Plageurism - Writers Forum

Aztecsfinest · 12-31-2005, 04:46 PM

(Did I spell that right?)
Have you ever had this problem: You come up with a brilliant idea for a story, you begin writing and you think it's great. You take a break and borrow a book a friend reccomended and to your horror the plot and story is a bit too similiar to yours.

Or worse a few days later a film is released with your title
Or an anime with your plot! This has happened to me way too often and I am getting paranoid (The Truman Show anyone?) can someone please reassure me and tell me it happens to others aswell![-o<

Christopher Black · 12-31-2005, 05:08 PM

Out of my last five stories, 4 of them, I found, shared titles to rock albums and books. The funny thing is, how many times the titles were used. One was used to title several books and a few records. I decided to keep my titles though. I know I didn't steal them. I guess the old cliche is right, that no idea is original.

I've never found a story with the same plot though. I've had one or two that had minor similarities, but never the same exact plot.

mammamaia · 01-01-2006, 01:12 AM

if you write long enough, it happens to everyone... and it's 'plagiarism'... hugs, maia

Dresdor · 01-02-2006, 03:10 AM

It's only stealing if you knew of the source before writing it. Proving that you had it first is the hard part.

TimK · 01-02-2006, 06:46 AM

Yeah, plagiarism is when you take someone else's work and pass it off as your own. Note that if you write a story that happens to be similar to someone else's, it's not plagiarism. Now, you probably don't want to tell stories that have already been told. But how similar is similar? Even though the gist of the story may be the same, probably you can add something new, something of your own. Also, some story forms never go out of style, no matter how old they get. Boy meets girl; they fall in love; they live happily ever after.

-TimK

LouDog11 · 01-02-2006, 03:26 PM

Don't forget that plagairism is also taking someone else's work and not citing it properly -- or at all --, even if you meant to. This can ring true if you did not steal the information word for word, but still put another person's ideas in your own words without first giving them credit.

I think that is correct. Well, my friend in college got in trouble for this, at least.

Aztecsfinest · 01-03-2006, 12:59 PM

Thank you. I was just very upset when a movie came out with the same name as one of my comedies (A zombie movie, I say no more) and a Nickelodeon anime with my plot also when my cousin and I were younger, we made up stories for our favourite video game character, and all of the things we pretended he could do, he just happened to be able to in the sequel. (Swim, use a bazooka etc.) I'd prefeer not to mention any names...
Is all that a coincedence?

(P.L.A.G.I.A.R.I.S.M. I have 12 dictionaries and couldn't find one!)

mammamaia · 01-03-2006, 05:35 PM

titles aren't important, stories are... many books and movies have the same titles, but it's the plot and characters that sell the work, not the title...