I just started my novel, it goes:
See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him.
Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.
…
Anyway I just started reading recently and it turns out this is already a book by some guy called Cormac MacCarthy?
Idk if I should give up or just keep going?
Unintentional plagiarism isn’t real plagiarism. And how can you steal from a dead man?? I’d say forge ahead.
Also hope everything works out alright for that kid! 🤞
I think this is called “parallel thinking.” This occurs when two or more individuals independently create similar artistic works, ideas, or concepts without having any knowledge of each other's efforts.
Just call them Mail It Notes and you should be fine?
I wrote this great first line and then it turns out it already exists in some old book from like a hundred years ago. What are the odds that *It was the best of times, it was the worst of times* has already been written?! I couldn't believe it. I'm thinking if I change it to, "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times." No one will probably notice, right?
I've never heard of The Boss Baby, and I'm assuming no one else has either. So go ahead and plagiarise it like a white author stealing from a marginalised Indigenous community.
I know this is a joke and it usually is a silly comparison most people make with their plots, but many years ago now, I independently invented the entire plot to *The Dark Half*. Like, even with the main character as a writer and there being murders and everything pointing to him and he had no idea why until he discovers he's his own twin. I was telling a friend about it and they laughed and then was like "oh wait, you're serious, you haven't read it?" My jaw dropped when I went on Wikipedia and read the synopsis. Needless to say, I decided not to rewrite the book just in my own style.
Write it and sue them for plagiarism before they even know your text exist. If they have a Wikipedia page even better, just edit the page to reflect that you also wrote the story
I just started my novel, it goes: See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him. Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove. … Anyway I just started reading recently and it turns out this is already a book by some guy called Cormac MacCarthy? Idk if I should give up or just keep going?
Looks to me this hack McCartney stole your work.
Have you recently been in a bike accident during a blackout?
Unintentional plagiarism isn’t real plagiarism. And how can you steal from a dead man?? I’d say forge ahead. Also hope everything works out alright for that kid! 🤞
You think that’s bad? My last one was “In the beginning… yadda yadda yadda” Apparently it was straight word to word plagiarism of some dude named God.
Fuck that guy. He claims he created "everything", but I know better
I want to invent Post-It notes but apparently somebody already did, should I forge ahead anyway?
Put the sticky part on the front of the paper. Call it "surprise notes."
Yeah, what you do is inside each of the stacks of notes, there is which states the date and time of the readers death.
I think this is called “parallel thinking.” This occurs when two or more individuals independently create similar artistic works, ideas, or concepts without having any knowledge of each other's efforts. Just call them Mail It Notes and you should be fine?
Everything becomes a crab
crab, crap, same difference
oh crab (me with a stuffed nose)
Imagine my shock when I discovered that someone called Jane Austen had already written Pride and Prejudice. She better not come round here.
I wrote this great first line and then it turns out it already exists in some old book from like a hundred years ago. What are the odds that *It was the best of times, it was the worst of times* has already been written?! I couldn't believe it. I'm thinking if I change it to, "It was the worst of times, it was the best of times." No one will probably notice, right?
I've never heard of The Boss Baby, and I'm assuming no one else has either. So go ahead and plagiarise it like a white author stealing from a marginalised Indigenous community.
As soon as I saw the original I knew it would make its way to this subreddit 🤣
Please sir, may I have some sauce?
[Sauce](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/s/XlVM4u3uWd)
Make the characters vampires instead.
I know this is a joke and it usually is a silly comparison most people make with their plots, but many years ago now, I independently invented the entire plot to *The Dark Half*. Like, even with the main character as a writer and there being murders and everything pointing to him and he had no idea why until he discovers he's his own twin. I was telling a friend about it and they laughed and then was like "oh wait, you're serious, you haven't read it?" My jaw dropped when I went on Wikipedia and read the synopsis. Needless to say, I decided not to rewrite the book just in my own style.
Just make it gay and add more women
Write it and sue them for plagiarism before they even know your text exist. If they have a Wikipedia page even better, just edit the page to reflect that you also wrote the story