Inspiration VS Plagiarism

sailsofoblivion · Jul 19, 2015

Hello! I'm new to the forum! I figured this would be a good place to try and find answers to some of my problems as a writer. One of these is the line between plagiarism and inspiration. It's been driving me crazy, and I know it's a pretty common problem faced by most writers...

I, for example, was inspired by a piece I read about someone admitting to miming in a school concert band, as I did the exact same thing when I was younger, and chose to write about my experience. There were, however, a few unintentional similarities between my piece and the one which inspired it.

I realised that near the beginning of my piece, I unintentionally used a similar image to one they have used, "brought to life" as opposed to "breathe life into". I also describe my feeling as being that of "inadequacy" and this is how they describe their feeling too. The only other similarities are that my piece implies that although I felt like I had no choice, there was, in reality, two options available, play or remain silent, and their piece explicitly says that in order to overcome a fear, the individual can either keep playing or walk away - that, and they both end using fear in the last sentence, but in totally different contexts.

I'm not sure if I'm looking into this in far too much detail, but if anyone would care to look at the two pieces, and offer a second opinion, it would be very much appreciated!

The piece that inspired me: http://goo.gl/I9L3O9

My piece: http://emmaanneguinness.com/2015/07/19/5672/

Thanks in advance!
SailsOfOblivion

Perks · Jul 19, 2015

You can't plagiarize an idea, and if you choose to write a piece on the same topic as a piece that inspired your wanting to write about it, there are likely going to be similarities of phrasing. There aren't that many ways to describe the same thing. This is nothing you need to worry about.

Plagiarism is when you lift entire sentences, passages, or even a whole work and use it as your own - as is, or with only minor changes. That cannot be done unintentionally. (Now if you're psychotic, you might do it and not remember it, but that's a different tangle of spaghetti with the same result - you're not allowed to do it.)

Now if you decide to write your own words about a rabid fan who rescues, then kidnaps her favorite author and holds him hostage while forcing him to write what she wants him to write, then you haven't plagiarized MISERY, but you will probably be considered a massive hack.

I haven't looked at the two pieces you linked yet, but from your description, it doesn't sound like you'd have anything to worry about. Funny though, I could not seem to learn to read music, so I mimed in the school band for nearly three years before I got caught and died of shame. Good to know I'm not the only one who did that!

ETA - Oh wait, I actually played my clarinet, but was mimicking the fingering of the girl next to me (who went on to play for the National Symphony Orchestra.) So, I guess I wasn't miming. I was just kind of cheating. But I could watch her and then play the piece from memory. I just could never read new music on my own

sailsofoblivion · Jul 19, 2015

Thank you so much for your reply! That's made me feel A LOT better, and if anyone has the time to check the pieces themselves, again, it would be very helpful.

I'm also glad that you too had the same experience. It's nice to know that it's more common than what it felt like - hence why more than one person may chose to write about it.

Roxxsmom · Jul 19, 2015

I'm not sure what the rules are for music. I know some songs deliberately sample other pieces of music (listen to Gnarls Barclay's Crazy and the soundtrack of the movie Viva Django/Preparati la Bara back to back. And the song Uprising by Muse definitely incorporates bits from the Dr. Who theme song.

But I've also heard of lawsuits, such as the case with the "My Sweet Lord"/"He's so Fine" plagiarism case, a similarity Harrison always said was completely unintentional.

With writing, exact words (if they're clearly recognizable as a passage lifted from another work and used without permission) are plagiarism, while ideas generally are not. In fact, many novels are pitched as movie or book X set in space, or Movie or Book X meets Movie or Book Y."

Characters and specifically coined terms that appear in ongoing works can also be copyrighted (think of recognizable characters, things, and places from series like Star Wars or Harry Potter). I don't know that this is possible for music. For instance, there's that song "Major Tom (coming home)" that is definitely about the character from some of David Bowie's songs.

becphish · Jul 19, 2015

Oh yikes, two of my kids did that for a couple of months before I realized they were faking it. Their lack of practice and my questioning ultimately gave way to both admitting their inability to play the violin and the viola. I took piano and couldn't mime that.

