Other People's Writing

In my first blog post, I wrote about a fiction writing class that I took in college. Everyone (including me) praised this one student's story, and it really was pretty good. But a few months later, I read a book by a popular author, and one of the scenes in that book was very similar to that student's story. A few of the details had been changed, but there were way too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.

In college I read an issue of the school literary magazine and found a short story with a passage in it that was very similar to a passage from a famous book that had been published several decades ago; it actually had the same phrasing.

I know that as writers it's natural to be influenced by other writers. But where do you draw the line between being influenced by someone else and admiring that person's work to actually using that person's writing?

Last Saturday I participated in an online discussion forum. The main question in the forum was, "When life gives you lemons, what do you do?" I posted this response: "Re-gift them to someone else."

But then someone else posted a reply to my response, saying that she thought it was funny and that she was going to use it as her blog slogan. I know that she didn't mean any harm. I know that she just liked the line and wanted to use it in her blog; it was a compliment, right?

The truth is, it bothered me. It's one thing if she was going to post my line and attribute the quote to me; it's another thing if other people think that she came up with it. I imagined myself huddled over my laptop and clutching my notebooks, snapping my teeth at anyone who dared to come near me as I snarled, "These are MY words! Mine! And if I can't entertain people with my writing, NO ONE can! Bwah-hahahahaha!"

So I sent a note to that person who wanted to use my line as her blog slogan. I was polite about it; I just said that I wanted to use the line in my blog. And she was very nice and gracious about it. She said that since I came up with the line that I had the right to it. So it wasn't anything too dramatic. And I'm sure she didn't mean anything bad by wanting to use my line in the first place.

I've been checking out other blogs, and I've noticed that a few people posted short messages on their blogs; they make statements that all the writing on their blogs is theirs and other people must get permission before using it. I've thought about posting a similar message on my blog, but I don't want people to think that I think they're going to take my writing. At the same time, though, I am protective of my writing, even if I haven't been published yet. My writing and my ideas come from my mind, my imagination, and I don't think it's a bad thing to want credit for the stuff that I come up with.

If someone actually did take my writing, I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe I could send out a curse that would give that person writer's block for the rest of his/her life, or better yet, maybe I'd curse that person to write nothing but cliches. Or I could make a little writer voodoo doll and stick pens in it, but I don't think that would work.

On the other hand, maybe I'm not thinking about this in the right way, if there is a right way of thinking about it. I think I accidentally swallowed a small piece of the aluminum foil that I heated some frozen pizza on yesterday, so I feel like it might have affected my brain.