Accidental plagiarizing

[Zaboem]

Ben Tentacle
That's some spicy originality!

[jpnakashima]

I had this germ of a story about three or four friends. One of them saw himself from the future in his washing machine, like a time window, telling him that something they did when they were kids broke the future (or another universe, I can't remember). So the story would change between when they were kids and did something that changed everything, the present where they're young adults struggling with life and the future (or various futures, more likely) where it's more of a sci fi action adventure, in a ruined world.

I had read 20th Century Boys three months before. Twice.

I tried to keep changing a little bit of the concept, but it was so heavily inspired I just dropped it (though now that I'm remembering it, I'm kinda tempted to give it another go)

[Strontium]

In high school I was writing a "novel" in my take on the popular YA tropes of the time when I felt that the ending of Divergent's sequel, Insurgent, was too close to what I was writing. It bummed me out. But what made me angry was that the author abandoned the story thread revealed at the end of book 2 for a totally different story thread in book 3!!! Hey, if you're going to use a great idea, at least use it!

[lartianmartian1]

Oh ho, but what if one plagiarizes on purpose?!

Lol ok seriously, I'm not condoning that. That should go without saying.

But I am for reals working on a comic that intentionally borrows some superficial elements from Mary Poppins (a sorta magical British nanny, a work-obsessed parent, two kids... s'bout it). Except my story will be even gayer, so come at me, Disney!!!!

... Please don't tho, your lawyers are scary.

[dawgofdawgness]

Lol this has never happened to me all my ideas are extremely unique!

Just kidding one time in middle school I ripped off the Last Airbender so I could write my stuffed animals into the plot

[DiegoPalacios]

"Abeartar The last plush bender"

When i was a small kid, the influences of my comics were extremely obvious....My brothers used to say things like: "that crocodile reminds me of goku"

[spadesart]

chapter 1 of my comic plays out almost the exact same way as issue 1 of more than meets the eye, i'd just finished catching up with it when i started working on spire.

i also have an urban fantasy novel in the works that might be a little too close in concept to the show ghosted.

[Rowein]

In my present comic, various characters has their blood with peculiar characteristic (explosive, curative, fire, ice, etc) and some of them ar a kind of vigilante/superheroe.

Then, I read Boku no Hero Academia, where everybody is a heroe and one of them has explosive sweat and I'm like "welp, at least is not so similar"

[DiegoPalacios]

Don`t worry. You have a factor that diferentiates it by making the powers work based on the blood.

[Rowein]

that's why I'm still doing it

[darthkrievos]

Lmao, Damn i completely forgot about that show.

[ramiek]

isn't that also the story of x-men's legion?

[Wumbl]

Used to do this all the time tbh - it's actually a good writing exercise to make cheap knock-off stuff early on though. Gets the creative juices flowing.

I wonder at what point the author of Tokyo Ghoul realised that they were just writing a more gorey emo version of X-men lmao (kidding around obvs but yea)

[HOME]

I have been there.

HOME redux

[inkycharland]

To go a bit deeper conceptually:

“Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I’m far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has a quiet resonance that never fails to stir me.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

(I love this book and highly recommend it.)

While directly ripping someone off is wrong, I think truly original ideas don't happen often. I think most people have had ideas similar to pre-existing work, it's just a matter of making it yours. My comic, Pretty Power Princess, is one of several comics about a captured princess that escapes. It's not terribly original in and of itself. However, I have woven in differences that make it stand out. (Or at least I try to.)

Archetypes exist for a reason. Don't give up on a good idea because someone did something similar. Especially if you're really hyped up on the idea. Just see how you can push it or twist it to make it yours. Sometimes the best of themes/stories/concepts take a path that was unexplored in a well-worn genre. Harry Potter wasn't the first book about wizards or even the first book about young wizards. It just found it's own path.

Again, not supporting outright plagiarism. But too many people waste time waiting for a truly original idea. I just think this is worth discussing.

[ghostmaya]

I think it was coincidence, that I publish my webcomic 2016 then that particular Manga also publish on 2018, we have same character signature which being the ghost and her Ghost Bandana except it was ecchi and full of fan serivce while mine was too innocent and audience friendly ~ also the title Oh My Ghost, I thought no one ever used it until there is a series on Kdrama also named Oh My Ghost~ Im so bad luck Brian XD

[Luminosophy]

Not as much 'plagiarizing' in a sense but one of those times when you think you thought of something unique, like everyone else already did.

The other day I had a random thought, if it's possible to somehow get a substance to be 'liquid electricity'. I thought if I could find somewhat feasible explanation for it to naturally occur in a fantasy world it could be an interesting power source. Then it turns out on google, Engineers are already actually trying to crack that code (which is still neat), it's a common place trope in sci fi ... and it wouldn't be more efficient than other systems I already devised with the writer anyway. Oh well. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[Jenny-Toons]

Yeeeah, it's not really plagiarizing. Plagiarizing is when you take the exact same thing, nearly word for word (if not word for word), and claim it as your own.

When this happens, it's usually just something familiar and people go "oh, that sounds like XYZ"

Usually, I just shrug it off. Depending on how similar it is, I ask myself "ok -- why do I like this idea so much? How can I make it unique to me?"

Because again -- nowadays, originality comes more from the execution than the idea itself. How you do this repeated idea matters.

[jpnakashima]

I just remembered that when I was 12 me and my brother started a manga in our notebooks. We would take turns drawing.
It was called Merc S (there was a Brazilian comic called... MercenárioS) and it was about these people joining up in teams and going to ''The City of Gold'' to compete in a tournament in which the prize was one of those ''can grant anything your wish'' items (like Shaman King).
All characters were action figures we had around because we didn't want to create concepts, so the protagonist was Radamantys (from Saint Seiya), there was The Spider (Black Suit Spider-Man, of course) and the villain was Mr Sinister (from X-Men). We later started ''creating'' character, which means there was Kakashi and Haku (from Naruto) and a Kojiro (not from Vagabond, but from my view on the Musashi novels, actually). Oh, also, Spider had rubber powers.

Granted, it's absolutely not accidental!! haha It's so many things at once it crosses the line of plagiarizing and comes full circle to me. It's my ultimate childish dream bootleg.

[djwaglmuffin]

Well, the thing is... IDEAS are not wheels. They can be reinvented and adjusted where needed.

If you feel that what you go it word for word someone else's story then change it. Even a setting change can give your story an entirely new nuance that can separate it from whatever it is you're worried about.

There are also some ideas that can't be "copyrighted"; calling vampires blood-drinkers, for example. Specifically, that the word vampire didn't show up historically until much later (about 1500-1600's, I think) so what are you supposed to call them if they existed in your universe before they were officially called 'vampire'? Even just five minutes of research can set you apart from the myriads of stories out in the sphere right now.

Also asking questions like this. Talking to people, getting new perspectives. This is actually the kind of post I live for. Feel free to ask questions. :>