you believe in a collective unconscious or whatever.

It is a difficult line to draw.
 
As Ashlea said, it might well be attributed to "random coincidence".

For example, my writing has been compared to Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane by many, many people. However, I've never once read something they've written, even after being told that. Why not? Originally, because I hadn't gotten around to them. But now, for that very reason -- I write like them. If I DO write similar, then reading something they've written would make it possible, however unintentionally, to unconsciously seize (i.e., plagerize) phrasing and word choices. It's possible I might have made similar choices on my own at some point, but it would speed up the process unfairly.
 
Cathy C said:
As Ashlea said, it might well be attributed to "random coincidence".

For example, my writing has been compared to Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane by many, many people. However, I've never once read something they've written, even after being told that. Why not? Originally, because I hadn't gotten around to them. But now, for that very reason -- I write like them. If I DO write similar, then reading something they've written would make it possible, however unintentionally, to unconsciously seize (i.e., plagerize) phrasing and word choices. It's possible I might have made similar choices on my own at some point, but it would speed up the process unfairly.
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There is a world of difference between "writing in the style of" and lifting phrases, ideas, and examples all together from another's work. One is legal; the other is criminal.

Lots of writing workshops encourage students to try writing in the style of another writer, even following another's writing "footprints."

But if any of those students lifted lines from someone else's work and passed them off as original, whether intentional or not, it is wrong.
 
novella said:
But if any of those students lifted lines from someone else's work and passed them off as original, whether intentional or not, it is wrong.
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yeah... (10characters)
 
I like this:

"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to steal ideas from many is research."

-Anon.
 
Cathy C said:
For example, my writing has been compared to Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane by many, many people.
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Talking of writing, Cathy C, Hunter's Moon had some grand phrases that made me drool, the beginning chapters especially.
 
I've experienced this problem while writing - usually during my ideas shakedown before kicking off with the actual writing. I will look again at an idea I produced during a brainstorm and think that it looks familiar, then realise that this is so because I've read that very same plot development in a book prior to producing the idea. However, I check all these rigorously - if I believe that a similar plot development best serves my story, then I will go ahead and use it but ensure that there are enough differences that it is essentially my writing.

I once heard that there are only seven original tales. If that is the case, we are all plagiarising to some extent.
 
I have heard the "seven original tales" too. In my experience what makes books interesting to read is the "stamp" or "thumbprint" each author puts on their work.

I have been told by some here that my writing smacks of Stephen King. Which makes sense, as he is the one who's work has inspired me, and whom I have read most often. To avoid the "stereotype", though, I have been branching out into forms of fiction and authors that I would not normally have read, just to broaden my mind.

I think our writing is inseparable from our experience. For most writers, much of our experience is in reading. Good or bad, what we read changes us and influences us. It is inevitible that we adopt a style similar to those writers who have most influenced us.

The trick, I think, is to discover our "thumbprint" and place it in everything we write.
 
I believe there is such a thing as unintentional plagiarism... to a certain extent. A while back (about five or six years ago) I wrote a novella about a religious man named Father Calahan, which, at the time, I thought was an original name, although my story was not so much original. It was your typical horror tale and this character had a silver crucifix around his neck, bible in hand, blah, blah, blah. And then I read Salem's Lot, by Stephen King. Lo and behold, within its pages I found a priest, much like my Father Calahan (almost identical in nature), but his name was Father Callahan (with two l's). I had never read Salem's Lot, nor had seen the movie(s) at any point in my life. But I somehow came up with a similar character with an extremely similar name. This was unintentional. I later changed my character's name to Father Hillcrest. I'm just waiting to read a book with a character of that same name.
 
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