I just read an article that Stephenie Meyer is being accused of plagiarism. Obviously I don't know all the details but what I've read so far is sketchy. An author named Jordan Scott is planning to file a copyright infringement suit against Meyer claiming that there are plot similarities between an apparently obscure book she wrote called The Nocturne and SM's Breaking Dawn. First, I'd like to say I've read neither book and I'm not actually a fan of SM. It's not that I don't like her work, I just don't read YA.Why the claim of plagiarism? "In a cease-and-desist letter Williams sent to Hachette Book Group, he provided comparisons from the two books of a wedding, a sex-on-the-beach episode and a passage where a human-turned-vampire describes the wrenching change." (I copied this from the above linked article.) Oh, and another example she used is that both heroes called their wives 'love'.
Um, seriously? That's what she's using for the basis of this suit? I can't count the books I've read that contained weddings, sex on the beach, and heroes (or heroines) calling each other love. Personally I think it's a stupid nickname that would sound awkward in real life. I much rather prefer sweetheart or babe (even though that one gets overused too) b/c they sound more natural. Okay, back to the point. The examples the author is using are weak at best, especially the one about how the human-turned-vampire goes through a wrenching change. I don't read many vampire books but I do read a lot of shifter stories and so many different authors use the same terminology, (alpha, beta, etc). but as long as it isn't a Janet Daily/Nora Roberts thing going on, it's highly unlikely there was any plagiarism. Sounds like someone simply wants to cash in.
I'm interested to see how this plays out. Thoughts, opinions?
8 comments:
You know, the internet keeps shrinking the writing world and it's getting scary out there. Of course there are plot similarities! Isn't there some theory out there that every story is actually a version of one of seven story types? I mean come on, you're going to replicate a storyline eventually. I think this author has a weak argument and I would hope it doesn't hold up in court.
So long as you're not deliberately stealing someone's ideas or copying their plot/characters, etc, then I would think you're safe from being accused of plagiarism. Just my two cents.
Yes, there is. I can't remember exactly what it is, but it's something like man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. God, etc. (I don't remember the 7 story themes) I've read so many books with plot similarities and some came out at the same time so there's obviously no plagiarism. This just sounds too bogus, like this girl wants to either a) make money from a lawsuit or b) drive up her own sales. I agree, I hope it doesn't hold up in court (if it even gets that far).
No book is completly original. I mean there are only so many story ideas. Yes we need to strive to come up with the most original and unique book as possible but you're, right, there will be similarties. There is no way around it. Only so many places one can have sex and the beach is a good one. Only so many nicknames out there and yep, most of the time if one is supernatural and the other isn't, the other is getting changed somehow. LOL. Great topic.
Sounds like she wants to drive up sales of her books - hoping now people will rush out and buy them so they can compare them to SM's Breaking Dawn. I've read SM's entire series and if Breaking Dawn was inspired by this author its no good reflection on her as that book was a huge disappointment to many Twilight fans- myself included.
MsM
Honestly, if it was such a great and fantastic idea, and all it took was just great and fantstic ideas, then Ms Jordan's book would have turned out to be the best-seller, wouldn't it? Which just goes to show, it's really all in the way you use that idea--how you write it and how it speaks to people once you've written it. Sounds alot like sour grapes to me.
And as you say, Katie, some of these "terms" coined by some author or script-writer way back when, have now crept into our everyday terminology when we're writing certain genres.
I'd hate to think that just because my Lycan "shifts" from humanoid to lion, or because my futuristic heroine programs in a "hyperspace jump", that I'm suddenly gonna be accused of plagiarism by the people who first coined those terms.
Ms Scott needs to suck it up and move on. Or perhaps the first people who ever wrote about humans changing to vampires and sex on the beach might consider suing her--yanno, just in the interests of complete fairness ;-)
Lol Maree!
I truly believe that if ten authors were given ten identical bullet lists of concepts and plot devices, the end result would be ten highly original stories.
And Maree, you're right. Execution is everything! Yeah,it stings when I see ideas I've had show up elsewhere but then I have to realize that my execution of the concept would have been wildly different.
Great post, Katie!
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