Plagerism

Plagiarizing is defined by dictionary.com as:

1. To use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.

2. To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another).

I think everyone obviously knows not to steal actual passages from others, but did you realize it was also ideas? Think before you take.

That was the little blurb I have added to both my fp.com and ff.net profiles. It is frustrating to work hard to make a story original in its own right and see a story a few days later that is VERY similar to yours. Yes, it could be a coincidence, but when the storylines and plots basically follows your story, it gets kind of obvious it isn't a coincidence.

With fan fic this is harder to call out, because you're already borrowing someone else characters. I have seen 2 fics very similar to one of mine. The first one I saw had a bunch of people review, and only one person called the writer out on the fact that it was similar.

I figured, okay, coincidence, whatever.

The second one is much more recent. I haven't seen it in a few weeks, but it is really pissing me off. When I started the fic I'm talking about it was the only one of its kind. I had added a special little twist that no one else had. It was my original idea. Now, I look and I see another fic with the same idea. Okay, no big.

But then I read it. And the sequence of events is eerily similar to mine. To me, when there are only 3-4 chapters, and about 60% or more follows almost exactly the same events my fic does, it tells me something. It tells me that the person is too uncreative, too stupid, or too lazy to think up their own ideas, so they feel the need to steal mine.

I don't expect no one else to write similar things. Hell, I'm talking about fan fic. We all borrow the same characters. But it's another thing when you spend hours thinking up ways to create your own piece of art and mold it your own special way, only to have someone take that SAME EXACT IDEA!

And guess what? That, my friends, is plagerism.

Now, I'm not going to say which fic idea has been ripped off. I'm not going to say who the other writers are that did it.

What I am saying is that if you take someone elses idea's (and I'm not talking about seeing an idea and twisitng it to make it your own- I'm talking about taking the same damn storyline and everything) you are an uncreative idiot. You are a thief. Above all, you are a plagerizer.

So please people- Think before you take!