How to Misunderstand Plagiarism or “Don’t Shoot the Tropes”

Original ideas are difficult to come by, and some would argue that they’re impossible to find. There is some merit to the notion that all ideas are, in some form or fashion, derivative of something else. Because there is no such thing as a new idea, in the eyes of some, most plagiarism concerns boil down to the idea that if it isn’t verbatim, it doesn’t matter. 

I once compiled a plagiarism report for a delightful children’s book. The report wasn’t very long. It was an original, personal story. It’s hard to imagine something like that being tagged for plagiarism. 

One of the lines from the book was, verbatim, a line from a small grocery store’s ad copy. 

The author didn’t mean for this to happen, of course. On face value, the consequences appear light, but this could have turned into a copyright issue. To oversimplify, keeping that line could have cost the author a great deal of money (resulting from possible legal action) and integrity.

Eventually, I assumed responsibility for a handbook. At first, it was informative. The mission was sound. The audience was clearly identified. Material had to be sourced, and statistics needed to be interpreted, but there was a problem. The cited material didn’t match what was written in the handbook. Even the numbers in some of the statistics didn’t match. 

There is a lot to unpack with regards to this situation, but most of it was false attribution. In more popular examples of false attribution, a quote is taken out of context to support something that was never communicated in implications or otherwise. If you claim, even accidentally, that a source has stated something it hasn’t, that is a misrepresentation of a source. Other examples of false attribution include fabrication of data to support something that the original data would not have supported.

It is very easy to accidentally plagiarize. After all, the things we write are influenced by what comes before us, what we see and hear around us. It’s possible to unintentionally repeat something you heard in passing. It’s also possible to intend to honor a particular work only to find that what you’ve made doesn’t honor so much as copy. 

I’ve been watching writers “shoot the tropes” in response. 

To “shoot the tropes” is to dismiss the possibility of plagiarism in fiction beyond verbatim copying and, possibly, the use of generative AI because of the existence of tropes. This stems from a belief that there is no original story. 

The same writers, generally, understand how plagiarism can take place in nonfiction. 

Mosaic plagiarism, also called patchwork plagiarism, happens when sentences, sections, or paragraphs are pulled from different sources and combined to create a new text without any acknowledgement of the sources they came from. 

A false or incorrect citation is like false attribution in that it’s misleading. Guidelines for source citations are usually subject to annual change, so it’s important to know how a work is supposed to be represented. 

Aggregate plagiarism presents information from multiple sources without any transformative value. More simply, there’s no interpretation of that material. 

Another common type is borrowed plagiarism, in which the person plagiarizing takes someone else’s work, changes it slightly, and still presents it as their own. 

These are only a few different kinds of plagiarism that are usually associated with nonfiction and academic work, but fiction isn’t exempt. 

Tropes are not the problem. Tropes present a foundation. To be clear, many readers for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Mort might have been seeking out a “rags to riches” story that integrated thoughtful humor and inspired introspection. They might have been looking for a story whose protagonist was a young boy from a working class family who, in his journey through formerly forbidden places, learns lessons about the world through the consequences of others’ hubris. 

These books carry similar tropes, but they don’t plagiarize one another. These protagonists come from vastly different worlds, and readers can expect a very different experience with each. Additionally, though it’s difficult to tell based on my simplified account, both novels have vastly different plot outlines. 

The simple answer is that similar tropes can exist between novels, but writers must be able to use them in original, transformative ways. I like the way this TV Tropes article on plagiarism describes inspiration:

“All stories are influenced by what has come before, and all works are to some degree inspired by what the author has read previously. The two works may even be inspired by an even older common source. Mere inspiration isn't enough for plagiarism; you'd have to take credit for the original idea.” 

An author, accidentally or otherwise, taking credit for another author’s idea won’t always be obvious. They won’t shout it from the rooftops. An author of fanfiction, as an example, will be open about their work being fanfiction and, as such, give credit where credit is due. 

For examples of how to utilize your inspirations while showing respect, again, I recommend the above TV Tropes article and their descriptions of shout outs, homages, remakes, and parodies. While many of these are specific to television and film, much of the same information can be applied to texts as well. 

The fiction author, inspired, can produce an idea that uses existing tropes. There’s nothing wrong with that. Execution matters. Let’s go back to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Mort. 

Charlie Bucket is from a working class family. He is young, his father works in a factory, and he was raised in a loving home. 

The audience doesn’t know much about Mort’s family except that they are working class, supportive, and Mort has reached an age where he needs to take on an apprenticeship and learn a trade. 

Charlie Bucket finds the last golden ticket, and he (among a select few other children) is invited to tour Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

It took some time for Mort to be chosen as an apprentice. Death wanted to take on an apprentice so he could take some time to study human life and experiences. Mort got free room and board, a good salary, company benefits, and he didn’t have to be dead to do the work. 

As I explained previously, both stories utilize similar tropes, but their characters and respective paths are different. Each story’s tone is distinct and, for different reasons, both are compelling. 

As a fiction writer, you have your choice of tropes and inspirations. If you are inspired, befriend the text. Establish a basis of communication.

This list of tips can help you work alongside your inspirations:

1. If you’re inspired by a character, craft a character of your own who might relate to them in some way. Maybe they’re a friend, a family member, even an enemy. Then, remove your new character from the context of the inspired character, and form a new story around them.
   

2. If you’re inspired by a world, center on which parts of the world appeal to you the most. Are they rules and principles? Are they geographic features? Be very cautious with these. If you’re able to apply the qualities that you prefer to people, especially side characters, that could be interesting. If they’re individual buildings, as an example, think of an attachment you would build. Try and use that attachment as a basis for a new type of building.
   

3. If you’re inspired by a journey that a character takes, break that journey down to its foundation. What is happening at each stage of that journey, and what are the end results? Be as generic as possible. Then, build something different from those foundations.
   

Each of these steps should be a part of your planning stage, not necessarily your end result. Everyone has the capacity to plagiarize accidentally. That’s forgivable, even funny. 

As a writer, you have choices to make about what you, your readers, and your work deserves from you. There will be only one person who sees the world exactly like you do, who is inspired in exactly the same way you are, and you deserve to be inspired. 

You deserve to read something, watch something, listen to something that drives you to bring together every fiber of the next page we turn. 

Then, let someone else be inspired by you.