Fresie
Hi people,
oh, I think I really need help with this one.
The situation is: I'm working on a historical (World War II) novel. Naturally, I've done a lot of research and studied tons of eyewitnesses' accounts. The thing is, one of the survivors' accounts, a short scene, managed to work its way into my book. The person's narration -- how she had to bury her relative at a war-time cemetery -- had impressed me so much that later, when I started writing a scene based on it (I needed this scene in the book, it was part of the original plot), I discovered I was using the entire account -- naturally, omitting the names and the cemetery's name (the city's the same, though). I used all their actions -- what they did and in which order -- and some major points of their dialogue.
Needless to say, I'm feeling very guilty at the moment, but the scene turned out so emotionally charged I can see it's an important part of the future novel now and if I take it out or even change certain things in it, the book will suffer.
What do I do? The original account was taken from a non-fiction book published in a different language in another country (but the book is quite well-known there). It's somebody's personal memory, and here I am, writing it up as fiction. The first thought would be to change certain bits in it, but no matter how much you change it, the original account is so unique it'll be immediately recognised by anyone who's read the book.
Thanks a lot!
Fresie
oh, I think I really need help with this one.
The situation is: I'm working on a historical (World War II) novel. Naturally, I've done a lot of research and studied tons of eyewitnesses' accounts. The thing is, one of the survivors' accounts, a short scene, managed to work its way into my book. The person's narration -- how she had to bury her relative at a war-time cemetery -- had impressed me so much that later, when I started writing a scene based on it (I needed this scene in the book, it was part of the original plot), I discovered I was using the entire account -- naturally, omitting the names and the cemetery's name (the city's the same, though). I used all their actions -- what they did and in which order -- and some major points of their dialogue.
Needless to say, I'm feeling very guilty at the moment, but the scene turned out so emotionally charged I can see it's an important part of the future novel now and if I take it out or even change certain things in it, the book will suffer.
What do I do? The original account was taken from a non-fiction book published in a different language in another country (but the book is quite well-known there). It's somebody's personal memory, and here I am, writing it up as fiction. The first thought would be to change certain bits in it, but no matter how much you change it, the original account is so unique it'll be immediately recognised by anyone who's read the book.
Thanks a lot!
Fresie