Plagiarism

 

In the world of media, plagiarism is nefarious. It's quite possibly the worst offense that someone can do as a writer. If you ask writers, or even those who spend numerous hours on writing school papers about plagiarism, they will tell you just how horrifying and terrible it is to see someone else getting all the credit (and sometimes profit) of their fruits of labor.

The thing is, a school paper alone usually takes a couple of hours to plan, write, and edit. A novel takes far longer. There is a whole lot more writing and hands-on work involved. Most novels that are published are at least 50,000 words, if not longer. They also require characters, settings, and plotlines that pull readers in again and again. You plan, write, rewrite, revise, edit, and format.

Needless to say, most writers are attached to their drafts. Some even call them their babies or have nicknames for characters or other parts that they're fond of. WIPs are very personal, and held onto ratherly tightly.

So naturally, there is a lot of backlash involved with plagiarism. 

A lot of new NaNoWriMo members will ask about the risks of plagiarism. Yes, there are places where you can post excerpts on the forums but no one is going to actually steal your idea or your work. You can be pretty sure that they'd be immediately excommunicated, more or less.

Most writers don't want your story anyway. They'd rather slave over their own draft than take someone else's.

In short, plagiarism is pretty much viewed as stealing someone's child like Mother Gothel.

So don't do it.

And thanks for reading!