For me the hardest part of writing a novel or short story has always been coming up with an original idea. Yeah, I realize all too well that very little in this world is truly original and we are all the sum of all our experiences. Whatever we write is bound to be influenced by what we've seen, heard, read and is at least a bit derivative. But putting an original twist on a less-than-original idea is a good thing---if the twist truly is original. Unfortunately, most new writers don't have enough reading background to recognize what's been done to death and, therefore, must be avoided like the Lamidian plague!
It's important for me to note here that no one can copyright an IDEA! So, for instance, if your plot is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, that basic plotline may be identical to many others but that doesn't make you a plagiarist! But if you copy lines, paragraphs, or even whole pages from someone else's work and attempt to pass it off as your own, you're looking for trouble. Pretty much all printed work is copyrighted.
No author worth his or her salt will stoop to borrowing from or "cloning" someone else's work. I don't see how anyone with a conscience could do that. I have no personal experience of plagiarism in writing ( but know it has been done ); however, in the art world of which I was formerly a part, I can recall two instances where another artist's plagiarism was exposesd at art exhibitions.
So when I'm in the process of writing a new novel, I tend to cease reading for the time being, taking care not to expose myself to charges of inadvertent plagiarism or being unduly influenced by other work. If sometime thereafter I happen to come across an idea similar to my own, I can shrug and truthfully say, "Great minds think alike!"
And just for insurance, I always keep copies of my early drafts---just in case!
Keep on plugging,
MRTighe
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