As for similar phrasing, sometimes that happens unintentionally. Depending on how similar the piece is to the other (sorry, haven't checked it out) a simple revision may be all you need.

sailsofoblivion · Jul 19, 2015

Thanks guys. So do you think my similarities don't matter as nothing is word for word? That, and there are only a few in what is an 1,800 word piece?

I was just thinking though, the concept of instruments being brought to life isn't unique to me or the person who wrote the piece that inspired me...

The only bit that's bothering me is that the other piece specifically gives two options:

Option one: keep playing and push through. The pursuit of a goal almost always brings difficulties, and often the best way to overcome them is to simply strive on. This may sound obvious to some, but others may need to hear that their self-doubt can be overcome:

In contrast to this, Option Two: walk away, might be seen as negative and defeatist, but it’s important to emphasise this strategy is not synonymous with giving up. Giving up, in this context, would be to sit in the chair continuing to mime.

And in my piece, I imply that I had only two options, but felt like I had none:

I reluctantly pursed my lips, placed them on my mouthpiece and played. It wasn’t my best performance, but I had no choice. The shame of failing to play would have been greater than that of failing to play well.

I'm also assuming that us both using "Inadequacy" albeit at the end of a paragraph is OK as neither instance is otherwise alike:

It was obvious to me that their expensive instruments would sound better than my dilapidated one, and I did not want to draw attention to myself by playing any notes that were less than perfect (failure to hit a note on the French horn had the potential to sound like flatulence). How should I quell this feeling of inadequacy?

As opposed to: Eventually, I found myself going to the band I once enjoyed now out of obligation, too paralysed at my own inadequacy to play.

Zaris · Jul 19, 2015

My personal opinion is,
You should not worry. Plagiarism, as far as i know, implies copying entire phrases, ideas, plots, etc. Here it is not the case. The differences between the two texts are obvious.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 19, 2015

Sometimes it doesn't matter. Whether plagiarism or inspiration, unless there's a lot of originality to your piece, unless it goes to new places and new areas and new truths, it can still be too close to the original for anyone to want. No one wants to publish, or read, a piece that says the same thing another published piece did, even if there is no plagiarism, and even if the writer never even read the other piece.

What you have to ask yourself is whether a read who has read the other piece would feel like he's reading something close enough to that piece to make him feel it isn't new, that it was simply a basic copycat of the first piece. Every word can be different, but unless the subject matter and destination, the things learned, are also different, it's just a copycat piece that no one will want.

sailsofoblivion · Jul 20, 2015

Thanks a lot! That has really put my mind at ease!

sailsofoblivion · Jul 20, 2015

Jamesaritchie said:
Sometimes it doesn't matter. Whether plagiarism or inspiration, unless there's a lot of originality to your piece, unless it goes to new places and new areas and new truths, it can still be too close to the original for anyone to want. No one wants to publish, or read, a piece that says the same thing another published piece did, even if there is no plagiarism, and even if the writer never even read the other piece.

What you have to ask yourself is whether a read who has read the other piece would feel like he's reading something close enough to that piece to make him feel it isn't new, that it was simply a basic copycat of the first piece. Every word can be different, but unless the subject matter and destination, the things learned, are also different, it's just a copycat piece that no one will want.

I feel like my piece is more about class rather than not feeling like I couldn't play well enough, and if you read them, they are two totally different experiences, but again, I still have my doubts. But if I hold the attitude that I can't say anything that's not been said before, I feel like there'd be little left to write about...

sailsofoblivion · Jul 20, 2015

Now I'm wondering if it was too much of a similarity to say "brought to life" with regards to the instruments in the first paragraph, when the piece that inspired me (as linked above), says "breathe life into" in the fourth paragraph - though it is near the beginning. Will this matter as it's not a concept unique to either of us? It was unintentional, I believe.

Debbie V · Jul 20, 2015

Paraphrasing can still be considered plagiarism. See http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/ for more information. You can also Google plagiarism with legal definition. I recently stopped copy editing an article because it was so close to the source material. (I verify the bibliography as well.) A simple citation might have done the trick, but three paragraphs were in question. The publisher has given it to their lawyers.

