Is this plagiarism?

To be honest, I don't think this resembles Stephen King's IT at all. Your plot features a werewolf, not a shape changing evil that mimics the victims fears as in the book IT. I can see some similarities with the kids growing up and coming back to combat the evil, but otherwise that's it. That kind of plot progression shouldn't be plaigarism unless you include the same number of kids, the same sex and similiar circumstances surrounding these individuals. Don't worry, it's cool. As a reader, I don't think your plot will be considered copying.

Pennywise, I really like the sound of your plot - I think it's a brilliant idea, and I would love to read a book like that.

I have read Stephen King's It - and although I am a big SK fan, It left me unsatisfied. I never *did* like that weird evil thing - I couldn't get a handle on it and I like to actually picture the bad bad thing in a horror story.

Go for it and prosper - I look forward to reading your book!

I find the idea of a horror so alien it cannot be described. Koontz, HPL, King, et al.

It's the reason you don't SEE the shark until two thirds of the wy through the movie Jaws. If you KNOW what the horror is, you anticipate how to deal with it--especially readers of horror.

It was a big spider-like thing, Read From a Buick 8, you never get the slightest idea where the thing came from, what it might be, how it worked or what it did. It's just there a conundrum with a grisly appetite.

Regards,
Scott

I was in a band with a guitarist once, and pointed out that one of his riffs sounded similar to another song. His response:
"Every note on the guitar...someone has played those notes before, I didn't make up any of them."
Your plot sounds similar to It by the paragraph you posted, but will the books be similar? Probably not. In any case, there's got to be a hundred other books that are also along those lines. I say, write away!

Different villain, different number of reuniting friends. Names, I'm assuming will be different as well.

Keep going but still use caution, I would say. Readers will love it.

Just to offer a helpful suggestion, if I may. Reviewers and critics need something to write about to, so the caution I mentioned is with that in mind. Distance the story as much as possible from similarities with IT. In IT the kids had to face their fears, down by a creek... If the werewolf was a werewolf, great... If it's something that looks like a werewolf but feeds on fears and someone has to spray it with their asthma inhaler, things could get sticky.

But you know what, I confess I never read IT. I just saw the movie quite a few times. (it's a classic!) And you know what else, aside from books, Hollywood borrows and borrows and borrows. It's getting to the point that everything is just remakes these days. Same could be said for most art forms. Sure, I confess I'm a stickler for originality, but if you've got some burning ideas you need to write, and it just so happens to have a few similarities, I say 'so what' and go for it. Kids reunite to face a childhood monster -- that story could be told a million different ways, and it sounds like you've got something ready to burst onto paper, so go with the creative flow and rock the world with what you've got going.

If you don't write it, you'll always be wondering 'what if', and living like me in a van down by the river. (I'm being a motivational speaker)

You mean that in this horrible world of cruel and selfish people, with sickness and destruction all around us at every second of the day, you cannot find in your particular world any instances of exceptional pain and suffering, other than those in books which some fifth-grade hack has written?
I think you must have a very nice life. I for one, envy you. Good luck with your writing, and I hope you are sucessful.
Darkness

Popeyesays said:

It was a big spider-like thing, Read From a Buick 8, you never get the slightest idea where the thing came from, what it might be, how it worked or what it did. It's just there a conundrum with a grisly appetite.

Regards,
Scott

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Ooooh,yes - I read From a Buick 8 last year and it gave me the heebie jeebies, it was *that* scary! And you're absolutely right - no obvious boogeyman, just effects. Dang, I'm shivvering just thinking about that one! I think the matter-of-fact narration gave it an extra edge of creepiness.

darkness said:

You mean that in this horrible world of cruel and selfish people, with sickness and destruction all around us at every second of the day, you cannot find in your particular world any instances of exceptional pain and suffering, other than those in books which some fifth-grade hack has written?
I think you must have a very nice life. I for one, envy you. Good luck with your writing, and I hope you are sucessful.
Darkness

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What the ...?

Nice, darkness. Sheesh.

My policy is never shoot someone's dream down.

It's better to be remembered as someone who tries than to be remembered as a naysayer.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Pennywise appear in the form of a werewolf when he terrorized Richie Tozier as a kid? I think anyone reading your story would totally see and make the obvious connections between the two stories, and as a Stephen King fan, I'd be turned off on your book right away. Sorry, dude.

Was that the movie and / or book? I didn't read the book, and my memory is a little fuzzy on the movie.

No - Plagiarism is copying, word for word, someone else's text and using it to create capital gain or market popularity without the author's consent. Since you aren't copying word for word, it's not plagiarism.

