Q & A 180

If a writer uses the exact plot, including the ending, of another published piece, is it plagiarism?


The total number of plots in all of literature has been declared at various times and by various people to be 1, 3, 7, 20, 36 . . .

On that basis, if using one of those plots is plagiarism, everything is plagiarism. Fortunately, that isn't plagiarism.

Now if you copy the text of a novel and then change the main characters' names from Scarlet and Rhett to Chloe and Gus, that's plagiarism. Plagi...