Unconcious plaigerism repost from DW

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I get what seems like a good idea for a story, but as I start fleshing it out, it starts to seem very familiar. I will start to feel pretty sure that I have read a similar story at some point even if I can't find it. (I have a pretty good memory for things I've read, so I could easily have read it a couple years ago.)

I don't want to accidentally take over someone else's story, but there are a limited number of possible plots unless you go to AU. For example: Napoleon and Illya are hiding from THRUSH in a deserted cabin and one of them is hurt. Used a lot, but is my variation really different or am I remembering it?

Does this happen to other people? How much do you worry about using a similar situation as long as you (think you have) put your own spin on it?

Added: I have found a term for this! Cryptomnesia

"Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original. It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a tune, or a joke,[1] not deliberately engaging in plagiarism but rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration." Wikipedia "Cryptomnesia" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomnesia accessed May 13, 2019

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Wow thanks for that term and definition! Between that and having CRS I'm in bad shape. lol!

[threecee.livejournal.com]

We seem to be in good company: Nietzsche, Umberto Eco, & Helen Keller had problems with it too.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

omg!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting over here. And yes, I'm glenmered on DW... for some reason I thought I shouldn't use the same name as here. Dumb. And I'm girlintheglen on ff.net and AO3. You'd think I had a personality disorder ;)
As for the unconscious plagiarism, I had an experience with that a few years ago. I wrote a story called the The Deadly Date Affair (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524674) , with an idea I thought was so original. After I posted it, I read a story by ajsqdaway called The Formula T Affair (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/243897/1/The-FormulaT-Affair)
I was very surprised by the similarities in our plot, not a copy but similar. I actually wrote her a note and told her I'd discovered my own story seemed similar to hers, but I had only just read it after writing and posting mine.
She wrote back a sweet little note, acknowledging how often we bump into someone else's idea, only because it's an inevitability to do so. If you have enough people doing the same thing, ideas are bound to show up more than once.
It was nice to have a veteran of the genre give me such a kind and accepting response. We all do our best to not actually 'copy' someone else's story, or at least I hope so; but it can happen simply because any idea can be had multiple times.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

As threecee said on DW, putting our own personal spin on a particular scenario is about the only way to make it happen. I personally don't read as much FF. as I used to so as to not run into that problem as much. It still happens, you come up with an idea that you think is unique only to find someone else has hit upon it as well. C'est la vie.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

I've noticed how often the same story line is used by authors on these forums, including me, whether consciously or not. Sometimes it's what you could call convergent evolution - not plagiarism. As you say, there aren't that many plots to play with. But all artists and writers pick up other people's ideas and develop them in their own way. In music it's called 'variations on a theme' - isn't that what we're all doing, being creative with themes?

Plagiarism is copying and passing something off as your own without acknowledgment, which isn't the same thing. I can't say I've seen any evidence of that, though I've heard people saying it's happened to them and it must be extremely annoying.

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Staying within the general area of canon almost forces you to use similar story lines. The show itself did that, especially toward the end. If you go into something way outside canon, it can be very hard to keep the characters true. Tricky balancing act.

What bothers me most is that I will come up with a detail and then I'll read someone's story from a few years ago and they have almost the same detail, even if they are using it differently.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

What did I say? Convergent evolution. Perhaps it's impossible to be truly original - a chastening thought.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

None of my ideas are particularly original; they don't have to be. It's all in what you do with it. Personally, there are tropes I love and will read over and over, and the boys being stuck in a cabin somewhere is one of them (I like locked-room stuff and "away from home" stuff).

Who was it who said there are only seven plots? It's all about the details.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I think the fact we respond to challenge prompts is exactly the sort of thing you're referencing. We take one idea, one catalyst for a story, and everyone writes around that idea.
We might take a scene from an episode and expand on it.
Literary license, artistic license... Our starting point is a television show we didn't write, so anything after that is just icing on the proverbial cake.
Now, the extremes exist. I was once publicly chastised on ff.net for having Illya play the guitar. The other writer said that was her idea and I had stolen it (to paraphrase). Some people do have an extreme view of things, and that we must tolerate or maybe write a scathing rebuttal (I'm not admitting anything), but moving on is imperative.
Just write, enjoy it and remember no money changes hands and we do it for fun.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was accused by one person of plagiarism because I used the trope of a character coming back after people believed he was dead. The accuser said another writer had used that trope about the same character. I mean, you can't win with people who don't actually know what plagiarism consists of, nor that concepts and premises and even general plotlines are not copyrighted, formally or informally.

Sigh.


Edit to add: As for scathing rebuttals, people who make accusations based in ignorance should be grateful to have that ignorance corrected, so they don't make fools of themselves again (well, at least not in that manner).

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

The individual has never shown any signs of being open to correction, is in fact persuaded, it seems, of proprietary entitlement to everything MFU. No matter, she doesn’t exist here 😎

[threecee.livejournal.com]

They were attacking you on behalf of someone else? Someone appointed her the fanfic police?

[threecee.livejournal.com]

Illya playing the guitar is cannon (Take Me to Your Leader Affair). But that is the sort of small detail that one can believe is original when it has been used by others.

I'm not worried about being accused of plagiarism because I don't publish much and I don't think that many people read what I have put out there, I just would like to not repeat what has already been done.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

Repetition is fine. Handel, like lots of composers, did it all the time - it's the variations that are important.