McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Do you fear being influenced?

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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.  :P

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:

--- Quote from: sights unseen on August 27, 2007, 02:22:07 AM ---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.  :P

--- End quote ---

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.

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