The story idea doesn't borrow from king. If you considered friends whome had shared a life altering event, then fell away from each other, and then rejoined together as adults due to that event or something connected to it stealing plot from SK I would say you are wrong. That plot device is not original to King, and is in several stories, TV shows, Movies, etc that happened long before King wrote IT.

Keep in mind, it is impossible to create a never before seen plot idea. All story archetypes have been written about. What makes you unique is the WAY you tell the story, and the characters you put into it. Consider Salem's Lot - A typical vampire story. One main vampire creates children vampires who attack the town. One guy figures it out and together with his trusty side-kick they take out the main bad guy. Sounds just like Dracula to me. Did King steal it? No. He simply put together a good vampire story and told it in his own unique way.

We are successful writers because we take something old, and put a new spin on it. But deep down inside, it's still something old. Your tale sounds like it would be an interesting story. Let's see how it plays out, shall we? Write it.

Pennywise said:

ok, I am thinking about writing a book with a kind of similar plot to Stephen Kings IT.

I say similar, but decide for yourselves:

In the summer of 1993, three best friends fight and kill a werewolf that has been killing the people of their home town since January. Thirteen years later, when the three childhood friends have grown up, moved away and forgotten each other, the killings start again and they are drawn back to the place where they spent their last summer together.

I know the plot borrows heavily from IT but this is something I really feel I need to write. It would be based a lot on my own childhood (expect for the werewolf part lol) and i've already written a prologue that I'm very happy with.

I just want peoples opinions on whether I should carry on because I dont want to be accused of plagiarism, but everyone gets their ideas from somewhere right?

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No, it isn't plagiarism. King's book was hardly based on original themes, but King made the ideas his own.

Sorry--but plagiarism is not always "copying, word for word, someone else's text." This is plagiarizing a direct quote.

"But I changed the words!" is the biggest defense students use when caught plagiarizing--and it does not get them off the hook. The unacknowledged reproduction of ideas is still plagiarism, cf. http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/about/glossary.htm , http://www.vuw.ac.nz/home/glossary/ , and http://www.registrar.ualberta.ca/calendar/Glossary/Information/255.html .

I haven't read It, but I think DanWeasley is right about the story idea itself not originating with King. Do what you can to distance your characters and subplots from his, and I think you'll be fine.

By the way, did anyone follow the recent story of Kaavya Viswanathan? If not, here's the rundown: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/v/kaavya_viswanathan/index.html?offset=0&&&&inline=nyt-per Her plagiarism was along the lines of style and structure, not plot. So there are lots of ways to plagiarize.

ummm NYR94, sorry but not *everybody* will make the connection. Believe it or not there are people who don't read Stephen King. I think it's silly to say that some writer did something similar so I'm not reading the book. How many horror stories have werewolves or vampires? Are we supposed to say, oh he has a vampire, well bram stoker wrote about vampires, so im not reading this one as it's obviously stolen from stoker?

Pennywise, your book will be completely different. I say write the darn thing. Don't worry if someone else ever wrote about kids banding together to defeat a childhood monster. I'm sure there are dozens of books just like that, and each one is totally different from each other. Write the book then worry about everything else later. I bet, once you get started, it'll be so different from Stephen King that you'll wonder what you were worried about in the first place.

Nevada, I'm saying as a fan of horror who has read It, I would see the obvious connections between childhood friends fighting and defeating an enemy only to have to do it all over again as adults, and would be turned off on this idea immediately. And by mixing it up by throwing in a werewolf instead of a clown makes the similarities than much more transparent.

If your intentions are to see this book published one day, get use to agents and publishers saying, "Kinda like 'It', huh? Hmmmm," after hearing your pitch. But, if you're writing just for the pure fun of it, I say go for it and enjoy the ride!

You can't copyright an idea... just the execution of an idea. Your story sounds unique enough to be its own work to me.

Think "A Bug's Life" -- did anyone really care that this was just a different version of "The Seven Samurai?"

Flapdoodle said:

No, it isn't plagiarism. King's book was hardly based on original themes, but King made the ideas his own.

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Exactly. Yours is hardly the first or only story idea to come along to be viewed by some as being similar to It.

And McCammon didn't get sued or suffer much for writing something that many considered, in premise, to be similar to The Stand.

It's in the execution.

I think Lord of the Flies was ripped off of Gilligan's Island.
I mean, there's people right? And they're on an island!
Hell, my book has lots of words in it, I guess I ripped it off of The Bible.

Here's a good article on examples of plagiarism in Hollywood: http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/hollywoodplagiarism.html . Here's another on basic copyright law: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/copyright.html and, from our friendly neighborhood government: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp .