Drawing that Squiggly Line Between Inspiration and Plagiarism

Release day for ROGUE'S POSSESSION is tomorrow!!

So, you know, you could totally pre-order it. I mean, I wouldn't be a true Word Whore if I didn't offer you some buy links right here and now, right???

Carina
B&N
Amazon

~does seductive click-the-buy-link dance~

Thank you!

And now, onward to the meat of this Sunday post, the real reason you stopped by, yes?

This week's topic is Inspiration vs Imitation: How Far is Too Far?

Which is quite apropos, given the many scandals that seem to be plaguing the writing community recently. The most recent one is Dave Eggers' new novel, The Circle, was lifted from memoir written by Kate Losse, former ghostwriter for Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. You can read the Salon article here. The upshot, however, is that Eggers released this statement about it:

I’ve just heard about the claims of Kate Losse that my novel, The Circle, was somehow based on a work of nonfiction she wrote. I want to make it clear that I have never read and have never heard of her book before today. I did not, in fact, read any books about any internet companies, or about the experiences of anyone working at any of these companies, either before or while writing The Circle. I avoided all such books, and did not even visit any tech campuses, expressly because I didn’t want The Circle to seem to be based on any extant companies or upon the experiences of any employees of any extant companies. Because The Circle has not been released, it’s my understanding that Kate Losse has not read my novel yet, so I trust that when she does read it she’ll understand that I have not read, and certainly never lifted anything from, her book.

What I find interesting is his insistence that he did not read any books on similar topics or go near the tech companies. I kind of want to ask if he stayed off Facebook and Twitter, too, but that would be snarky.

And, let me be clear, reliable folks have gone and read both books and they all seem to agree that Eggers lifted nothing from Losse.

I'm just kind of amused by the lengths he says he went to in avoiding his story on reality, which is kind of bizarre, given that he started as a memoirist (with A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). On second thought, maybe that's part of why he wanted to draw such a clear line within himself.

The thing is, every memoirist knows that this line is never clear. I can say this with confidence, having been a published memoirist and having participated in countless discussions and panels exploring this very thing. Calling a work fiction doesn't change the fact that the writer is still drawing from the real world.

Do I think Eggers plagiarized? Absolutely not. Do I think he couldn't help but draw on extant companies?

Yes yes yes.

More, I think it's disingenuous for any writer to think that he or she doesn't do this.

Of course, there's a huge difference between taking someone's book, replacing the character names and publishing it as your own. Or lifting entire passages from someone else's novel and sticking it in your own. Or taking a book like Twilight and writing a fan fiction version of it where Edward is a sexual dominant and Bella his submissive - then later changing some of the names and setting details.

But, of those three examples, the last is not plagiarism. It's Fifty Shades of Grey, an international bestseller. Do some people think that it took inspiration too far? Sure. A lot of them do. Is it plagiarism? Nope.

Would I, personally, do that? No.

That's my vague and wiggly line. I accept that all the thousands of books and stories I've read in my life now feed into what I write. I don't think I could make a statement like Eggers did, because I can't be sure that it's true. I read eclectically, widely and near constantly. Who knows where the stuff in my head comes from?

(Not incidentally, the gal who owns the gym I go to said to me yesterday, "Your head must be a crazy place to live." I took it as a compliment.)

But I would never deliberately adopt someone else's world or characters. I know a lot of writers get started with fan fiction and love being able to do that. For me, it's an internal line I don't want to ever cross.

It's just a shade too far for my taste.

Fan Fiction - Inspiration or Theft?

I took this photo last week at Coors Field in Denver. On a gorgeous summer evening, we got to take in an excellent baseball game - and watch the Rockies defeat the Dodgers. An unusual event for this season, I understand, and a victory that comes far too late to make any difference. But it was very fun and they played well.

As you can tell, I don't really follow baseball. Or any sport, for that matter. Sometimes I think I'm lacking the gene for it. I've never particularly cared about identifying myself with particular colors or sports heroes. The closest I ever get to being a true fangirl is for authors.

But it never occurred to me to write fan fiction.

Of course, I grew up in B.C. - Before Computers - and there was a much greater distance between me and the printed page. (By this I mean, before easy public access to computers. For me, the first ones were the Apple computers in my high school computer lab, where I learned DOS.) The authors who wrote the books I loved were mysterious and nigh-mythical beings who lived in my mental Mount Olympus - immortal, remote and all-powerful. I really didn't even write letters, as I knew some people did. I think that's because, very early on, I wrote Marguerite Henry a gushing, enthusiastic 8-year old letter about how I wanted my own colt to break and she responded in this very stern way about how a girl in the suburbs couldn't possibly take care of a horse, much less take on such a monumental task of molding a young one.

(Looking back, I think it must have been a standard letter she sent to all the bright-eyed, gushing young girls inspired by her horse books to think they could do that, too. But, knowing what I know now, I'm surprised she took my youthful dreams so seriously that she felt the need to correct them. Ah well.)

So, even though I composed countless letters to Anne McCaffrey, I never wrote them down or sent them. And, though I spun a thousand tales in my head based on her world and characters, I never made them into stories of my own.

A phenom known today as fan fiction.

I'm sure 95% of you reading this know far more about fanfic than I do. I can pinpoint exactly when I became aware of it. It was in 1998, when the Barenaked Ladies released their album, Stunt, and I asked my old high school boyfriend, Kev, with whom I bonded over those very same DOS computers, what the lyric in One Week about "Sailor Moon" referred to.

(Kev has long been my go-to guy for popular cultural references. And he doesn't make fun of me either. Much.)

He explained Sailor Moon, but this was before Wikipedia (launched in 2001), so there wasn't much way for him to let me see for myself. So, yes, he sent me to the fan fiction forums.

And Oh. My. God.

This was an eye-opening experience for me. The sheer volume of the stories posted. The wild variation in theme. You all know that I'm far from a prudish reader (or writer), but some of the kinkier tales shocked the hell out of me.

Mostly, the whole discovery shifted my view of the world. No longer were characters and worlds these inviolate, sacred beings and places created by those author gods I worshipped and could never touch. Instead, all these people - and I discovered there was fanfic for nearly everything - had taken those stories and ran with them. Sometimes spraying blood, kink and gore in all directions.

I confess that, yes, part of me was bothered by it.

I did see it as a violation then. The practice went against what I viewed as essential rules about the integrity of copyright. I believed for a very long time that a story belongs to the person who created it. That there's something fundamentally wrong about taking a piece of it and changing it to suit yourself.

But I've come to understand over time, how many authors got their starts by writing fanfic. Just as painters copy the great creations of the masters, or bands get going playing covers of the hits, many writers develop their chops by working in someone else's world. Not unlike Prometheus stealing that fire from Mount Olympus, those writers may have snatched a bit of that divine glory and used it to create something of their own.

I know writers vary wildly on the topic of readers writing fanfic from their work. Everyone now knows that the outrageously successful Fifty Shades of Grey started life as Master of the Universe, a BDSM fanfic version of Twilight. Ironically, the author, E.L. James, has tried to distance herself from her fanfic roots and reportedly tried to discourage Fifty Shades fanfic.

Where do I fall out these days? First of all, I don't think any author can stop fanfic - as some have tried to do. I also think there's nothing wrong with it, as a way to learn. I do believe a fanfic author shouldn't try to sell their work. While a cover band is selling the entertainment of their muscianship, a writer is selling the story. For me, a story is hugely about characters and world, less so what they actually do.

Steal a bit of that divine fire, sure. But then go build your own barbeque pit with it. That is the true joy of creating.