>read a pretty obscure novella from the 1940s a while ago >it came back to me while writing a short story with a similar theme / subject two years ago >used the same first name in my story as the first name of the central character in the novella as a kind of tribute >story was published >didn't think anything of it >woke up this morning, two years later, absolutely paranoid I'm going to get accused of plagiarism at some point
Am I being paranoid or did I genuinely fuck up here?
I didn't steal any quotations, and my writing style is very different from the novella (as is the setting, background etc), its just that I was writing a story which had a similar central plotline and so decided a reference would be like an obscure inside joke of sorts.
Actually sounds cool. I love when I discover an artist did something like that and I'm one of a few at most that notice it.
Andrew Fisher
I'm scared that others won't feel that way, and feel that I've done what the famous Swiss writer did with his book The Harry Quebert Affair. His career is practically over now.
Nathaniel Miller
I reported you to the fbi
Jack Hernandez
Loads of writers have done that. Dostoevsky referenced Gogol's characters all the time, in both pastiche form and outright.
Go read Ecclesiastes.
Mason Bell
I am really panicking right now. I don't know why it's suddenly hit me, as I've not really considered the issue for two years. Maybe I am just a plagiarist.
Any examples?
William Baker
bump
Dylan White
Nothing to worry about imo.
Luke Long
Dude I had a really similar experience. A year and a half ago, I was working on a piece when I read a short story collection, which moved me tremendously. some stories were giving me spine orgasms, so I felt i had to put some of that emotion into my piece. As a smaller tribute, I used some of the same descriptions of clocks from the collection into my story and I even kinda referenced it being a homage where the protag thinks "huh looks kinda derivative" looking at this clocks. The bigger "tribute" was that I used essentially the same base conceit and structure for the final emotional scene from one story. Different characters, different circumstance, different cultural context, but very very similar human moment and action. I figured the technique/structure worked so well for me reading that I hoped I could achieve something close to it while writing.
Finished the piece, got it published, even got shortlisted for one writing prize and longlisted for another. Sometimes I'm scared that decades later, some bastard is gonna accuse me of plagiarism and it'll be the end of me. This sometimes gives me genuine fits of paranoia man, goddamn
Liam Long
It honestly makes me feel like giving up writing, and just offing myself rather than be potentially faced by people despising me.
Nolan Thomas
Why do you say that?
At the moment I'm breathing hard and just want to end it to be honest.
William Bell
You're completely fucked.
Connor Morgan
I really am. I'm actually reading the novella online on kindle now and it's so similar to my story that I can't see a way out for me. I need to kill myself.
Alexander Anderson
What's the novella, mate? I wanna read it.
Look, from what you've said in the thread, this isn't too big a deal. If anyone accuses you later on, just be honest and say it's clearly a homage, that that story was so moving so had to share your love for the novella. Just take a deep breath, and keep it going.
Elijah Cook
I'm too paranoid to say at the moment sorry.
Honestly I feel like an absolutely disgusting plagiarist. The thing is, I didn't have the book next to me while writing it or anything like that, but reading through the novella now I'm seeing certain words that appear in my story too, and the plot itself is very similar. I can't see a way out of this for me, and I can't face living my life either not writing or writing with the constant fear of being called out and humiliated. I really think I ought to commit suicide and get over with it.
Samuel Parker
don't be absurd it's fine
Landon Martinez
No need to worry friend. You yourself said that the novel that inspired you was obscure, I doubt anyone will ever notice. If someone does end up noticing just explain that the work inspired you. Many great works are derivatives of earlier works. It sounds like you are not in a good head space and are very anxious; you have nothing to worry about.
Kayden Reed
> user makes a post > Its about his published novella > user won't say what novella it is
Fuck you, user
Evan Watson
Take a chill pill man. Heavy inspiration is not plagiarism. If it were, everything but Hindu scripture and the greeks would be copystriked. Your worries might feel real but they are very exaggerated and are not worth your mental health. Calm down, take a deep breath, go for a run. This won't be the end of you, but that fear of potential retribution will be. Relax
Daniel Thomas
The fact that the book's obscure only makes me feel more sinister, as if it was say Joyce and the Odyssey it's understandable as the latter book is ancient and very well-known. If the prize I had won was $100,000 and the story was world famous, the same standards would have to be applied and in that case I'd be absolutely humiliated and blacklisted, a career over before it began. I can't imagine myself taking writing seriously now and taking myself seriously with this hanging over me. It's finally hit me that this is no innocent, light-hearted tribute but a pathetic attempt to win attention or whatever off the back of someone else's work.
Colton Stewart
>this much retarded anxiety over something this minute no wonder you're a writer
Carter Morris
I didn't write a novella, it's a short story.
I don't mean this in a hostile way, but would you say the same to Joel Dicker whose career was destroyed after similarities were pointed out between the Harry Quebert Affair and some Roth novel? He was a young author too, but that resulted in being absolutely marginalized and treated like a leper, for good reason as far as I'm aware. If I'm in the same position as him at this point, what's the point of even carrying on?
Kevin Bennett
Your intentions at the time can't 'suddenly hit you' years later, ya dip. If you were thinking 'aha, I'm going to steal someone's work and use it to get noticed' you would have remembered that all along. Also you wouldn't have used the same character name unless you were criminally stupid.
