Inspiration vs. Plagiarism in Writing: Where to Draw the Line

As a writer, it's important for all of your writing to be your own. However, others' writing is also a great source of inspiration! So this raises the question: how much inspiration can you take before it becomes plagiarism? Plagiarising can have serious consequences; while taking heavy inspiration to the point where it's questionable whether the piece can be considered original is fine on Scratch (with credit), you have to make sure your writing is original in school and when publishing professionally!

This isn't to say that you shouldn't take inspiration! Reading and taking inspiration from someone else's writing can help you to improve your own. When you try to emulate someone else's style, you will build up habits that will change your style. Also, it's impossible to have an entirely original idea. The train of thought that leads to an idea has to start somewhere. It doesn't hurt to say you took inspiration!

There are ways to plagiarise besides claiming someone else's work as your own. If I were to read a story and then write a story that took a lot of elements from it, I wouldn't post it anywhere and might not even add it to my word count, depending on how original I thought the writing was. Perhaps the original and mine both aim to back up the author's view that copying someone else's work won't get you anywhere and the story is structured similarly: they both take place over a year and it's divided into twelve parts, one for each month. They also use similar events to prove the author's view; both stories start out with a character being jealous of someone else's artwork and claiming it as their own, but when the artist finds out and is angry at them, they realize it was wrong.
At this point, I've essentially rephrased the original author's story. It's similar to doing a study in art - the composition of the piece isn't your own. While it can help you to improve at individual parts of a story like description or dialogue, you won't learn how to structure a story yourself.

So, how do we know when we've crossed the line between inspiration and plagiarism? If you've taken the premise of the story from someone else, I'd say that that's plagiarism. Having a similar premise to another book (for example, starcrossed lovers - there are plenty of books that have that plot, but they have different events) isn't necessarily bad, so long as you're not copying. It's also plagiarism to reference the structure of your story from someone else's.

It's important to recognize the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement as well. While copyright only protects “the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves,” (source) plagiarism includes the copying of ideas (source). This doesn't mean that you need to worry about subconscious copying.

Activity: Choose something you've read recently and list a few things you enjoyed in it. Then, try to incorporate them into your own writing without copying! (credit to Gigi (@Imacreamoo) for this activity!)
Complete this activity on July 2nd EDT to earn 700 points! 400 words minimum.

Sources
https://www.copyrightuser.org/faqs/question-10/ (Keep in mind that this is a site about UK copyright law - it will vary in other countries.)
https://www.sidebarsaturdays.com/2018/10/20/https-wp-me-p7vddb-cr/ (This was a very interesting read; I didn't want to quote huge chunks of it, but I'd recommend reading it if you have time!)

Also keep in mind that I just did a bit of research and you shouldn't take this as legal advice or anything lol

Yay! This is super cool!

HONEYYY THIS IS SUPER COOL < 3

Epic!

Wow, amazing! c:

Quick question! So basically since something I read recently was Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and I loved the relationship between the two friends, how could I incorporate that into my writing without copying the idea?

lilac_panda34 wrote:

Quick question! So basically since something I read recently was Harry Potter and The Cursed Child and I loved the relationship between the two friends, how could I incorporate that into my writing without copying the idea?

I haven't read that recently, but I don't think basing a relationship off of another is copying

(also thanks everyone else )

Cool !! I am gonna work on that

honeybreeze wrote:

both stories start out with a character being jealous of someone else's artwork and claiming it as their own

haha nice easter eg

Very nice Honey B)

…. question, did you happen to use any spreadsheets for this? Specifically labeled: KAT'S SPREEDSHEETS FOR TEACHING LITTLE UN-KNOLAGABLE SWCers ABOUT PLAGURISM Beacuse I have rights to belive, *that that would be plagurising* DUN-DUN-DUUUUN

.

honeybreeze wrote:

very cool workshop :O

Question, so the thing I read recently was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Would it be plagiarism to also write about Holmes, since that's technically copying the premise of the book?

Um so… I'm writing a fan-fic type story called Ugly and it's basically Cinderella but from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. I have got up to the bit with the invitation to the ball. I'm planning on removing all pumpkin coaches, sewing mice ect. There's not going to be any magic of any description. Is this plagiarism? The challenge is great, I will definatly have a go later! (exuse my horrible spelling) Have a lovely day!

