Plagiarism

[malena2006]

I know that copying situations from a work of fiction amounts to plagiarism. What about taking a situation from a non-fiction book? Let’s say I am writing a novel about an American general in WWII, and I include (with suitable modifications) an anecdote taken from a biography of Patton, is that plagiarism? What if the book is an autobiography and the author is still alive? Could the author take legal action? When I was young there was a proliferation of novels fictionalizing the life of the Onassis and the Kennedy families , but I don’t remember the authors being sued.

 

[MsBennet]

If you're writing a novel then perhaps you should include the book you used in your bibliography, that way you let readers know where you got your information.

 

[malena2006]

Do novels have bibliographies?

If you're writing a novel then perhaps you should include the book you used in your bibliography, that way you let readers know where you got your information.

I don´t remember seeing one that did. That would be a great solution!

 

[novella]

Rather than have a formal bibliography, fictional works based on or incorporating true stories often have an Acknowledgements or Notes section in which the author mentions various sources and thanks the authors. If these other works are nonfiction and you are just using them as sources, not quoting them, that should be enough. When you get published, an editor or even the publisher's legal department will review that with you if you ask them to, just to make sure your bases are covered. But you should keep notes on sources for now.

 

[TerishD]

Reply

If you want respect, you acknowledge. Most historians interested in the period, or people (Patton is a popular subject) will recognize the story and think you rude for stealing it. If however you admit to stealing it, they will probably think you are wise for taking such a wonderful anecdote to be reworked. At the worse, you can hold your head up as being forthright and honest.

 

[dhom]

I agree. It's definitely a good idea to acknowledge your sources, even if you don't use any exact phrases from them. Just consider the controversy over the Da Vinci Code!

My family has a background in scientific research, and in that field, taking someone else's ideas and putting them forth as one's own is almost the same as professional suicide.

 

[malena2006]

Thank you all for your input

I agree that aknowledgement is neccesary. I wouldn´t be caught dead writing a non fiction piece and not including some form of bibliography. Even in my articles I provide sources. I just didn´t know that novels could carry such a thing. In Library School we used to bemoan that novels did not include bibliographies and indexes

 

[Vespertilio91]

At my school (yes I still go there) a girl in my literary club plagarized two poems (by the way, they were suicidal and very bad) and read them at our first poetry slam. About three months later, one of my friends found it in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book (bad place to steal from everyone reads those) about Tough Stuff. She was kicked out of the club and is not allowed to take part in any of our annual contests or readings for fear that she will plagarize again. She got off easy, but no one at school trusts her anymore. She also is the butt of many jokes, but this is the price you pay to plagarize, which in my opinion, is the worst possible thing you could do to a person because what they wrote is their emotions and effort. NOT YOURS!

Anyway, you should do whatever possible to not get caught in that situation and I am glad that you are not just shrugging it off as no big deal.

 

[ValkyrieRaven88]

I mentioned something about that girl in another thread, too. It's really sad when you plagiarize bad poems written by whiny teenagers who think their parents hate them. But it's the worst crime a writer can commit, since we are stealing another person's words. The words are part of their soul, so in theory, a plagiarist steals parts of other writers' souls.

 

[malena2006]

It is interesting how we wandered away from my original question. Perhaps it is because plagiarism awakes such anger in all writers and would be writers. Having been plagiarized −and quoted and misquoted without credit− in the past, I know the feeling. But my original query was: Is it possible to include a real life anecdote in a novel, if such anecdote has been found in a non-fiction book (e.g. a biography)? Or will such act constitute plagiarism? What I deducted from your answers, and mighty useful it is, is that I better include an acknowledgement page where I list all my sources. In Mary Doria Russell’s web page she has a bibliography, and she describes which books assisted her in the creation of the characters in A Thread of Grace. Now, not everyone is going to have a web page, so the Acknowledgment page is the best solution.

 

[Vespertilio91]

I don't know about how to use an anecdote in a book correctly. But you are right, many people do become very angry when their work is plagarized. That is probably why we got off-topic. Sorry! You posted it under plagarism though.

 

[malena2006]

No need to apologize

I don't know about how to use an anecdote in a book correctly. But you are right, many people do become very angry when their work is plagarized. That is probably why we got off-topic. Sorry! You posted it under plagarism though.

The comments were very enlightening and they did help.

 

[GreenKnight]

There is no copyright on facts, only on artistic creations. So you can feel free to use any factual information you glean about Patton (or anyone), so long as you do not parrot anecdotes word for word. Take the bare bones of the facts and re-tell them in your own style, with your own emphasis. Better still, if you are writing a novel, have a character recount the details in their own voice, as if (for example) they were among the witnesses to the incident.

The only thing to be wary of is if you accidentally cite an anecdote that is not factual but another novelist's creation! For example, if one novelist had imagined Patton saying something on a golf course, and you assumed this was fact and told the same story. That would be plagiarism... Facts, however, can't be. Hope that helps!

 

[malena2006]

It does help! Thanks!

There is no copyright on facts, only on artistic creations. So you can feel free to use any factual information you glean about Patton (or anyone), so long as you do not parrot anecdotes word for word. Take the bare bones of the facts and re-tell them in your own style, with your own emphasis. Better still, if you are writing a novel, have a character recount the details in their own voice, as if (for example) they were among the witnesses to the incident.

The only thing to be wary of is if you accidentally cite an anecdote that is not factual but another novelist's creation! For example, if one novelist had imagined Patton saying something on a golf course, and you assumed this was fact and told the same story. That would be plagiarism... Facts, however, can't be. Hope that helps!

 

[Vespertilio91]

I was reading a book of late, and she put a small works cited page in the front of her book. It wasn't much, but it probably saved her thousands of dollars that she could use in advertising her new book instead of trying to disprove plagarism in the story. By the way, she never mentioned anything word-for-word that I saw in the book, so maybe I answered your question. *hopefully stares ahead*

 

[malena2006]

In the novel I am about to read,

the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the author includes three pages of acknowledgment where he accurately describes the bibliography he used. I will follow that example. It would be embarrassing to end up like Dan Brown who was sued for plagiarism by the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail (a non-fiction book). By the way, Brown won arguing he was using “historical facts” in the Code, therefore he did not need to aknowledge anything, but it was embarrassing.