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Monday, April 19, 2010
But Is It Stealing? Critique Groups and Plagiarism
Some time ago, I experienced something in a critique group that made me uneasy. It wasn't plagiarism, which I will define as the use of one author's words or ideas by another author without credit. Instead, it was a "copycat" violation of what I consider to be critique group etiquette. (Current critique partners, do not fear! None of you are involved.) This will take a few paragraphs to explain, so bear with me.In NONfiction, plagiarism is usually easy to identify. Either you have used someone else's uncredited words or ideas, or you haven't. When I was teaching college composition, it was very easy to spot plagiarism, because none of my undergrads could write like professional literary critics. When words like "trope" and "representational" appeared in their papers, the alarm went off. Fortunately, that only happened twice.In fiction, by contrast, the definition of plagiarism is hazy. Shakespeare's rivals denigrated him as a plagiarist, calling him "the upstart crow who has beautified himself with our feathers." Almost all writers admit that basic plots function along similar lines in many stories. No one can copyright boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl again.Still, the theft of entire passages from another author's novels is a pretty clearcut example of plagiarism.I've read some novels in which authors closely copied a unique idea from another author's novel. To me, that kind of work constitutes a kind of plagiarism. I wouldn't do it myself, because professional self-respect dictates against it, but I still don't label those imitative writers as "plagiarists." I allow for the fact that other writers draw their plagiarism lines in different places. Mine happen to be very strict. (I have to admit that if someone imitated my high-concept plot in this way, I would get pretty hot under the collar, but I would also realize that current intellectual property law does not defend against this kind of thing. Stefanie Meyer cannot complain about the current scads of teenaged vampire novels, nor can Anne McCaffrey sue for the many ripoffs of her telepathic dragons and their riders. That issue exists only between a copycat writer and her own conscience.)Here are some examples of how I draw those lines:
ACCEPTABLE LEARNING FROM ANOTHER WRITER:
Writer A sees that her partner, Writer B, has used a description of trees to set a mood in a chapter. Writer A uses a different description of trees to set a mood in her own chapter. That is A-OK.PLAGIARISM:
Writer A sees that Writer B has used a specific phrase (of three words or more)to create an effect. Writer B uses that exact phrase of three words or more in a very similar situation to create a similar effect. That is not OK. Now there may be isolated cases when this imitation occurs unconsciously, with two or three words, and an author shouldn't be oversensitive to those instances when another writer inadvertently "echoes" her work. But deliberate use of another author's words is not ethical, at least in my opinion.
BORDERLINE, perhaps STEPPING ON TOES, but not plagiarism:
A partner begins to use vocabulary words that she likes from her partner's work, unusual words that clearly come from that partner's authorial voice rather than her own. I don't mean single words like "unlined," or "flushed," which are very common in the work of many authors. Instead, I mean situations like this: Writer A uses the word "macabre" in a scene, and "ululating" in another, and the following week her partner, Writer B, uses those same two unusual words in her manuscript. (This particular example is only going to happen if your critique partner is Edgar Allan Poe or H.P. Lovecraft.)I know some of us may have different comfort zones. I had this discussion with a current critique partner the other day and was happy to discover that we have similarly strict standards when it comes to copycatting. But not everyone feels the same.What do you think about imitation of a partner's language or techniques? Do you draw the line somewhere? Or does it not bother you? Is there a difference between imitating critique partners, and imitating the work of professionals whom you don't know personally? What about a difference between imitating a partner's authorial voice or imitating her ideas?I realize this is controversial. (I wish I had a scary font for that word.) So be brave, and speak your mind, with the understanding that friendly and civil difference of opinion is welcome here.
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