Sunclaw68 wrote:

honeybreeze wrote:

very cool workshop :O

Question, so the thing I read recently was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. Would it be plagiarism to also write about Holmes, since that's technically copying the premise of the book?

No because that's only one element of the book and it's a very broad topic. It's like how there can be multiple fanfictions of the same book!

AutumnSunrise wrote:

Um so… I'm writing a fan-fic type story called Ugly and it's basically Cinderella but from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. I have got up to the bit with the invitation to the ball. I'm planning on removing all pumpkin coaches, sewing mice ect. There's not going to be any magic of any description. Is this plagiarism? The challenge is great, I will definatly have a go later! (exuse my horrible spelling) Have a lovely day!

Ooh that sounds cool! Fanfic is iffy because you're taking someone else's characters/world/plot/etc. so I'm not completely sure. In this instance, it's fine legally because Cinderella's copyright has expired. I still wouldn't submit it for a school assignment because you are basing it heavily on Hans Christian Anderson's story, but fanfics are fine to publish online for the most part (some authors don't allow fanfics though, I think Wikipedia has a list).

AutumnSunrise wrote:

Um so… I'm writing a fan-fic type story called Ugly and it's basically Cinderella but from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. I have got up to the bit with the invitation to the ball. I'm planning on removing all pumpkin coaches, sewing mice ect. There's not going to be any magic of any description. Is this plagiarism?

I don't think that's plaugurism, as long as you change to names. (people, kingdom, ect) Or course it should be a mite more diffrent, like, they shouldn't look exactly the same or anything, and you'd have to re-design the dresses, probably.

Oh and castle + house and layout designs xDDD

AutumnSunrise wrote:

Um so… I'm writing a fan-fic type story called Ugly and it's basically Cinderella but from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. I have got up to the bit with the invitation to the ball. I'm planning on removing all pumpkin coaches, sewing mice ect. There's not going to be any magic of any description. Is this plagiarism? The challenge is great, I will definatly have a go later! (exuse my horrible spelling) Have a lovely day!

Cinderella is in the public domain, so you should be good to write it.

AutumnSunrise wrote:

Um so… I'm writing a fan-fic type story called Ugly and it's basically Cinderella but from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. I have got up to the bit with the invitation to the ball. I'm planning on removing all pumpkin coaches, sewing mice ect. There's not going to be any magic of any description. Is this plagiarism? The challenge is great, I will definatly have a go later! (exuse my horrible spelling) Have a lovely day!

I don't recall exactly if the mice and the pumpkin are in the Disney movie, but basically:

You can write anything Cinderella-related and publish it and make money, as long as it's the fairy tale of Cinderella, and doesn't feature recognisable features from the Disney movie (you can still probably change the names of Disney stuff, like someone said, like, say the pumpkin were Disney, make it a big tomato or something haha). The Disney movie and some of its original elements are still theirs, so no one can use it without their permission, or, legally it would count as plagiarism. But you can use everything that is original from the original fairy tale, as that is in the public domain, so everyone can use it and make money.

An example is the new(ish) movie on Netflix, Enola Holmes. In it, Sherlock Holmes talks to his sister nicely, and the author's estate sued them, because apparently Sherlock only started being nice to women in the final few books, which are still owned by them.

TL;DR (If you don't want a mini legal lesson xD):
Just don't use anything that's original from the Disney movie and you'll be fine. You can use anything from the original fairy tale.

Hope this helped, sorry for using this thread as a little Ted Talk thing xD

Anyway, this daily is really cool, I'll do it ASAP! :^D

Ayyy!! I already know a bunch about plagiarism and stuff but this is amazing! You gave a lot more details. Also would it count as plagiarizing if I sorta based if one of my characters from a let’s say Harry Potter character? Thanks D

Hello! I didn't have breakfast yet lol so I'm going to work in it ASAP.

Also last one in the first page B)
(Lol)

Here is my Workshop: Okay so I’ve recently read the book “Miss Perigrines Home for peculiar Children”. It was a awesome book! The book was awesome for a couple of reason. 1. Magical stuff was involved and I loveee magical things lol. 2. The plot in general was super interesting and I loved all the details and 3. They backstory for Peregrine island was amazing!! So after reading this I decided giving some of the characters in my book some weird supernatural power would be cool. Would that count as plagiarism if I gave my characters powers or magic?