Fannish Thoughts and Original Stories

[claudia6913]

First, I apologize for spamming flists with Fractured Reality, my 2005 NaNo Novel. Unfortunately, the .doc file for it was too big to mail to myself, and I'm wanting to finish it. If you want to read, be my guest, any and all concrit is welcome. Tag is here.

Second, I'm curious about something I read recently in fanficrants ... When does it become

Comments

[angelskuuipo]

I tend to agree with you about recycling ideas. Look at how many frickin' CSI's and L&O's are on TV right now. I can't watch any of them. Plot bunnies get thrown out there for adoption so we can come up with new and interesting ways to tell the story. That's what makes it great.

I wrote my Leverage/Burn Notice crossover off of a picture of ladies shoes. Three or four other people wrote completely different stories from the same picture. It's very cool to see how someone else interprets something.

[claudia6913]

Oh the CSI's and L&O's ... I feel you on that. I can't watch any of them either. Well, I do like the original CSI with Grissam, but the others are just boring.

Interpretation is everything. And because we are all unique people, we all have unique ideas and ways to do things.

[purplefeen]

I know someone who wrote a fic where William and Spike were twin brothers. This was written in 2003, before Spilliam got popular. The next girl asked permission from the first and it was easily granted. But now, SPilliam is so popular that no one asks anymore.

I'm with you. I think everything's been done and if you're putting your own spin on something that's been done to death, its yours and you shouldn't have to ask. I took my Vampire!Willow/Human!William story from a premise done by different people where they rewrote The Initiative episode and had Spike/Willow having sex instead of fighting.

I put a new spin on it and I didn't ask anyone for permission. I don't think I should have to. I changed it enough to make it my own. That isn't plagiarism to me.

[claudia6913]

I don't know, I could see something like that, where it's kinda new, maybe asking for permission just as a formality (though I still think no permission would've been needed).

Definately. I truly see plagiarism as the lifting of material (words), and not necissarily ideas (premise/plot).

[velvetwhip]

I think that as long as you don't blatantly rip off what someone else wrote, you're fine. And I'm thrilled you answered my challenge at NHA. I love Long Hard Road Out of Hell.

Gabrielle

[oreadno1]

dragonydreams and I (and many, many others) have written post-Chosen Willow/Giles fics, but that doesn't mean we've plaigarised each other or anyone else. Heck she and I have both written W/G fics where snow was a major factor, but they were absolutely nothing alike (hers was better!) Plagiarism is willfully and knowingly taking the bosy and substance of someone else's work, word for word, and claiming it as your own.

Kathy

[rileysaplank]

Y'know with music I can tell you that the legal definition opf plagiarism is 5 distinct notes (if they're in a different octave it's not considered plagiarism), with poetry I can tell you that the legal definition is more than two lines, but with actual prose I can't remember what is legally considered plaigiarism.

And no, ideas can't be plagiarised so three or four stories coming from the sdame plot bunny aren't plagiaristic of each other. And everything has been done before, there's only 7 distinct original ideas but it's the way that you interpret them that keeps everything fresh.