Plagiarism happens in larger arenas, too!

I ran across this strange story, about Kaavya Viswanathan, the 19-year-old author of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, which contains material she apparently accidentally plagiarized from Megan McCafferty.

At first I was reluctant to believe something like this could happen inadvertently. How can someone copy passages that closely, and not realize it?

Yet the question also is: how can someone deliberately copy passages that closely, and not make it word for word?

Think about all of the times you paraphrased research material, back in junior high and high school, before you realized that you have to know the material well enough that you can explain it without looking at the book. Think of how hard it is to put something in your own words when you're reading someone else's.

What really changed my mind on Viswanathan was something I'd heard or read once about Helen Keller. She tried her hand at writing children's books, except she basically plagiarized a book she'd been familiar with as a child. (I think she pretty young at the time, herself.) She had internalized the story without even consciously realizing she had ever read the book.

And, come to think of it, during my teenage years my writing was heavily influenced by books I read and regarded highly. Not to say I ever directly stole an idea - I hope I didn't, at any rate - but I definitely chose certain topics or settings because of other books I'd read. For example, after reading Avi's Something Upstairs I wrote a ghost story-romance; after reading a book about a girl kidnapped by Indians I wrote a similar story; and after reading Cathy Cash Spellman's Bless the Child I started writing about characters with telepathic and telekinetic abilities. When you really think about it, writers are all influenced by other writers - what matters is that they have take their own angle on the ideas that influenced them.

So, my own personal verdict is that Viswanathan is telling the truth - she copied the other writer's work unintentially and unconsciously. However, I think cases such as Viswanathan's - and, I'm sorry to say, Helen Keller's - speak for the importance of a writer having enough sense to know the difference between creating a story and remembering a story. And although I've read a great many books by very talented - and very young - authors, perhaps the ability to differentiate is something that young writers, for the most part, lack.

Fake abortion clinics?!

First of all, I apologize for neglecting my blog for the past few days. Michael and I are still pretty busy with moving and related chores. Once we have the house more or less looking the way we want it, I plan on posting before-and-after pictures, so you can see why I've been so busy with it!

And now, for today's news:

Liberal and pro-choice women may know of the recent efforts of the pro-life camp to encroach on women's reproductive rights. In South Dakota they're attempting to undermine Roe v. Wade by passing a law banning abortion, and in my home state, Colorado, we can't get a law passed to allow emergency contraceptives to be more easily obtained - perhaps a deliberate attempt to prolong the race against time, and keep more women from being able to take EC in time?

The pro-life activists have plenty more dirty tricks up their sleeves, it seems. Planned Parenthood recently sent an announcement out on the fake abortion "clinics" that have been set up across the nation to bully women into carrying an unwanted child. These fake clinics may be called "crisis pregnancy centers," but despite their misleading names, they are not interested in the welfare of the woman: their sole purpose is to convince her to give up her right to choose when and with whom she has her children. They have been known to go so far as to make harassing phone calls and visits to women who have unwittingly visited their center instead of a real abortion clinic, even calling the police and making false claims. Each of these attempts creates a road block to the woman who wants to have an abortion, and while they are not permanent road blocks, they make it far more difficult and upsetting than it should be for a woman to exercise her right to choose.

Even worse, the government is paying these centers to harass women! It absolutely infuriates me that my tax dollars are enabling these centers to masquerade as abortion clinics in order to get their hands on people's personal information! If it was for any other purpose - racial hatred, for example, or identity theft - our government would put a stop to it, yet because it's for the purpose of coercing women into giving birth, they pay for it?!

If this makes you mad, you're not alone - but you can help. Planned Parenthood has set up a form letter that concerned citizens can use to send a letter to their representative, urging that he or she support the bill designed to put a stop to fake abortion clinics. If you're a writer, you can also use your talent to help spread the news online.

I hope you'll take action - what are we writers for, if not to make our voices heard?

