Young Writers Society

Thanks Reichieru. I can see your point.

(Maybe I should read more? hehehe...)

When I borrow, I do just what you said you did and the borrowed thing eventually becomes so obbviously glaring that I just can't continue and so I don't, feeling very very guilty.

Once, I had this story that I LOVED. But it was more than a tad like a book I'd just read. Deep down I knew it, and I kept telling myself it was Ok and that it was different enough. My brother read it, because he was my biggest fan then, and he said the idea was just like that book. I denied it.
"No, it's not! It's different! There are differences!"
"It's exactly the same!"
"NO IT'S NOT!!!"
"Sure, sure, whatever you say."
EXIT BROTHER.
"FINE! It's the same idea! Who am I kidding?"
DELETE

I loved that story so much too *sniff*.

Personally, I've got too much of a conscience to do much borrowing at all. I seriously can't bring myself to do it. If I do it by accident (see above dialouge thing), as soon as I realise ... DELETE. It's just silly to say that some things are copied though. I mean, if you have magic in your story, did you copy the idea? No? Well, is it original then? No? So you copied it. No? *shrugs* I suppose the major base-of-story ideas really have been recycled to the stage where they're just not original anymore.

But if you want to look at it from another perspective ...

Another Holly Lisle article gem ...
HOW TO (LEGALLY AND ETHICALLY) STEAL IDEAS:
http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/wc3-3.html

MWAHAHAHHAAHAH!!!!

Thanks, Eloere. I know what you mean. I used to sort of try to finish writing my stuff without admitting it was so like another story, but it such a depressing, crummy feeling. I just delete mine now, too. The 'clear' button is getting a lot of exercise.

I shall check out your link.

Thank you.

Yup. I checked your link. I thought it was pretty good..

(NOW I CAN RULE THE UNIVERSE...!)

Oh. Yeah, sorry, just want to thank you again for your post. Borrowing is such a yucky, taboo subject, it seems among writers, it's nice that someone (ie you guys) are okay talking about it.

_/)

Always here to help!

I think it's good to draw inspiration from books/movies/ poems/whatever that you admire and use other's work as springboards for your own, but it's true that you have to be aware of when it's getting too similar. Sometimes I just need fuel for stories, so I'll use the same general idea from a book, but write it with a completely different style and characters. It's most important to have your own style, so that if you borrow a basic idea from someone, you can write it in a way that's still your own. I'd say not to worry about to think about the similaraties while writing a rough draft, just write it naturally, and then go back and revise and fiddle with it. If your'e worried that it's too similar to a particular book or whatever, it's probably helpful to have someone else who's seen/read it read your piece and get feedback from them.

I've been inspired by a lot of books, and loved the ideas, but usually when I get to writing they get so different that they become quite individual.

stealing a couple ideas here and there is perfectly okay, just make sure you don't steal a whole book. What I mean by this is that you should pick out what you like in the book and steal that, but not necessarily the entire plot or setting or anything like that.

Stealing is normal....

hahaha!
That sounds so wrong. But it's true. I think that most plots written now have already been written or thought of by someone (just the general outline of it), so you are just perfecting the storytelling.

But don't write it the same way you would write a literary essay in which you 'stole' a "couple" of ideas from sparknotes. I know people who write all their english papers straight from that site. Thats taking stealing a bit too far.