Do you fear being influenced?

[skaoi]

what a relief to come across this...i know i am influenced and it drives me nuts.  nice to see others are as well.

the fact of the matter is that none of us lives in a vacuum and, as already mentioned, a polite nod is one thing and outright plagiarism another.

i was scribbling along and wrote something that seemed so familiar...but i couldn't put my finger on it.  co-writer read it and pointed it out, 'um, yeah...that thing we just read...they did that.' 

OH.  phooey. 

<erase, erase, erase> 

[sights unseen]

What drives me crazy is when I'm reading a book and come across a great line or paragraph and think, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"  I see a line or a clever play on words and wish I had written it or it was my original idea.

Oh phooey, she said. 

[eviladam]

What I really hate is when I find something I thought of was also thought of by some one else, and published. 

[blgarver]

I think being influenced is the nature of being a writer.  I mean, you can't learn unless you're influenced by some outside source.

If you're raised Hindu you're entire life, that's what you'll believe, then perhaps when you're out on your own and are exposed to other believes, perhaps you'll take a liking to one of them. 

We can't be good writers unless we're influenced by good writing.  And, on the other side of the coin, if all we ever read was bad writing, then we'd write nothing but crap.

It's necessary, but I'm not gonna say I like it.  Half way through my current book I started reading Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and was quite irked when I discovered my story was painfully similar.  But not so much that I stole anything.  If anyone reads my book who has read "Neverwhere", however, will most definately be reminded of Gaiman's book. 

I guess I'm not gonna complain that I'm thinking like Gaiman. 

[Mickey Finn]

What drives me crazy is when I'm reading a book and come across a great line or paragraph and think, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"  I see a line or a clever play on words and wish I had written it or it was my original idea.

Oh phooey, she said. 

What drives me nuts is having to toss perfectly good ideas because someone else got there first.
Final Destination was one. Idenity was another...and that one hurt. Not just because I was trying to figure out how to do it, but because I was trumped by the guy who wrote killer snowman movies.

And mine was better. *sniff*

I'll write in another decade.

[eviladam]

Oh that had to hurt. 

[Uilos]

What drives me nuts is having to toss perfectly good ideas because someone else got there first.
Final Destination was one. Idenity was another...and that one hurt. Not just because I was trying to figure out how to do it, but because I was trumped by the guy who wrote killer snowman movies.

And mine was better. *sniff*

I'll write in another decade.

waitaminute...the pok gai, two bit, slasher hack who wrote those POS Jack Frost horror movies and the guy who wrote Identity (a great movie) are the same person!?

Excuse me, I have to find a tall tree and some rope...

But yeah, I've run into that wall before, That's kind of why as I'm writing the story itself (yes, I am free writing mine, it is not as glamourous as Mr King will have you believe) and then figuring out how to tell the story. I find that how you tell the story can set it apart from so many stories that are similar to it.

[Mickey Finn]

Yep, same guy. I knew from the teaser preview what was going on. My ending was different (as was the killer*), but the rain cutting folks off from leaving was the same, as was a bunch of strangers being forced together in a structure (mine was the gothic classic of a house on a hill...and for those that know the twist in the story, you see why that makes sense )

Hell, it's been a few years, maybe I'll go ahead and write it.


*Spoiler for Identity, don't read if you haven't seen the movie:

(click to show/hide)

My inspiration, years ago, came from studying MPD and wondering what it'd be like for the various personalities as a doctor "pruned" them.

[King of De Nile]

I used to worry about the originality of my work, but a few things changed my mind. First was my dad, who while we were eating lunch out one day popped out this gem, "Everything that can be written already has been. All you can do is hide it in different wrapping."

And then there's a series of quotes I read one day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Genius borrows nobly."
Michael Caine: "I only steal from the best people."
Pablo Picasso: "Bad artists copy; good artists steal."
T.S.Eliot: "The immature poet imitates; the mature poet plagiarizes."

Kind of lessened my worry, you know?

[meg_evonne]

I'd argue with your Dad as I think there will never a shortage or true original work out there. Sort of interesting to hear about the duplication of ideas to such specific situations.  A little on the spoky side. 

On the other hand history repeats itself over and over that when the technology meets a certain criteria/level you will see lots of inventors independently inventing the same technology.  Sort of "Life will find a way" theory.  One of them gets the credit and the rest are left without any royalties...  i've just never thought about it applying to the arts before.

[Mickey Finn]

Oh, certainly...Jim's stuff is not original*, it's his storytelling ability that blows everyone else out of the water.



*both series are inspired from and drawn from other sources. There's nothing wrong with that, it's part of being human. Hell, it's one of our main strengths.