Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Writer's Workshop

Jun-18-2007 17:17

"To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source." (Source: Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)

People who copy and paste holus bolus other people's already approved Random Mystery intro's into their own and then claim them as their own...

SUCK!

I can't make it any clearer than that :)

Jun-27-2007 06:21

i must say i have to agree with SS and Jojo and Stooby on the fact that plagarism isn't good... if you were taught in school properly, you'd fail your classes if all you did was plagarize... but i can guarantee that other writing areas are no different. so the point is, don't do it... then it won't be a problem... heck, even i come up with my own intros and such.

Jun-27-2007 10:35

In regards to Plagarism, I just got a little freaked out. I've been writing a scripted mystery for the past couple days, and it's based on Phantom of the Opera, but with different characters and plot twists.

I denounce all uncredited "borrowing" of text, so I limited mine to the title and the Phantom himself.

Is this still acceptable? I'm very nearly finished with it, because I just played a trial run of it and am in the process of fleshing it out. I don't want to find that it's violating the plagarism rule! XD That would be bad. :D

So, thankies for reading! G'Day!

-La La

Sep-6-2007 21:25

So, how do you (the editor's ) know if someone just happens to have the same idea as someone else? They just used different words/phrases to decribe the same thing. That is to say, what if........for the sake of argument.....that two people had the same intro (different words/phrase/etc - but basically, the same story), but had NO KNOWLEDGE of the other one? Would that still be considered plagiarism? Or would that be considered "Great Minds Think Alike"?

- Cali

Sep-6-2007 21:27

There is a difference between having one or two of the same ideas and having all of the same ideas, in the same order, playing out to the same idea in the end, with every detail having been the same idea too.

Does that make sense?

Sep-6-2007 21:37

Yes. But that is actually my point. What if (I know, it can be an extremely long shot......but what if) two people just happen to have the same idea in the same order to the end.......without having any knowledge of the other person's writing?

(Like I said, I know it's an extremely long shot for that to happen, but it could.) But if it did happened, what then? Would you take the safer route and say it's plagiarism? Or would you ask the author's about it first, then go from there?

(I'm not trying to be difficult here. I'm just curious that's all.)

- Cali

Sep-6-2007 22:45

How does it go, someone once reckoned that: A million monkeys banging on a million typewriters for a million years will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.

Anyway... there's plagiarism and plagiarism. I don't think any of us would just dismiss what some has written off-handedly. My original post was aimed fairly and squarely at the dip-sticks who copy and paste whole intros and claim them as their own.

There are many themes that repeat themselves throughout the 600+ intros there are that have been approved.

The big three are:

In Sleuthville,

* It's invariably raining; or stormy; or cloudy, and more than likely somewhat dark.
* Detectives are usually down to their last dollar, and bordering on alcoholism, when a new client turns up on their doorstep.
* The police are incompetent, and/or just plain stupid.

That's not plagiarism, beating a dead horse maybe, butnot plagiarism.

We would always, as you put it 'take the safer route' of consultation, before dismissing an intro / SM.

Sep-6-2007 22:48

oh lol, ok so I misread what your 'safer route' was... but I think the explanation still holds up.

Sep-7-2007 00:25

Dead Horse? Bang goes my latest effort based on dark, stormy, cloudy and rainy night where I'm about to turn to the bottle of Whisky bought off the homeless guy down the road when the client shows up grumbling about incompetent and stupid cops....

Ah now I'll have to find something else to write about....

*Wanders off grumpling to himself...*

Sep-7-2007 01:03

I wasn't referring to the whole "It was a dark and stormy night, etc, etc, etc" thing when I asked the question. Although I could see where one might get that impression. No, my mind went to the "What if" factor of two minds coming up with the same storyline at the (relatively) same time type of thing. And so I just naturally asked the "What if" question.

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. And thanks for all of the clarifications.

- Cali

Sep-10-2007 17:37

OK, I have another question. (Simply because I have an idea about an intro. and I don't want to break any rules with it.)

Would it be considered plagiarism if the "detective" quoted something by "forgot" where it came from?

For example:
"Out, damned spot!" I said as I was trying to wash the spot of blood from my shirt. I don't remember who said it, probably a dectetive, but they were right. It is a "damned spot."

-----------

So, would this be considered plagiarism? Or would this be considered a creative way to use a line (or more) from literary works?

(BTW, I do know where it comes from. It comes from "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. And it is said by Lady Macbeth. )

- Cali