Imitation:

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

...that's what they say.

But what happens when imitation, turns into ripping off the artistry of another?  Can you steal some one's style?  Can you steal some one's  thoughts?

I like to think that you can.  One, I know for a fact there have been people to steal my thoughts away from me.  Forcing me to day dream about them, or worry for them, etc.

As for style, look at Style Magazine, people buy it, see the pretty models wearing the designer clothes, and they add to their wardrobes so that they too can look exactly like the girl in the magazine.

Women go to salon's and say, "I want the Jennifer Aniston" cut, or "I want Julia Roberts' red hair", etc.

Originality, is something that not too many have these days.  And I'm not saying its necessarily a bad thing, it's just an interesting thing.  

What is it that makes us such "COPY CATS"?

It has recently been brought to my attention by my editor, someone who knows my work backwards and forwards because she lived, breathed and ingested my written words to the point that she MAY and probably DOES know it better than I do....anyway, she recently informed me that she read a book off of amazon and she said it was TOO similar to one of my books to be an accident.  She said the novel's "villain" was nearly identical to mine.  She said she could almost "hear" me writing the story, the villain had the same "issues" as mine.  She said he was even "ended/killed/removed" from the story nearly identically as mine had.  So what we have here is:

1.  Great minds think eerily alike

2.  A copy cat

3.  A soulless 'assmonkey' who steals the ideas of others and plays them off as their own....OR....wait for it.....

Perhaps "I" am all of these things?

So I asked my editor, when was his book published?

"AFTER yours" was her reply!

Whew!  I couldn't have accidentally stolen or be accused of stealing HIS work at least, as #1) i don't know him, #2) I could not have seen the work of a complete stranger that was unpublished...and #3) I'm just going to go ahead and say it, I purposely DO NOT read books when I'm writing so I don't ever ACCIDENTALLY even find my writing influenced by the writing of others.  I do this very much so on purpose to avoid this kind of artistic identity theft!

I have mixed emotions about this whole thing, like should I just be like..."imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and feel complimented for having a story worth imitating?  Should I be pissed and track the little bastard down and be like "Dude, get your own ideas, stop ripping off mine!"...Am I totally a egotistical maniac to think that anyone WOULD ever copy me...and perhaps we really just had a very similar idea, and writing style and magically they coincided eerily unbeknownst to both of us?  I would hate to think that I think I'm such a awesome writer than anyone would actually mimic ME, my writing style, etc.  People who steal "writing style" and "story lines" steal from the greats, like Koontz, King, Austen, Hemingway...they don't steal from "little-timers" like me.

So far, I've put the whole thing out of my mind, and have NOT downloaded the book so I could read the story that is so coincidentally like my own.

I may be a very level redhead, as far as redheads go, but I have a sneaking suspicion, reading someone sounding like me, someone who's characters sound "just like mine"...I suspect it wouldn't feel like flattery at all, it would feel like highway robbery!

But then again, on the flip side, is there someone out there who I don't know, and who doesn't know me, that's reading one of MY novels right now, and thinking I stole from THEM?

it's scary being an artist, there's no protection for what goes on inside of your head, there's owner's rights to that which your imagination drums up....I mean, once it's published, technically you own the rights to YOUR story, but nobody owns the RIGHTS to ways a villain is killed.  Nobody owns the rights to the ways a character is flawed, or perhaps what mental illness they may be afflicted with.

So it's a slippery slope.  Is it not?

"Yours Truly" 

{--this much is 100% true and of my own vowing}

~HeatherLynn~

{pictures used in this blog are not the Author's, We don't claim to have generated them, or created them, they just were on google images, and the Author of this Blog likes pretty colorful images, so thank you whomever uploaded them to the internet, they have been thoroughly enjoyed, and used for entertainment purposes only.  Author has not, nor will ever be compensated in any way from their distribution or display here on this blog page.  Thank you -- Management.}