Hello all! I have a question regarding plagiarism in a fictional novel. I'm new to the site so forgive me if this has been answered before or if I'm posting this is the wrong place. If so, maybe someone can point me in the right direction. To spare you from too many details, I'm writing a novel about a fictional character who goes to live in a home for unwed mothers. As part of my research, I read a great non-fiction book which details the experience of many of these women in their own words. I want my MC to have many of the same experiences because I want it to be as authentic as possible, but I don't want it to appear as if I've just hi -jacked someone else's experiences and another author's research. I should say that many of these experiences were broadly shared by many of the women which is part of what made the book so compelling to me in the first place. Is it enough the credit the author somewhere in the forward? I'm almost finished but have suddenly panicked that my work is unoriginal.
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Plagiarism In Fiction
- Thread starter SteelMagnolia84
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That's called research. It's exactly the kind of thing writer should do.
I would suggest you research more than that single book, and that you create a character and experiences that are not based on any single person.
Whether or not you credit that book in a forward is up to you, but it is certainly a courteous and appropriate thing to do.
I would suggest you research more than that single book, and that you create a character and experiences that are not based on any single person.
Whether or not you credit that book in a forward is up to you, but it is certainly a courteous and appropriate thing to do.
Lots and lots of fiction is research-dependent. Writers often list/credit their reference materials (and other sources - experts in field, etc) in the Acknowledgements section of their books, so that's definitely an option for you.
Also PS - all novels are fiction by definition
Also PS - all novels are fiction by definition
Lots of historical fiction is, in fact, based entirely around a true life, like the novel I'm reading right now about Eliza Hamilton or, I dunno, some musical I've heard of about her husband, Alexander. It's fine. In much historical fiction, an afterword is included that indicates what parts of the story were based on reality and which were fudged a little for the sake of the narrative, and usually the author acknowledges sources and anyone who helped in the research. Something like that might be appropriate here. But there's nothing wrong with what you're doing. It's not plagiarism.
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Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words as your own. Ideas and events are fair game, especially, as has been explained, in historical fiction. You wouldn't be plagiarizing Rowling if you tell a story about a scruffy boy at a magic school, but you would be if you started your novel "Mr. and Mrs. Darwin, of number eighteen-ten, Sunset Drive, were ecstatic to say that they were completely normal, thank you very much." So use the events as you like, although yes, certainly, research to find more possibilities.