Plagiarism Quandry
So, I'm cleaning out my old files and I find a fanfic in my "Writing" folder (generally used for my own writing - not stories I betaed, but I am terrible about keeping things in their place) that I can't remember writing. For the most part, I read and reread and refine my stories so much that I could never forget them, but I just don't remember this one. Could be that I never reread it after the first writing though.
It was on my laptop, which I never write on, and while I might have written it while at school, I would have transferred it to my desktop for editing, so maybe I never did. OR it's on my laptop because I received it for beta, and thought I'd beta at school or I downloaded at school. ON THE OTHER HAND, I would not have had a writing folder on my laptop, so I made it specifically for this story, and I would suspect that if it was a beta story, I would have made the folder specifically, but not named it "Writing".
In addition, it's written in an .rtf. Which I never use, BUT my beta at the time always wanted me to use to send to her, so maybe I just put it in that format to start with.
It definitely has turns of phrase and imagery that I would use and it is a subject matter that I really wanted to write about.
BUT, the name of one of the characters is one that it isn't likely I would use. On the other hand, I HATE coming up with names. Really, I either agonize over them or decide it doesn't matter and pick the first one I think of. It is a name that I would have seen used in fanfic, and I may have just snagged it because I couldn't think of anything. (It's not an unusual name - Kayla).
It's really the issue that I didn't remember writing it and the .rtf that has me wondering if it is mine and the name of the character kind of reinforces that.
So, I looked through old emails to see if it matches any of the stories sent to me for beta, but none of them match this story. I would not have deleted the email until I sent the story back betaed and it has no beta notes on it, but does have errors that I would have noted if I betaed it.
So, should I:
Assume that it is mine and post.
Assume that it is mine and never post, just in case.
Assume that it isn't mine and delete it.
Send it to the people I betaed for at the time - that I remember and are still - and see if they recognize. (The thing that I'm hung up on for this one is that I don't know some of them well enough to stop my "what if they claim it falsely" paranoia I have. I'm really possessive of my writing.) Would I then assume that the people I don't remember, or don't respond didn't write it?
Or, something else.
Thing is, it's a beautiful story, otherwise I'd just let it go. Even if I didn't post it, I'm enamored of some of the phrasing and would want to use it in another story.
It was on my laptop, which I never write on, and while I might have written it while at school, I would have transferred it to my desktop for editing, so maybe I never did. OR it's on my laptop because I received it for beta, and thought I'd beta at school or I downloaded at school. ON THE OTHER HAND, I would not have had a writing folder on my laptop, so I made it specifically for this story, and I would suspect that if it was a beta story, I would have made the folder specifically, but not named it "Writing".
In addition, it's written in an .rtf. Which I never use, BUT my beta at the time always wanted me to use to send to her, so maybe I just put it in that format to start with.
It definitely has turns of phrase and imagery that I would use and it is a subject matter that I really wanted to write about.
BUT, the name of one of the characters is one that it isn't likely I would use. On the other hand, I HATE coming up with names. Really, I either agonize over them or decide it doesn't matter and pick the first one I think of. It is a name that I would have seen used in fanfic, and I may have just snagged it because I couldn't think of anything. (It's not an unusual name - Kayla).
It's really the issue that I didn't remember writing it and the .rtf that has me wondering if it is mine and the name of the character kind of reinforces that.
So, I looked through old emails to see if it matches any of the stories sent to me for beta, but none of them match this story. I would not have deleted the email until I sent the story back betaed and it has no beta notes on it, but does have errors that I would have noted if I betaed it.
So, should I:
Assume that it is mine and post.
Assume that it is mine and never post, just in case.
Assume that it isn't mine and delete it.
Send it to the people I betaed for at the time - that I remember and are still - and see if they recognize. (The thing that I'm hung up on for this one is that I don't know some of them well enough to stop my "what if they claim it falsely" paranoia I have. I'm really possessive of my writing.) Would I then assume that the people I don't remember, or don't respond didn't write it?
Or, something else.
Thing is, it's a beautiful story, otherwise I'd just let it go. Even if I didn't post it, I'm enamored of some of the phrasing and would want to use it in another story.