Don't Shoot the Messenger! (Adventures of a Critic)

Plagiarism

I kind of swear a lot in this chapter, guys. Sorry. It just kind of flows out when I talk about this topic. 

I'm aware this isn't a new topic, especially on Wattpad, but it's an important one so I'm going to talk about it today. 

Plagiarism is taking someone else's work and putting it out as your own. Plain and simple. 

Guess what still counts as work? An idea. That was thought thoroughly through by the mind of another human being, and they had to work to get it out on paper. I don't give a damn if your story has different names and whatnot, if it has the SAME GODDAMN STORY LINE, then it's plagiarism. 

Now, no story is original, that's true. But there's a different from having the same plot line and having the same story. PLOT AND STORY ARE NOT THE SAME THING, GUYS. THIS IS THE ONE TIME WHERE I SAY DICTIONARY.COM IS WRONG. 

The plot is the thing you do stuff to, the thing driving the whole story, ex: Mary wants to find her husband's killer, and the things she goes through to achieve that. THE PLOT CAN CHANGE. The plot can all of a sudden become "Mary's husband isn't dead, and turns out he's trying to kill her, and she doesn't want that". 

A story is the thing in general. Who, what, where, why, and how is the story. Ex: the story is about a woman named Mary who lives in Southern Germany, she's an accountant at SNEU and seems pretty typical. Then her husband dies and she gets a ransom note. She goes all over Hell to find out who killed her husband, and then finds out he didn't actually die but wants to kill her. Why? She's got information that's fragile that she didn't even know she had. Now it's a search through her own mind and a race across the world to get away from her husband and figure out what the Hell she knows that could be so dangerous. 

THE DESCRIPTION OF A STORY DOES NOT CHANGE. What I mean by that, is that most likely the main character in the middle of the story isn't suddenly going to be George (unless you pull of a "Psycho" but that only proves that there are exemptions to every rule.) But she is an accountant at SNEU (I made all of this up, I don't know if the place exists) and is in Southern Germany. If you describe the story this way, she's not all of a sudden going to be a bandit from northern France, she's going to stay an accountant from Souther Germany. Do you get what I'm saying? Plot is what you play with and change, Story is the overall what it's about--that doesn't really change. 

Guess what, there are a hundred types of the plot line named above. There are a thousand different novels about someone's husband or wife or whoever who seems dead but really isn't, and is actually doing something shitty. BUT there is not another story with exactly a woman who lives in Southern Germany whose husband wants to kill her because of something she doesn't know about. There is not another character who goes through the same exact thing in the same order and comes out with the same result. 

The story is what people get upset about when it's taken. They know the plotline isn't theirs, but it's the characters, the events, the husband, the personalities; the Who's, What's, Where's, Why's, and How's. 

NOW, people think they're being clever when they change names and switch up the order. But guess what? THAT DOES SHIT FOR NOTHING. A person knows their story and knows what's taken from them. They can see how characters interact with each other and go "hey, if this wasn't exactly my work, then why are they practically the same people?" There is no such thing as two characters being exactly the same and belonging in two different stories, even if the stories are similar.

Think about it. Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes are both somewhat detectives. Now, are they any where close to the same? They meet with very similar things, they both solve crimes, but they both do it in different ways and interact with people very differently. You get what I'm trying to tell you? 

SO WHEN PEOPLE PLAGIARIZE I GET INCREDIBLY PISSED. There already is no such thing as a brand new story, but you honest to God can't think of anything to change it up than someone else's already written word? Seriously? Go through the thousands of already done plots and take one and make it your own Goddamn story, because not only does taking someone else's show that you're incredibly lazy and a sorry excuse for a writer, but it also tells me that you are a brainless twat that can't formulate a thought on your own, that and you are completely incompetent and cruel at everything you do. If you're willing to plagiarize someone else's work, then what's to stop you from taking someone's homework and write your name on it? Or to try to cheat off someone else's exam while taking the BAR? What's stopping you. If you plagiarize, you tell me exactly the type of person you are, and I don't want anything to do with you. 

Now, I will not immediately hate kids who are, like, thirteen. Why? Because they're young and make mistakes. BUT LET ME TELL YOU THIS, CHILDREN, THIS BETTER BE A LESSON. Know that if you plagiarize, we critics at Critic Land will come over and tear you apart. That will be how you learn, that is your ruthless lesson, and if I catch you doing it again, I will have absolutely no respect for you ever, from thirteen to ninety-three; either that or you'll have one Hell of a time trying to repay for that mistake. Because doing it once is ridiculously stupid, doing it twice shows me that you have no respect for anyone but yourself and that you're a selfish brat. 

There have been two incredibly stupid arguments for plagiarizing. There are surely more, but these are the ones that irk me the most. 

1) "There's no such thing as a new story! All ideas are used up! This is totally original and you're a big idiot for thinking I took it!" 

Obviously, as explained above, you're a twit and think the world is much more stupid than you, which would be one heck of a feat because you're pretty darn dumb. 

2) "I write it better than them anyways." 

Excuse me? I saw this on some poor girl's story, once, and I went into a raging tangent. You have no right to insult someone else's writing, especially when you have the audacity to rip it away from them. How dare you. The person who came up with the idea originally was brave enough to put their work out into the world, only to have a low-life snatch it away from them and insult their writing. I don't care how well you write, all the great writing in the world is worth nothing if you can't form your own idea, you brainless moron. And the fact that you even think you can insult the person who came up with the idea first makes you a grade A asshole. You should be thanking them for giving your static mind something that you can manage to type! I mean, my God, copying must be so hard right? 

Fucking fool. 

Obviously I'm a bit passionate about this whole thing. But it just pisses me off. I think to plagiarize, you have to be one: a complete moron, or two: a cruel jerk, or maybe both. I associate those who plagiarize to those in school who are completely mindless and must have someone dictating what they do, otherwise they'd sit there and chew the ends of their clothes. 

Critics can appreciate the ideas of a writer, no matter how poor the writing. Because without the idea, what are we doing there? The fact that you believe that taking someone else's idea is okay is just disturbing and wrong. 

I'm Samantha, and I'm appalled at those who plagiarize, and I won't stand for it. Don't let me catch you, because I will call you out. I try not to be mean, but people who do this kind of crap just brings out my cursing, lecturing, punishing self. Sorry!