When is plagerism plagerism?

[Kokopelli]

As the title implies, when is it? Obviously blatantly taking somebody's story and claim it is your own is a form of plagiarism.

However, what about when it comes to plotlines for fiction? A good example is the story I have been trying to start for the past few months. (Except that, I have had zero time to do it)

The concept involves the main protagonist being caught in a time loop, and ending up in 1885. (No relation to the Back to the Future movie, but it is to keep in line with historical events in the setting) While here, he discovers evidence of others who were caught in this same loop, and have ended up in different times. It is random, and there is no indication of where a traveler will end up. E.g., you could end up in 1776, or 1 a.d.

The problem I am facing is that fiction is a broad topic. Just about, everything can trace its roots to a starting point. E.g., fantasy tracing back to Tolkien. Science Fiction tracing back to Jules Verne and H.G. Welles.

Some one could say, "Well this story is a rip off of Replay, by Ken Grimwood." Yet the concept of time travel used in that novel, is a rip off H.G. Welles' novel, The Time Machine. This in turn, could be accused of ripping off the time travel concept from Samuel Madden’s novel, Memoirs of the Twentieth Century, written in 1733. This is just focusing on the time travel aspect. This does not even touch the dystopian future he leaves, which inevitably, "rips" off other stories.

It seems with lawsuits flying around, attacking authors like Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling, the broad category of science fiction, what is not going to be considered plagiarism?

 

[Tariel]

A story with unique enough characters that the story is your own. Concepts may be easy enough to duplicate and borrow from unintentionally, but truly interesting characters will never be blamed.
Also, is the story sharing a similar plot, or a similar concept. Concepts are going to be borrowed and retold, but the actual events are completely up to you. If the reader can predict what's going to happen in your story based on the plot of another, you've gone waaaay too far.

 

[Lessien]

If you want to see an example of thinly veiled plagerism, read the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini. Like Tariel said, you can guess what's going to happen by figuring out the next plot event or twist of Star Wars. Seriously. The first book VERY closely follows the plotline of A New Hope. THAT is the kind of thing you want to stay away from, because even if the publishers can't sue you, your readers will notice.

 

[sunstruckdream]

I believe that if something is truly your own work, you'll know it. So many stories are told that it's probably impossible to never, ever re-use a concept. However, characters should be multidimensional and unique, and like Tariel (I think?) said, interesting! Don't deliberately plagarize, and put your whole self into your projects. If you do, I doubt you'll have anything to worry about.

 

[Kokopelli]

Thank you for the responses. I have never read any of Paolini's works, but I have an idea of where you're coming from. Every Dan Brown novel I have read, follows the same path. Right down to the antogonist's relationship with the protagonist.

My story is simply using the concept of time travel. It differs from say Replay, in the sense that theirs happened frequently, and the experience was a quantem leap. Mine, the character only has one life. If he or she spends 10 years in say, 1776, they'll age years and remain that way if they make it back to their own time.

The only similar plot it would share, is the fact that others have experienced it. Though I may run into some problems. With say Replay, the two protagonists are the travelers, and fall in love. Mine, he eventually falls in-love with the daughter of some one that was transported from another time. The main character is from 2013, the father of the woman came from 1987. The main character is 38 when he arrives in 1885. The father has been there since 1855.

One of the major conflicts they'll face, besides the daughter being 29, is that she is black. He is white. Not exactly an accepted thing in the 1800's. Now granted, I don't want to go further into it as it will spoil the story. I am still trying to work on the major point of conflict that will keep it sci-fi, and not turn it into a romance novel.

So hopefully, my idea is unique enough. But I welcome any input on improvement.

 

[ladyinwaiting16]

I like your idea for a book, it is something i would read myself.

 

[Lessien]

Using the same concept as other books isn't plagerism. It's when you don't expand on it or directly copy how the other author(s) handled the topic that it becomes plagerism.

 

[Kokopelli]

Ok, cool. Thank you guys for the responses. Definitely something to keep in mind.