Oops!

[resonant]

It's just been pointed out to me that I accidentally took one of the metaphors flambeau used in About a Lamp and used pretty much the exact same metaphor in Cred.

Damn. I hate it when I do that. It's the drawback of having a really good memory for words and a really lousy memory for, well, everything else in the world.

I'm hoping that flambeau will consider this to be homage rather than theft, but anyway, I took it out, and I love merryish and cesperanza forever for breaking it to me gently.

Comments

[caseylane.livejournal.com]

Couldn't you have written her, told her what happened, and ask to keep it in? Giving credit in the notes? I mean, if it was that noteworthy....

Casey, who knows that anything she wrote could probably be traced back to someone else, so she doesn't even try.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Eh. It was just an aside, not even important enough to keep. Took me and Merry about five minutes to fix.

I know what you mean about everything belonging to somebody else, though. I shudder to think how much of my work is probably derivative of everybody in the world.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

considering how often i read the story yesterday i thought i'd catch sth missing this morning, but i seem to have no word or detail sense. i'm loving is just as much as i did yesterday...

as for the rest...it happens. i think we unconsciously recall word combinations...one of my examples in class is always how embarrassing it is whenyou paraphrase a quote, and then 15 drafts and months later, you fix it to make it sound better..and accidentally end up with the verbatim quote... [and yes, i've doine that 8g*]

one amazing story paying hommage to another amazing one? i think we the readers are the winners all around...well, we and john and rodney :-)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

You say the sweetest things! I'll bet relatively few people would have noticed it -- but i'm pretty sure torch would have been one of them.

[lyra-sena.livejournal.com]

I think this is more common than we might realize. I did something similar, actually, and used an auxillary original character name (that's not that common) in one of my dS fics that Ces had used in one of her fics, and I didn't even notice it till I re-read her fic weeks later. I sort of blinked and was like, wow. So *that's* why that name came so easily to mind.

Also, Cred is really fantastic -- I love the banter, and the math talk! So much love! And I'll say John definitely got Rodney's attention this time. I always admire the way you get so much tension and emotion out of so few words.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, names! I've finally learned that whenever I come up with a name for an OC, I have to google it -- if a first name and last name sound right together, it's probably because I've heard them somewhere before.

And I'm so glad you liked Cred!

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

Can I just hug you and call you Helen Keller?

*reads*

And your story has math in it! And D&D! And, okay, sex, which is also good. *g* And as everyone else has pointed out upthread, we're all kinda accident-prone this way. I'll, um. Steal your re-roll. Or rather, try not to. :) Thank you for being courteous and considerate!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

In chat we decided that intentional plagiarism should be punished by tarring and feathering and riding them out of fandom on a rail, but in cases of accidental plagiarism, the injured party ought to be able to demand penalty fic.

Just saying.

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

*perks up* That is a splendid idea (and definitely made me wake up properly this morning *G*). I would ask for something snarky and smutty and wacky and fun, except you just posted Warning which is all these things (everything a girl could want, really), so I could just cuddle up to that one. :)

Maybe I could make up for the potential double effort by writing you something...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hee! Glad you liked Warning. Working on an Aliens Make Them story even as we speak.

But if you should think of some porn you wanted, just let me know, because I'd be happy to oblige.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

I am all confused now. I read both in the last two days and loved both (as you could see in my gushing comments) but feel so stupid now for not having seen an identical metaphor. That really makes me think (which is a Daria quote, only nobody ever gets it - so what is worse, something everyone considers a stolen quote, or quotes that nobody every recognises? How many variations of words are there in the world, and how many monkeys will it take? Why can't I do that? I always only remember the outlines, the planes not the lines).

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I think if my memory worked like yours, I'd be much less likely to steal from people accidentally. Not to mention having fewer of those conversations where the spouse says, "I told you this," and I say, "I really really don't remember you telling me this," and he say, "It was only about an hour ago."

I don't remember outlines or plots or anything, but I can read a book once, and ten years later I'll still remember one or two significant lines. Couldn't tell you what actually happened in The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, for instance, but I will never forget, "I was in love with Arthur LeComte. I yearned for him."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Hah, you are so right but it is so frustrating to argue with people having forgottent hat I told them something just, yes, an hour ago! Wah *snifflostbestfriendsniff*. Why can't we mindmeld and then each have half of the result. I am so frustrated when I know and love some books or films and understand and cherrish them and - someone posts a meme and I don't recognise the bloody quotes *hair-tearing*


PS: I went and even compared your two story versions because I was so confused by my lack of memory, heh, and now I know I still did not remember having read the same metaphor!

[nestra.livejournal.com]

I live in somewhat constant fear that I do this a lot. I hope the better writers I'm probably stealing from don't mind too much. (It is entirely possible that you are one of them, but if I knew for sure, I'd stop doing it.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hee -- if I ever saw one of my lines in someone else's story, I'd assume that this was what happened. (Either that, or I'd assume that both of us stole it from Ces.)

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Eeep... I worry that I do that kind of thing.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of us do.

It's actually kind of a lot of work to plagiarize on purpose, but it's frighteningly easy to do it by accident.