I’m tired of hearing
writers complain that somebody else stole their story. Ninety-nine times out of
one hundred, it simply isn’t true. These complaints tend to be based, at least
in part, “upon that obsessive conviction, so frequent among authors and
composers, that all similarities between their works and any others which
appear later must inevitably be ascribed to plagiarism.”*
As I mentioned in my January 26, 2015
post, there is nothing new under the
sun. Two people can independently have the same idea for a plot, and they are both
likely to use the elements that flow naturally from it (called scènes à faire). Take the idea of
putting Judas on trial for betraying Jesus. Wouldn’t you expect courtroom
scenes with Caiaphas and Peter as witnesses? Of course you would.**
I don’t care how creative
you are: you aren’t the only person who has had that idea and written a similar
story. Nobody stole it from you any more than you stole it from them. So get
over it.
Then turn that obsessive
energy to good use and get back to writing.
__________
* The statement
originated with the 2nd Circuit in Dellar v. Samuel Goldwyn, Inc., 150 F.2d 612, 613 (2d Cir. 1945)
and was quoted by the 9th Circuit in Litchfield v. Spielberg, 736 F.2d 1352, 1358 (9th Cir. 1984).
** Porto v. Guirgis, 659 F.Supp.2d 597 (S.D.N.Y. 2009)
__________
The picture at the top of
this post is a painting by Italian artist Gaetano Lodi, who was born in 1830
and died in 1886.
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