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Feb. 2nd, 2005 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kbkSomething writery I worry about is unintentional plagiarism.
This came to mind because I re-read two big Mulder/Krycek stories, and realised that my own twenty-odd thousand words of Krycek-POV (crap which was never intended to see the light of day) was basically equal parts of each of them and my own work - hence two-thirds plagiarised. But the thing is, I didn't even notice when I was writing it. If I hadn't gone back and read those stories, I might never have realised how little of that thing is mine.
And it's something I've always known I'm prone to, borrowing phrases and ideas from all over the place, and I won't even remember where they came from because I've read so much. So where's the line? Between stuff that is my own and stuff that's misremembered? Where does it become plagiarism? Intent is obviously the deciding factor in the definition of that word, but ... if it's close enough to a previous piece, if it's heavily inspired by something, if you're going through archives and suddenly realise, "that's where that idea came from!" what happens then? Do you kill it completely, or put a note on it to explain, or just leave it as is?
Argh. Not something I'm particularly worried about right now, mostly because all I'm really working on is the genderswap and there aren't that many of those around, though I've realised one scene I was contemplating is quite stolen but it's one of those things that's logical and obvious so it doesn't quite matter.
Um. Anyway.
This came to mind because I re-read two big Mulder/Krycek stories, and realised that my own twenty-odd thousand words of Krycek-POV (crap which was never intended to see the light of day) was basically equal parts of each of them and my own work - hence two-thirds plagiarised. But the thing is, I didn't even notice when I was writing it. If I hadn't gone back and read those stories, I might never have realised how little of that thing is mine.
And it's something I've always known I'm prone to, borrowing phrases and ideas from all over the place, and I won't even remember where they came from because I've read so much. So where's the line? Between stuff that is my own and stuff that's misremembered? Where does it become plagiarism? Intent is obviously the deciding factor in the definition of that word, but ... if it's close enough to a previous piece, if it's heavily inspired by something, if you're going through archives and suddenly realise, "that's where that idea came from!" what happens then? Do you kill it completely, or put a note on it to explain, or just leave it as is?
Argh. Not something I'm particularly worried about right now, mostly because all I'm really working on is the genderswap and there aren't that many of those around, though I've realised one scene I was contemplating is quite stolen but it's one of those things that's logical and obvious so it doesn't quite matter.
Um. Anyway.
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Date: 2005-02-02 08:31 am (UTC)I prefer to think of it like this though, even though you're lifting things, you're using them in a unique way... it's like a tapestry, even if you didn't make every thread yourself, the final combination is your work, and it's due to your weaving of the threads that it takes on whatever form it does.
Or maybe I'm trying to avoid being sued. *shrugs*