Lillith1991 · Jul 20, 2015

Debbie V said:
Paraphrasing can still be considered plagiarism. See http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/ for more information. You can also Google plagiarism with legal definition. I recently stopped copy editing an article because it was so close to the source material. (I verify the bibliography as well.) A simple citation might have done the trick, but three paragraphs were in question. The publisher has given it to their lawyers.

Which begs the question, can you plagerize a bibliography? You can plagerize a lot of other stuff of course, but bibliographies often overlap each other quite a bit on a given subject. Two books can for example have and almost identical bibliography, and be on something like the Sieg of Boston during the Rev War or Nathan Hale. But they may also take entirely different approaches to the subject, one being a more personal/social history of the subject and the other being more about the military aspect or Nathan's tenur as a patriot spy. There's for example subjects in which very little is written and most bibs aren't very diverse in source material because there's not much between primary and secondary sources.

Perks · Jul 21, 2015

sailsofoblivion said:
Now I'm wondering if it was too much of a similarity to say "brought to life" with regards to the instruments in the first paragraph, when the piece that inspired me (as linked above), says "breathe life into" in the fourth paragraph - though it is near the beginning. Will this matter as it's not a concept unique to either of us? It was unintentional, I believe.

I think you're over-thinking this.

The two pieces you've posted are not the same in content or focus. That both essays mention playing (or pretending to play) an instrument that the musician blows into, it stands to reason that some variant of "blow life into" could be employed.

You copied neither the words nor the style of the original article, and as an added bonus, the two pieces have entirely different focus. The inspiration article is a broad musing on how to handle self-doubt, where yours is a much more personal anecdote of how you managed past a fear. No reasonable person would find examples of plagiarism between the two.

sailsofoblivion · Jul 21, 2015

But what about the use of common idioms? I just did a quick search on Google, and the concept of instruments being brought to life came up in countless articles: i.e. "Mussorgsky's vision brought to life on period instruments".

sailsofoblivion · Jul 21, 2015

Perks said:
I think you're over-thinking this.

The two pieces you've posted are not the same in content or focus. That both essays mention playing (or pretending to play) an instrument that the musician blows into, it stands to reason that some variant of "blow life into" could be employed.

You copied neither the words nor the style of the original article, and as an added bonus, the two pieces have entirely different focus. The inspiration article is a broad musing on how to handle self-doubt, where yours is a much more personal anecdote of how you managed past a fear. No reasonable person would find examples of plagiarism between the two.

Thanks a lot! I think I have been over-thinking it, as I'm actually quite pleased with my essay, and I hated the idea of putting mine to one side just because it was similar in content to an existing piece. So, again, thank you!

sailsofoblivion · Jul 21, 2015

Debbie V said:
Paraphrasing can still be considered plagiarism. See http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/ for more information. You can also Google plagiarism with legal definition. I recently stopped copy editing an article because it was so close to the source material. (I verify the bibliography as well.) A simple citation might have done the trick, but three paragraphs were in question. The publisher has given it to their lawyers.

These are the two sentences with the idioms. I don't think you could reasonably say mine paraphrases the other:

My sentence: "There was something magical, I thought, in the way that instruments could be brought to life, and used as tools to create music."

Other with slight similarity: "I would be miming along, my fingers stubbing the instrument to the tune but my mouth never daring to breathe life into the instrument."

Jamesaritchie · Jul 21, 2015

sailsofoblivion said:
But if I hold the attitude that I can't say anything that's not been said before, I feel like there'd be little left to write about...

To the contrary. There would still be YOU to write about, and in your own words. That's really what this is all about. Plagiarism is using someone else's words to say the same thing that person said. Copying catting is using your won words to say the same thing someone else said. Originality is using your own words to say something no one else has ever said, which means it must come from you.

No one else has led your exact life, or has your exact outlook on life, or your exact experiences. These things make up you cache of originality, and originality is extremely important. I try no to be inspired by what others write, unless I intend to do a counterpoint, take an opposing view. I'm often inspired by a writer's style, but not by his content. There's always something to say that has never been said, or at least a way to say it far better than anyone else ever has.

