An Honest Thief …

An Honest Thief – by Ms Paige Turner
Is there ever one? Or is it an oxymoron? I was asking you to look for one (an oxymoron not an honest thief) on my last blog as I had said phishing for emails or contacts was a sin but then I had written a feature for Writing Magazine advocating the lifting of Shakespeare’s characters and plots for our own fictional ends. Was that a contradiction in terms or are they two separate issues?
What is plagiarism? I think it’s knowingly stealing someone else’s idea (and by the way ideas are cheap and there is no copyright on them) or someone else’s words or Facebook Friends’ list for our self promotion. I don’t think plagiarism is using a well-known character or plot line to suit your own story cloth. In fact, no plot line is unique. There are seven basic plots and Christopher Booker goes into depth in his huge book by the same name to outline them all. There. I’ve made an acknowledgement and that’s a vital thing to do.
There is a difference between riding on the back of someone else’s success and/or hard work and trading it for your own and using basic ideas or plots for your word mongering.
But here’s my nub: I don’t like the practice of using another person’s Facebook Friends’ List to recruit ‘friends’ or ‘potential customers’ with the sole intention of selling one’s wares. Once you have accepted a ‘friendship request’ if you don’t hide your Friends’ list, all your friends can be targeted. And it seems okay to accept the request when ‘mutual friends’ are listed. This practice is not illegal: some would say it’s called ‘networking’. In my opinion it’s just not honest. Someone you don’t know will then have access to an awful lot of personal data. I console myself in the knowledge that if you are trying to sell utter rubbish you won’t keep reaching out anyway. Be careful when you click though. I have now found the ‘manage’ button on my Friends’ page.
Our term and academic year is drawing to a close at Creative Ink. In October, the ‘Get Inspired ‘course will run for five weeks at the Fitzwilliams Centre, Beaconsfield and we’ll be taking ‘Journey’ as a theme. (Limited to 12 places.) For the foreseeable future, Thursday ‘Get that Book Out of You’ will cease as a five week course, but you can come to me on a one to one consultation with 3500 word assessment and 500 word synopsis from June until November. (8 writers only.) Email me if you are interested in either course. Honest thieves only apply please.