Liam Butler
what the FUCK is wrong with you. You're being retarded. you're not listening to anyone in this thread because your head is in a fucked state. Leave this thread now and go for a run. Your mind is now going to shit OP
John Adams
>Also you wouldn't have used the same character name unless you were criminally stupid this, exactly this this almost proves to anyone with a brain (maybe not OP) that it wasn't plagiarism If you don't realize this OP, you're not thinking straight at the moment
Easton Reed
People except a lot from writers, specifically originality and honesty. If I had won money for this story (regardless of the amount) and a lot of people had liked it, then people would feel ripped off if they found out it was heavily influenced by another, more original, work of fiction.
But other people don't know that. They may just assume I used the same name as a self-conscious effort to prepare for future criticism. I don't know why it took me so long to actually realize that what I did was plagiaristic, but at this point I feel so corrupt and sinister that I don't feel comfortable being in my own company.
Carson Cruz
>If I'm in the same position as him at this point, what's the point of even carrying on? If [false premise], then [false conclusion].
You're not in the same position, most obviously because you haven't been caught, secondarily because (I assume) you're not as famous, thirdly because each case stands and falls on its own merits and you can't know how comparable your 'crime' is until it's actually discovered.
Lincoln Ross
I appreciate the feedback, and it's somewhat reassuring, but I just read through the novella on kindle and every detail that matches my short story is like another nail in the coffin. I am actually disgusted at myself for being so stupid.
Landon Ward
>People except a lot from writers, specifically originality and honesty. If I had won money for this story (regardless of the amount) and a lot of people had liked it, then people would feel ripped off if they found out it was heavily influenced by another, more original, work of fiction. Mate you can spin this anyway you want. I really don't want to indulge these delusions, but you can also say that people love a short story that taps into a rich history of literary fiction and that your piece brought attention to an author who wouldn't have normally gotten the attention.
Again, as has been said repeatedly in this thread, your brain is just playing tricks on you
Jaxson Ortiz
>but other people don't know that So you're walking back your bizarre retroactive claim of criminal intent? Well, I think that's a start.
Ethan Williams
>You're not in the same position, most obviously because you haven't been caught, secondarily because (I assume) you're not as famous
These don't make the thing easier to deal with, as a crime is a crime regardless of its extent. Transgressing a fairly basic ethical code isn't something I can live with, even if it wasn't my intention to do that. I already feel "caught" by my own conscience, which is more than enough to force my hand in imposing the appropriate punishment. Sorry to blogpost but my writing career is over, and I guess this is how crooks and frauds feel when they've been outed, as I feel like basically not existing now.
Gavin Kelly
Just calm down. If, on the near zero percent chance it happens, someone accuses you of plagiarism, you can deal with it then. Don't get so worked up over something that hasn't happened yet and almost certainly never will
Evan Cruz
>Be me in high school journalism >Have to make 2 articles a month for a grade with a minimum word count >Talented writer but a lazy fuck so I basically copy 2 different book reviews in different order and change it up >It gets printed in the fucking paper
Years later and Im still looking over my shoulder...
Tell me it doesnt matter bros
Nicholas Brooks
You're right OP. You're career is done. Just post the novella and your story so you can move on.
Jaxon Martinez
Crimes require intent, and you didn't intend to plagiarize that story for some personal gain. Was Shakespeare a criminal for taking all of his plots from other, more original sources? Should no one ever read the Aeneid because of how heavily Virgil was influenced by the Iliad and Odyssey? Literature is built off of influence from past writers, there's nothing wrong with using ideas from another work in your own
Robert Johnson
>walking back your bizarre retroactive claim of criminal intent Absolute kek. Gonna be honest, this thread is a bunch of fun. Thanks, OP.
Hunter Foster
Just turn yourself in right now OP
Blake Reed
>Crimes require intent Shit, man, I don't wanna add fire to OP's retarded, anxiety-ridden salted wound, but we all know that crime doesn't necessarily require intent
Eli Sanders
I appreciate this, but why then do so many writers have their careers destroyed by accusations of plagiarism? Granted it's usually the case that said writers copy actual quotations etc from other books (as in the case of the New York Times editor recently) but still, I think what I did was more, or at least will be perceived as being more, than just an innocent tribute slash inside joke.
I think having your career ruined would require copying large sections of a book word for word and passing it off as your own. Even if your plot is very similar it can just be influence. Shakespeare's plots are completely unoriginal, the basic plot structures of his plays are copied almost entirely from other writers. If you added anything of your own to it, you're fine. Even just how you've interpreted the ideas from the novella and reincorporated them into your story has changed then in some way and added something of your own to it. Seriously, don't worry about it
William Campbell
this
Wyatt Wood
Because it is not plagiarism. Plain and simple.
Ayden Rogers
Imho, go meta now. Expand on the story from Your and Yea Forums's current PoV by posting the story and allegedly raped material here. You know, go all sociopath on the literary circles.
Jonathan Lopez
user, you need to see someone, it's not healthy to be going into hysterics entirely over your imagined fantasies of what could be. Calm down.
Michael Parker
OP here. This is my final post in this thread as I don't want to keep repeating myself and waste your time. I've just been for a walk in a nearby park and I feel no better for it to be honest. Thank you for your advice and feedback, I really do appreciate it.
Henry Cruz
Go for a good run. give your mind no room to think about anything but maintaining running pace and proper breathing. You shouldn't be able to think about anything but your body. I'm this guy so I do empathize with you. A good run will help, I promise
Wow OP, I'd be killing myself if I were you. There is no going back
Gavin Jones
is the story the same? there are only so many names in existence, so if the narrative is different enough, they have no case also >obscure novella from the 40s you’re fine
Kevin Powell
This smells like a LARP... I don't know why these LARPing "I've plagiarised my work from obscure novels and no-one knows yet omg" threads keep on popping up. Is it one guy creating them?