Millions can write great sentences, but good writers are those who can also write great, original content.

Having said this, I do believe you're overthinking this. I see why those common phrases both you, and they would me. So change them, and do so without paraphrasing. Paraphrasing the writing fo others is what gets most writers into trouble. You can say what you want to say in a million ways, so get your mind off how the other writer said it. It can be tough to get away from how another writer said something, but it can be done, and should be done. Common phrases and expressions tend to make writing weaker, anyway, so get rid of them. Make both the content and the writing your own, and you'll be fine.

sailsofoblivion · Jul 21, 2015

Would it be OK to leave my use of the idiom in? I think it works well in the context that it's used in, I just don't want to risk being accused of paraphrasing something. I could change it to "animated" (and various other things), but none of them seem to work as well was what I originally have, and as it's not word for word and used in a different context, surely it's OK?

gettingby · Jul 21, 2015

sailsofoblivion said:
Would it be OK to leave my use of the idiom in? I think it works well in the context that it's used in, I just don't want to risk being accused of paraphrasing something. I could change it to "animated" (and various other things), but none of them seem to work as well was what I originally have, and as it's not word for word and used in a different context, surely it's OK?

I would leave out the "breathe live into" or say it differently. Not because of the closeness to a piece that inspired you. It is more because that phrase has been used to death. It's just not a very original way to say anything. Even the other things you mentioned can be easy changes.

Other than that, I agree with JAR. How original and fresh your piece feels is really what will make or break it. Using worn out phrases (even if someone else did), is never the best way to say something. Very early in my writing career someone told me never to use a phrase you've heard a hundred times before. It's not a hard and fast rule, but it is good advice, I believe that idiom you like is causing you to worry and the saying itself really isn't helping your piece. (Sorry. Didn't yet look at your links.) It sounds like you took an idea and went in your own direction with it. If you were trying to use the piece you read as an outline for your own piece, that might be why you are worried about plagiarism. But if it was nothing but a springboard to launch you into your own work, then you are probably overthinking it. Either way, the more you work on your own piece without going back to look at the one someone else did, the more you will be really focusing on what you want to say.

I think we have all been inspired by specific works at times, but I've never felt a need to go back and see in I plagiarized. It sounds like you have to trust yourself and yourself as a writer a little more. Trust that your ideas and experiences can be presented in your own way and even better than something you read.

sailsofoblivion · Jul 21, 2015

Thanks a lot for your replies everyone!

In terms of originality, this is my first paragraph, and though it uses a common idiom, I'd like to think I've presented it an original way as it ties into the idea of music being magical which I'm trying to convey:

This was because at the well-off high school that I attended, there was an adjoining music school for gifted children, and all pupils (including those who were not members) were affected by it in some way – whether they suffered an intense dislike for the sound of classical music which flooded out into the corridors, or were inspired by it, as I was, to learn an instrument in my first years there. There was something magical, I thought, in the way that instruments could be brought to life, and used as tools to create music. The way that music was written also immediately appealed to me: the treble clefs at the beginning of each line, and the quavers which floated up and down the page were beautiful.

With that in mind, I'm assuming it's OK? Whilst I totally understand your point about originality, there are only so many ways of conveying a certain image, and I don't personally think my other options of saying, for example, "the way instruments could be animated" works quite as well.

The only similarity, albeit a vague one, is: "I would be miming along, my fingers stubbing the instrument to the tune but my mouth never daring to breathe life into the instrument."

But surely mine is original in it's own way as it's part of a larger point about what made instruments magical to a twelve-year-old? I don't want to over complicate it, and I don't image my younger self would have described it in a particularly different way from what's written. After all, I do say "I thought"?

I just want to be 100% sure that there is no risk of being accused to plagiarism, as their use of a similar idiom occurs near the beginning of their piece. HOPEFULLY it's ok, as most people have said that they don't appear in any way similar, and are two unique experiences.

Inspiration VS Plagiarism

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Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower

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Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

becphish

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Zaris

Jamesaritchie

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Debbie V

Mentoring Myself and Others

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower

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Jamesaritchie

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gettingby

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