Down with Professional Re-writers!
How many times have we seen it? Someone writes a an original vision of a book that tops the best seller lists and suddenly ten thousand authors jump on the bandwagon trying to make a buck off of the original author's succeess.
A most vivid example of this idea plagiarism happened very recently. The writing of a new kind of romance novel featuring humans having relationships with vampires and werewolves launched a frenzy of similar books with nearly identical plots trying to catch the wave of success that the original writer started.
I don't think that I have to name the writer that was copied, surely everyone on Goodreads knows about whom I speak. And, probably nearly everyone knows of a few writers who have tried to profit of this fad in writing in some form or another.
The same thing happened with a certain YA Fantasy series a few years ago when a spectacled minor took on the role of a heroic wizard. Suddenly, everyone was writing YA Fantasy involving minors. This idea plagiarism is still happening today.
Now, I'm not begrudging folks the right to make a living. The writer's market is tough, no doubt. The point is that copying someone else's formula for success is not really writing at all and the folks that do it are not writers. They are re-writers.
A writer strives to come up with original ideas wrought out a fertile imagination. This process takes time; many times this time is measured in years. An original idea must be given time to grow in the writer's mind.
Today, the publishing industry has produced a lot of professional re-writers. These writers add nothing new to the writing profession. They only regurgitate what is popular in order to make a buck.
I say, down with professional re-writers! Yes, give the reading public what they want, but make it original. Give the reader a message along with the entertainment. If your work doesn't have a message, it's not worth the paper that it's written on, even if the paper is cheap.
Perhaps the fad of having something to say when writing might catch on. It would be refreshing to see the re-writers copy a message rather than a plot line. A least the story might be different. Who knows, maybe then all of these re-writers might become actual writers.
Well, I can hope, can't I?
A most vivid example of this idea plagiarism happened very recently. The writing of a new kind of romance novel featuring humans having relationships with vampires and werewolves launched a frenzy of similar books with nearly identical plots trying to catch the wave of success that the original writer started.
I don't think that I have to name the writer that was copied, surely everyone on Goodreads knows about whom I speak. And, probably nearly everyone knows of a few writers who have tried to profit of this fad in writing in some form or another.
The same thing happened with a certain YA Fantasy series a few years ago when a spectacled minor took on the role of a heroic wizard. Suddenly, everyone was writing YA Fantasy involving minors. This idea plagiarism is still happening today.
Now, I'm not begrudging folks the right to make a living. The writer's market is tough, no doubt. The point is that copying someone else's formula for success is not really writing at all and the folks that do it are not writers. They are re-writers.
A writer strives to come up with original ideas wrought out a fertile imagination. This process takes time; many times this time is measured in years. An original idea must be given time to grow in the writer's mind.
Today, the publishing industry has produced a lot of professional re-writers. These writers add nothing new to the writing profession. They only regurgitate what is popular in order to make a buck.
I say, down with professional re-writers! Yes, give the reading public what they want, but make it original. Give the reader a message along with the entertainment. If your work doesn't have a message, it's not worth the paper that it's written on, even if the paper is cheap.
Perhaps the fad of having something to say when writing might catch on. It would be refreshing to see the re-writers copy a message rather than a plot line. A least the story might be different. Who knows, maybe then all of these re-writers might become actual writers.
Well, I can hope, can't I?
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