Inspiration vs. Plagiarism

This difference between inspiration and plagiarism is like the difference between borrowing and stealing. It's like "made from real cheese" vs. "cheese-flavored product." One is good, one is gross, and sometimes you can't tell the difference, especially if you're my age. But ignorance is not an option for writers, no matter how young or old they are. That's why I'm going to show you the difference between the two.

First: inspiration. Inspiration is motivation or an idea that motivates you. Let's say you read "The Butterfly Dream," a passage by Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi. You analyze the passage in Philosophy class one morning and are intrigued by Zhuangzi's take on dreams and reality. This gives you an idea for a story about a young woman who wanders between two worlds, the "dream" world and the "real" world, living two separate lives while she strives to determine what's real and what's not. That is an example of inspiration in the sense that Zhuangzi's mystery got you thinking about reality and dreams. You like the question he raised about being one thing or another - real or fake, man or butterfly - and what makes something definitively what it is, and in your story you'd like to explore those same questions and themes. You take fragments of Zhuangzi's concept to use in your story, allowing room to develop your own characters, setting, theme and other elements.

This is different from plagiarism. Just in case you were asleep every day in English class from 5th grade onwards, plagiarism is when you deliberately copy an author's words or ideas and claim them as your own. (Just to cover my butt: that definition isn't my own.) In this example, I'm going to start you off with the end product: a story "inspired" by another story. This story is about a young woman who leaves her abusive relatives to practice magic in Pigbumpz Wizard Academy located in the New York Sewer System. She has a klutzy blonde friend who wants to be the best Witchy-Softball player ever and a broody, dark-haired love interest who is the smartest guy around. Unbeknownst to her, the main character has descended from a line of powerful wizards and has the potential to save the world. The villain of the story is responsible for separating her from her parents and aims to kill her at any cost. Sound kind of familiar? It should. This story was "inspired" by the Harry Potter series, and it's quite obvious from the beginning. This is a pure rip-off even though the characters, settings, and other elements have been changed. The changes that were made were superficial and did little to rework the plot. It's still Harry, but Harry is in a skirt in New York, instead of in pants in England.

Not all cases of plagiarism are this clear-cut, but I hope this gives you an idea of the difference between the two. Another tidbit that might help you tell the two apart is to ask yourself this question: "Did this start off as a fan-fiction?" In other words, when you got the inspiration for the story, was it set in the exact same universe with your main character as the friend/love interest/rival of the real main character? Pretty much in every case, this will lead to plot-jacking, because you'll want to keep the same story elements and insert yourself or your character in the protagonist's spot.

When you're truly inspired by a previous work or concept, you re-imagine or reinterpret it. You're not rewriting exactly what a dead man has already written, you're rethinking it. Be like a bee taking pollen from flowers to create your own brand of delicious literary honey with bits of inspiration. Don't be like Vanilla Ice and rip the "ding-ding-ding-duhduh-ding-ding" baseline off of "Under Pressure" and call your ‘original' song "Ice Ice Baby."