Plagiarism vs. Inspiration - What are your thoughts?

[Giya Kusezu]

Okay, I know, this subject has probably been hashed to death before, but bear with me. It’s something that’s bothered me for years and I want to hear some more input on it. Basically, it irritates the crap out of me when I'm reading a book and go, "Hey! That sounds just like Such-and-Such's idea!"

In short: What do you consider plagiarism, and what do you consider inspiration or homage? I’ve seen a couple of other threads on here discussing homage vs. outright theft, and the general opinion seems to be that homage is the respectful referencing of another’s work, not grabbing a line or idea and claiming that it’s your original work. Specifically, how do you feel about this concept concerning an original idea, and not necessarily the way someone wrote a sentence? Like if you had a shaman character who wears a blue cape with stars on it, loves grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milk and calls himself Bob the Brave, and someone else then writes about a shaman character who also wears a blue cape with stars, loves tuna sandwiches with chocolate milk, and calls himself Steve the Excellent One. Plagiarism? Or inspiration?

Long explanation: I’ve had other people borrow stuff from my work. We all probably have. Likewise, I think everyone draws inspiration from other artists, authors, a blog they love reading, a historical figure - you get the idea. So where do you draw the line? What is “drawing inspiration”, in definition?

For example, I have seen criticisms aimed at the author of the book Eragon for his use of themes and even a strikingly similar character taken from other creative works. The author admits that he’s inspired by these works, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, which some have the opinion that he took his system of magic from. So if he admits that he’s inspired by these works, and his written works then bear elements that are unsettlingly similar to these sources of inspiration, does that make his books original, or just well-written fan fiction? I believe in coincidences. I also believe that people commonly borrow ideas.

I’ll admit it, I fell into this trap in my younger days of writing. When I started out with my first book, I shamelessly used the word "mithral" and the concept of mining dwarves and pretty little elves in my story. I had been reading some of the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books, which are based in the D&D universe, which is (arguably) based on the Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkein. I figured hey, everyone must use this stuff in their fantasy writing, right? After a couple of years I realized just how terrible it was to lift such original ideas and transplant them into what I considered my own work, so I went back and revised and chopped the crap out of my work and dismissed a bunch of the Tolkein references. I am yet again in the process of revising some of my work to completely eliminate things that I feel are still strong echoes of a Tolkein-based system.

I don’t like the idea of someone stealing my ideas any more than I’m sure another author would appreciate me stealing theirs. Again I say, where do you draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism/theft?

 

[MineOwnKing]

I have noticed that while writing a manuscript, I will come up with my own original idea for a scene or a name, etc.

Then it happens, ....I'm watching a trailer for a new movie and there are all my ideas already put into production.

How the hell is that possible?

Well, probably in part because what I think is original was already written by some Greek thousands of years ago. Also, ideas seem to follow a social whisper, sort of like a current of ideas which are both inadvertently subliminal and intentionally beaten into our brains through social networking and advertising.

There are always exceptions to every rule, but, I would say that the act of intentionally stealing another author's works are very low.

Typically I don't like other author's ideas, I prefer my own.

I would think most authors are the same, unless they are teenagers trying to emulate through admiration.

 

[Penpilot]

Generally speaking, ideas are a dime a dozen. Any story you see or any story you write will be similar at its core to another one that was written long before yours. So I don't worry about those things.

Originality lies in the execution not the base idea. Take your example of Shaman Bob vs. Shaman Steve. All those details you gave are superficial. They don't equate to a good or bad character. They're just ingredients.

A master chef can make a masterpiece out of a slice of fish and sesame seed oil. Give me all the ingredients in the world, and I'll make you a dog's dinner.

Plagiarism is passing anther's work as your own and not giving credit where credit is due. (See Shia LaBeouf and movie "HowardCantour.com") Homage is a free acknowledgement of taking elements from others and making something your own. ( See Quentin Tarantino and his movies)

A few years ago I had this idea for a story. It had this great wall in it that kept out these creatures on the other side called The Others. Does this sound familiar? This was long before the existence of the Game of Thrones TV show and before I read the books. When I started to read the books, I got to a point, paused, and shouted FFFFFFFFFFF@@@@@ck!!!!

