I've found a story that I "think" I was working on over 20 years ago, before I came out. I remember writing it but it could have been as far as the late 90's, or before. There is a shameful amount of correction work needing to be done.
I'm wondering if I should do it in Serial mode? I'm not trying to be another Angharad, really. Just thinking right now. It is one of those "Lost in Space" stories and I have no idea how long it will be now. I've been reading Sci Fi since before I was a teen ager, that means nearly 65 years, and I am concerned that I might be about to plagiarize someone else's story. I wouldn't commit such a crime on purpose. I simply can not remember everything back to before 1955.
I suppose that I will just go to work, eventually publishing it and if someone thinks ill of me, so be it.
Gwen
Comments
Plagiarism is like trespassing
I can't presume to speak of the legal technicalities of either, but to my way of thinking they're both about intent. Wandering onto someone's property isn't trespassing if you didn't see the sign and assumed you were on public land. And coming up with an idea that someone else has already written isn't the same as finding someone's story, changing a few words and slapping your name on it with the deliberate intent of stealing it. It can be embarrassing when someone points out that your story's already been done, but it's not immoral. So I say GO FOR IT!
And it seems like a whole lot of people here love serials. 40,000 words can be intimidating when it's a story online (yet for some reason with physical books it's expected) but breaking it down into installments means a daily or weekly commitment of 20-40 minutes + new chapters to look forward to.
~hugs, Veronica
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
On my Hard Drive
It was on a very obscure part.
Gwen
Ummm
The world needs more Angharads.
BAK 0.25tspgirl
"amount of correction work" ...
Not to fear - you have had all those years to become a much stronger writer.
In a college English class, it was part of our grade to exchange our writings with various classmates to critique, comment and correct. We had to turn in these markups. (It was >doing< the critique, etc. that was important. If a classmate 'shredded' my draft, it did not count against me. But I did try to give my 'exchange buddy' my best efforts.)
I had the pleasure to watch one classmate become a much stronger writer, so much so that I asked him to join me at the teacher's desk. I thanked him for letting me watch him get better, in front of the teacher.
Our class was only 10-11 weeks, and you have had 20 years - please don't be "hard" on your 20-years-ago-self.
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Oh, and our writings were just all so different, our 'styles' just so different, that even on the same assigned topic or prompt - 'plagiarism' simply wasn't possible.
How many composers have written music to the >same< Shakespeare play? How many stories are "Boy meets Girl. Boy loses Girl. (Or World throws up impossible obstacles.) Boy beats up on World (or vice versa). Boy gets Girl. (Just about every Romance novel ever, and a lot of songs...)
Don't worry about plagiarism. It's very hard to copy-right a story >idea<. On the flip side, two real-world inventions had patent problems, having been previously published: Space-walkers' reaction pistols to maneuver, and geo-stationary (communications) satellites (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_satellite#History).