These are two extremes. Plagiarism has a legal definition that’s changed over time, and the crime has been punished at different levels. But it’s at one end of a linear spectrum with inspiration at the other. Authors are often inspired by other authors and their books, but actually copying their prose seems infrequent.

But consider the case of Daniel Mallory (pseudonym A. J. Finn), the fellow who wrote the bestseller The Woman in the Window. The plot has similarities with Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, and Hitchcock’s Rear Window (apparently Mr. Mallory is a fan of Hitchcock). Calling these similarities plagiarism is probably extreme, and calling those creative works inspiration for the author more appropriate.

But there are other ramifications to this case that might make one pause. Mr. Mallory is addicted to lying. He lied about having brain cancer, and he lied about having a PhD from Oxford. But did he plagiarize? I haven’t read his book (I read the New Yorker article, though), and I’m no lawyer, but I doubt it.

Plagiarism occurs so infrequently among writers that it often become a scandal when it does. I pay attention to it because of my interest in scientific ethics, a similar concern. From my own experiences, I can state that creative activity in the arts and sciences is similar—there’s pressure on creatives to succeed, and some succumb to the temptation of plagiarizing others thoughts or “adjusting” data to prove a scientific theory.

This occurs at all levels. In high school, I saw students copy sections out of reference works and magazines to make a report—in those days, a teacher didn’t have software to detect plagiarism. I also saw students fudge data on their lab reports (I was in the track called “college prep,” and the pressure was intense).

One can argue that none of that amounted to much, but I often wondered if students doing it might do worse things as adults. Doctors fudging results on prescription drug trials, for example, because the new drug is made by a company sponsoring some of the doctors’ research. In general, researchers who fudge data can mislead other researchers into culs de sac, and that can have negative repercussions that, in the worse case, might harm people.

So back to writing. I’ve been inspired by other works. What writer hasn’t? The safe haven in Christopher’s No Blade of Grass inspired me to use Yosemite Valley as one in my new book The Last Humans. Both of these books are post-apocalyptic. I certainly didn’t plagiarize Christopher (I don’t even have a copy of his book, although I’ve been looking for one in used book stores for years). Christopher’s book also inspired my No Amber Waves of Grain in a sense, because long ago when I read No Blade of Grass (high school or earlier?), I wondered about what caused Christopher’s apocalypse and whether people could have stopped it. (Yeah, I kept those plot ideas around for a long time.)

There’s a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. I once suggested to an author that we write a book together, emulating Preston and Child (they’re thriller writers, most notable for the Pendergast series, but if we were discussing sci-fi, this author and I would be emulating Niven and Pournelle). I even suggested a plot idea. His response was that it didn’t work for him. I accepted that, and we dropped the idea. Later I was surprised to discover he had published a book with exactly that plot idea using his own characters and not the mix of characters I’d proposed. Is that plagiarism? No. I hadn’t copyrighted the plot idea—you can’t! But it was certainly unethical and soured me on that idea of finding a co-author.

Whether Daniel Mallory plagiarized or not is not up to me to decide, but I’d tend to write it off as inspiration. Who knows? Maybe his book is better than all those others I mentioned above. Like I said, I’ve never read his book in spite of its popularity. (“Popularity” doesn’t mean much to me for my reading choices.) I’m more worried about his lying. Playing with people’ sympathies is unethical, but one can wonder if readers even knew about his lies about brain cancer and having a PhD. Are either of these in the author’s bio in the book? I’m a forgiving person for a lot of things, so I’d like to think that Mallory just needs more help from a medical health professional.

Where we draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism is complicated by the fact that there are only so many plots an author can use. The devil’s always in the details—i.e. how each author fills in that plot. But authors shouldn’t buy into the adage that “any publicity is good publicity.” The more popular the books is, the more it will be scrutinized.

So, be inspired by books and authors you’ve read. But stay on the good side of that line between inspiration and plagiarism. You’ll maintain a good reputation by doing so and stay out of legal trouble.

***

Comments are welcome.

The Last Humans. Penny Castro is a forensic diver for the LA County Sheriff’s Department. She surfaces from a dive to find all her colleagues dead. She struggles to survive and then protect the family of other survivors she creates as gangs of feral humans and others threaten her. In the end, she decides to help a crippled US government. This post-apocalyptic thriller is coming soon from Black Opal Books.

Around the world and to the stars. In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2019 at 3:30 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.