Did that stop me from writing the story. It almost did, but then I realized my story was nothing like GOT. It had those elements that were similar, but really nothing else. So I made a tweak to a name, and for me at least, all is well.

But there is a difference between how Hollywood works vs how books work. Hollywood is about ideas. They buy ideas. One of the reasons I think is because so they can't get sued. Someone claims they stole an idea, they can point to a source material and say that's our inspiration now go away.

Someone tries to do that with a book, it's much more difficult because of sheer volume of material. In a book it's easier to show that Shaman Steve is distinctly different than Shaman Bob.

And finally, after a long-long rant, you want an example of similar ideas but different execution look at these three movies, Friday the 13th, Alien, and Jaws. The core elements in them all are the same, which makes them basically the same story, but at the same time, they couldn't be any more different.

 

[ThinkerX]

For me, ideas and inspiration come from many places. A few days ago, I tried to add the sources/concepts for my 'Empire' series of novellas.

'Empire: Country' had its roots in an old online WFRP adventure: a group of characters, employees of a powerful merchant, seek refuge underneath a tree from a downpour and find a massacre scene, which turned into a monster hunt. The notion of characters being employees rather than free agents appealed to me, and the opening had potential. For that matter, so did the monster hunt.

But I took to asking questions: Employees? How to justify ever more powerful characters as mere merchants? (this was back at the end of my gaming days). And the monster hunt seemed contrived. So, I took these concepts and bent and twisted them around. But, I needed something else. What I settled on was another massacre. I'd read quite a few tales by this point where the MC's come upon a slaughtered village, hundreds dead, express a bit of horror and fear, and then continue on its way. Not that much impact because, well, the villagers or whoever are either dead or about to be dead when the MC's come calling. I decided to try to change that. The MC's arrive in this village, have sit downs with local farmers, artisans, and aristocrats - then everybody gets a one way ticket to a night of blackest magic. But I needed a suitable villain. Fortunately, I'm a Lovecraft fan, with a few ideas of my own about that mythos.

I took bits and pieces from multiple sources and combined them. Stealing? Look hard enough, and you can see mutilated bits and pieces of the sources I drew upon, but at that level...

'Empire: Capital' is the second in the series. The characters, along with the few survivors from 'Country' are in the imperial capital, hence the name. Here, the inspiration was a bit different. Royal and aristocratic courts abound in fantasy. Practically obligatory. Yet...said courts tend to be...compact. The royal family - and often or not the MC is either family member or closely connected to somebody who is. A clutch of scheming courtiers and petty officials. A few servants. Usually just one or two plots of consequence. And that's about it. Except it shouldn't be. Royal or imperial palaces are not just homes, they're centers of government - and it takes a *lot* of people to keep the wheels of government turning. Not just one or two plots, but dozens, going in different directions.

Martin, in 'Game of Thrones' managed to capture that: Lannisters, the Spider, Littlefinger, others, now cooperating, now working against each other.

Carol Berg managed that as well (title escapes me at the moment) - a young woman, new to court, having to deal with a whole slew of officials, maids in waiting, and petty aristocrats, each with goals and ambitions of their own.

And Dan Crawford in his 'Poljin' series, which features a royal bodyguard and a waif in an extremely corrupt and violent palace. Lots of people, lots of plots.

I attempted something along these lines in 'Capital.' I drew inspiration from the above mentioned works without stealing from them. Each MC has a specific goal, and associates with differing people in the palace to pursue that goal, and those people in turn have goals of their own. The real action (an assassination ploy) is buried beneath four or five other plots.

 

[Miskatonic]

I'm inspired by authors that have a real gift for using the language. However, if I tried to copy their style, not only would I sound extremely antiquated, but it would just not fit my personality.