The frustrations of freelancing

I have to admit it: as much as I love freelancing, not everything is absolute bliss. There are a few frustrations that just seem to come with the territory.

Editors can be such a pain in the @ss. I apologize to any editors who might be reading this, but it's true - I have run across a few different editors that simply make everything far more difficult than it should be! I'm talking about problems more than simply being very demanding - which some editors are. What I'm talking about is stuff like demanding editors who also pay very little and think you'll still do anything for your cookie and a byline... Editors who think that if they don't have an answer for you, the best thing to do is not answer at all... And so on.

My worst editor story of all, however, has to do with a certain editor who sent my query back to me with a handwritten note voicing her interest in the story I proposed. As I settled down to do some research, however, I realized that in the lag time between when I sent my query, and when the editor responded, the publication had already run a very similar story. Confused, I emailed the editor and asked if she wanted me to continue...at which point she claimed that she rejected my query.

I understand that editors are busy, but hey, so are writers! Just think of what a waste of time that could have been, had I not happened to look at the most recent edition of the magazine!

Other people in my life just don't seem to understand that even though I work at home, I still work. Some weeks, I just seem to get so little done, because everyone wants a piece of my time. It can be so frustrating, especially when the paychecks come in...or don't come in, as the case may be. And it's definitely harder than you'd think to tell people, "Hey, I need to work." It's easy to tell myself, I need a break... And before I quite know what's happened, half of the week is gone and nothing has gotten done.

Which brings me to another frustration...

Sometimes I just don't seem to understand that even though I work at home, I still work. I don't think I can quite term it writer's block - procrastination, denial, etc. seems more of an apt way to describe it. There are times when I seem to forget that I have to work and earn money... I just get so caught up in being able to sleep in and work on other stuff on my list that it escapes me why I'm home in the first place.

The high points are nice, but the low points suck. It's really nice when I'm doing well - when I have lots of work to keep me busy, and lots of income to keep my budget happy - but it can be really depressing when there is a shortage of work (or lots of stuff that interfere with work, like moving did).

I've gotten out of the habit of punching a clock. I'm serious - it's not always a good thing to be able to sleep in as you please, work in whatever clothes you feel like, and work wherever you feel like. I've literally gotten out of the habit of being a part of society; I feel like I could easily become a hermit, if it wasn't for the coffee shops and such. Dressing in jeans and a nice shirt actually seems painful at times, as used to working in my sweats or pajamas as I've gotten. Some days, the thought of going anywhere in the car - even if only to run a simple errand - is met with reluctance so strong that going against it is actually painful.

Yet, despite the drawbacks, I love freelancing. I wouldn't give it up for anything. All of these frustrations seem minor in the scope of things. Editors may be a pain sometimes, but I can choose who I work for with much more freedom than if I had a full-time job - and, good God, no editor could ever be as horrible as my last boss was. The responsibility of having to tell other people - and myself - that I need to work has to be weighed against the freedom to go out instead when I really want or need the break. As for my hermit tendencies - well, I still wouldn't trade in my relaxed schedule for a nine-to-five deal, even if it made me into the most stunning example of a social butterful.

Let's face it: freelancing may have its hangups, but for those of us who are suited to deal with them, the benefits make it heaven.

A quote that reflects on the cheap internet content epidemic

In light of all the crappy content popping up on the internet these days, I found this quote rather amusing (and all too true):

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."

--Robert Wilensky

This quote brings to mind all of the cheap content that people commission for the sole purpose of bringing in AdSense revenue. While there are some services that pay decent prices for this content, there is also a regrettably large population of wannabe entrepreneurs who post ads offering writers a dollar or two per article. Many of these ads also say that they don't expect high quality work...which harkens back to the old joke that a monkey could do the job. In this case, it's probably true, and Mr. Wilensky might even agree with me.

