Plagiarism
Plagiarism sort of fascinates me. Mostly because I am a reader, I think. And as a reader I absorb.
I absorb thoughts, ideas, fairy tales, story lines, dialogue… and sometimes when I’m writing I find that I can’t remember if what I’m writing came from a dream I had, a book I read, or a an actual idea that I am actually formulating as my ink pours from my pen.
I am re-reading The Mortal Instruments series, and with a re-read comes more review reading, more research, because I no longer fear a spoiler. So long after the scandal, I discovered this morning that Cassandra Clare was accused of plagiarism on a fan fiction site for a Harry Potter spin-off series about Draco. Not only accused, but her account was cancelled because of it.
I’m not defending plagiarism, it’s not ok. The idea that someone would purposely just copy someone else’s work turns my stomach.
But what if it is purely accidental?
What if you have internalized a work so completely in your youth that as an adult an idea, dialogue, plot points, come to you so wholly formed and you recall that it was inspired by something, but not necessarily who or where the inspiration came from?
I can see that happening to me. I read so much as a child and I cannot remember it all, but I do have to say that I don’t think a single idea I’ve ever had could actually be attributed to myself. They aren’t my ideas. They are the ideas of those who came before me. They are the ideas that came from authors I loved, and characters who became my friends.
I distinctly remember writing a story once, I was maybe seventeen at the time, and I was so in love with it. I thought, man, I’m good – this story is fantastic. I re-read it, I worked on it avidly. Then I realized, about a month later, that it wasn’t mine. I was re-writing The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. Perhaps slightly in my own words, but the essence of it was entirely hers and I was forced to throw it away.
It was the first time I became doubtful that I would ever publish anything. Until then, I had been completely convinced that no matter what happened in my life, I would at least become an author in some capacity. It was in my veins since the first time I picked up a book and could decode the letters that made words and sentences. I had been writing stories and ‘books’ since I could manage to scrawl out a readable letter with my number two pencil. But right then, as a teenager, I realized my biggest fear – that perhaps I didn’t have any words of my own. Perhaps they all came from elsewhere.
That is when I realized what the biggest challenge would be for me to become an author – writing something original. How do you sort through all that you’ve read, all that you love, and find something that doesn’t already belong to someone in some way?
Because of this, my novella doesn’t have much in the way of plot points. The characters came to me, yes. I can write their essence, yes. But ultimately, I am terrified of plot points. I feel like they’ve all been written before. But people, people are always capable of being their own. Characters are easier to write than plots, because I’m surrounded by characters – they live in my head. Plots, on the other hand, only live in books that have already been written. Real life doesn’t seem to consist of plots so I can’t rely on life to deliver inspiration that hasn’t already been had by someone.
Logical fallacies, of course. But that’s how I feel.
And I can’t help but wonder if Cassandra Clare felt the same way from time to time.
Anakalian Whims 
bookgeeking said,
June 10, 2014 at 4:55 pm
I feel that way sometimes too,but inspiration is okay, there can be nothing truly original in story telling now, it has all been done in some way, authors just need to make it their own the best they can. As far as I am aware Cassandra Clare actually took pieces of writing from someone else and claimed them as her own, I do not know too much about it though.
Anakalian Whims said,
June 10, 2014 at 5:42 pm
In the bits I read about it, apparently she had vague footnotes saying she had been inspired for that part by somesuch story or another but couldn’t remember the author. The parts that weren’t footnoted that people said were plagiarized were phrases from dialogue – quips from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a few other sources. I’m not necessarily defending their use, but I can see how someone might not remember that they already heard that in a TV show if they get pieces of dialogue stuck in their head and applied to her own versions of characters. I know I’ve spouted off stuff to my husband flippantly and he identified it as a quote from something – in the moment I didn’t think I was quoting anything, it was just a phrase that had become second nature. If she had truly plagiarized with ill intent, would she have eventually landed such a high profile book deal? I don’t know.
bookgeeking said,
June 10, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Her books are not plagerised, so I don’t see why not, she used a different name as well. If it is just that then that’s a shame that such drastic action was taken, she obviously has talent since her books have done so well.
Wordpress Blogs - Wordpress Blogs .NET said,
June 10, 2014 at 8:40 pm
[…] Plagiarism June 10th, 2014 — “Plagiarism sort of fascinates me. Mostly because I am a reader, I think. And as a reader I absorb. I absorb thoughts, ideas, fairy tales, story lines, dialogue… and sometimes when I’m writing I find that I can’t remember if what I’m writing came from a dream I had, a book I read, or a […]” 3 Comments […]