So I had an idea to get my daughter to do something in real life, but then decided it would work better if I wrote it as a novel about a writer trying to get his daughter to do something (possibly illegal or at least dangerous). Instead of writing it as a novel, I wrote it as a screenplay, which incorporated elements of the young adult novel I've been rewriting for the past few years as well as my own second published novel, both of which I gave to the main character as his own. Now I'm thinking of turning the screenplay into a novel, drawing scenes from both of those other books, but perhaps closer to the way they really happened in real life. Assuming the young adult novel never gets published, I'm okay. But what if it does? Can I be accused of plagiarizing myself? And what about the long out of print second novel, which had a lot of great scenes in it. Or is that the basis of another novel--written from prison?
Meta-Fiction?
- Thread starter popmuze
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I don't think it's possible to plagarize yourself. Plagarism, by definition, is using someone else's work without attribution.
Someday, a clone in a courtroom will determine this once and for all...
Seriously, though... yeah. If I'm reading this correctly, you're worried about "plagiarizing" works you yourself created. Recycling one's own ideas isn't new, nor is it illegal, assuming you still own all the rights to your own work. (IANAL, but I imagine if you'd sold your screenplay to, say, Universal, then decided to write a new novel using large chunks of that screenplay, then Universal might have some issues with that.)