Now, before any of you SEO content writers get upset with me, keep in mind that I write this stuff too. However, if you're upset because you happen to be one of the writers selling your soul for a dollar an article, please take it from me - you can earn more for your labor than those fruitcakes will offer you. Search all the job boards daily, send a cover letter and resume to anything that looks like a decent offer, and refuse to work for anything less than what you are worth. (And that rate, regardless of what you decide it is, had better be above minimum wage!)

Leave the crappy content - and the crappy-paying content - to those who couldn't write to save their lives. There's no reason why real writers should allow themselves to be lumped in with the "monkeys."

Back to life and work as normal

This afternoon the phone company technician showed up to look for the break in the lines. Thankfully, it was not in the house, so it was the phone company's responsibility to fix, meaning we won't be charged. Having nothing better to do since I couldn't work, and being interested in this kind of stuff anyway, I followed the guy around as he searched for the break. He muttered a lot, which I think was his way of trying to keep me updated, but I didn't get most of what he said. As far as I could tell, there was two disconnects: one at the main box, and one where the lines run in the alley behind the house.

In any case, he climbed down from his ladder, and just like magic the lights on the modem were on when we went inside! Hip hip hooray! It's such a relief to have my connection to the world back again.

I made today's deadline, and now I can take care of some other things that I needed internet access for. There are still things I need to do around the house - unpacking, moving stuff around, etc. - but I neglected my work so much last week that I think I'd better work for a bit now.

Home sweet home...without internet?

After last week's rush to get the hardwood floors ready in time, Michael and I were able to move into the new house yesterday... Well, mostly. We still have a few things left to move, but we moved enough that the new house really does feel like "home." The rest of our stuff will follow in the next week.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been a DSL complication. I called last week and requested that the service be switched on Friday. I lost internet access at the old place right on time, but it never reappeared at the new place! I called tech support today, and they're sending out a technician to check it out for me. Hopefully I'll have internet back soon, but I'm worried about a problem with the phone lines in the new house. Goodness knows how old they are...

I find it ironic that just a few days ago, I was raving about being a freelance writer in today's world of technology - and suddenly here I am without that technology. Internet is literally my livelihood, and without I feel that I'm slowly bleeding to death. I have deadlines to meet, and no way to meet them. Not only that, I have to stay home all day tomorrow so that I'm here when the technician arrives, which means I can't leave in search of internet access, my lifeblood!

With any luck, this is simply a glitch in the system, and I will wake up tomorrow to find I have internet in the comfort of my own home once again.

Being a writer in today's day and age

One of my favorite writer's sites, Will Write For Chocolate, included a post today about online tools for writers, containing a good number of resources that other writers should find useful. I was reminded of how lucky I am to be a writer in this day and age. Just imagine having to go to the library to do your research - and not even knowing ahead of time whether they might have what you need! Or - gasp - having to search the card catalog!

Seriously, things are so much easier for writers these days. I can research and write an article all from the same screen, from any location with internet access, and usually in a much shorter amount of time than what hardcopy research would take. (Places with free WiFi are my favorite: Tattered Cover Bookstore, Paris on the Platte, and - ironically - the Jefferson County libraries.) Not to mention, most of my jobs have to do with the internet in some form or another.

Another plus: when the spell check or thesaurus features on MS Word seriously fail to help me out any, I can use online sources instead, such as online dictionaries!

Oh, and here's the best part - submission is instantaneous via email (although there are still a frustratingly high number of publications who refuse to accept anything via email), as is payment via paypal!

Basically, I can't imagine how a writer would have made it in the "dark ages" before computers and internet technology. I can hardly imagine how I survived before internet research (although I dimly recall using something called "Carl" - I think that's the spelling - years ago to research via an online encyclopedic database).

Oh! the memories! I also remember scribbling my stories into a spiralbound notebook, and typing them up later on... Just as I remember several hard drive crashes that cost me a good deal of my work! Now I save everything on the hard drive again - for the first time in ten years - and carry it all with me with as much ease as I carried that notebook!

Yes, being a writer in today's day and age is a wondrous thing.