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Comments on Star Letter in this month's WM
Did any of you read this letter about the writing student who had her story plan/ideas 'stolen' by a writing tutor?
If it did happen in the way she explained it, then in my view the tutor has badly abused her position. The tutor's assertion that 'there is no copyright in ideas', is true in the legal sense, but surely there is an ethics/morality issue. A pity the writer didn't feel able to name the tutor so I could be sure of not going on any of her courses!
What do others think?
Comments
(At least with a computer file it can tell you when it was worked on, which might help if it came to proof.)
He probably mentioned the tutor's name in his letter, but they didn't print it in case of litigation.
When I re-read my draft years later I found my description of the Wraiths almost perfectly matched Rowling's Dementors. I threw my script aside in despair. :(
Heather, if you - or anyone else - want(s) to write to Writing Magazine, please do.
It is possible that the tutor just had a similar idea to the student and that no "stealing" has taken place at all, but that the student isn't experienced enough to realise that.
".... just six weeks after the course the tutor writes to you and admits she has 'a confession to make'. She was so taken by the story that she wrote it up herself, has submitted it to a magazine and it's just been accepted for publication. She sends you a copy of the story and it's exactly as you had described in your plan. There is, the tutor points out, no copyright on ideas but in way of a thank you she'd like to offer you a 'free critique'."
The letter writer had been to a one-day short story writing course where they were given a one-line idea for a story and asked to 'brainstorm' for 10 minutes with their neighbour.
So the one-line idea came from the tutor, but the whole plan for the story - beginning, middle and end - which the letter-writer says was "fleshed out with some considerable detail" and which made the rest of the group laugh - has been pinched by the tutor.
Presumably the tutor only wrote to HY because she realised she might see the story when it appeared in the magazine and cause problems for her.
When I was at Swanwick we had to discuss ideas for children's stories and I had come up with a brilliant idea well I thought it was so I kept to it myself.:)
The Harry Potter series reminded me of the Worst Witch series when I first heard of it. It's not the idea though, it's the way she does it. The characters, the humour, the inventiveness, all the little details of the magic world - I love it! (Lucky me - I get to read 'The Philosopher's Stone' to my 7 year old daughter and then move on to the next room to read 'The Half Blood Prince' to my son every night!)
Putting my Troublemaker's Hat on: strictly speaking then, not only did the tutor do nothing wrong (no copyright on ideas etc), she also realised that feelings might be hurt and took steps to lessen the upset.
Reasonable Hat: there are two sides to every story (ha!) and I'd be very interested to know what the tutor has to say about all of this: things are rarely as straightforward as they seem.
Writer's Hat: I'm not comfortable with this at all.
If I were the writer concerned I might well tell the people who arranged the course, and ask if this is how all their tutors behave; and I'd think about contacting the magazine the story appeared in and let them know. It might not be a breach of copyright but it's not a nice thing to have done.
Things don't have to be illegal for them to be wrong!
I don't personally think that its ethical (forget the legal stuff about copywriting ideas) for a tutor to take their students idea, lock stock and barrel, complete the piece then submit it for publication.
The only problem, of course, is that it may not be of much interest to the target market.
Remember though that ultimately there are no original ideas - 'it's the way you tell 'em', to quote a certain Irish comedian whose name also escapes me...
I took a picture book out of the library a year or so ago. It used EXACTLY the same words as some used in a very acclaimed book by a popular writer, i know that was based on an extant rhyme but really this was very, very similar, and published years previously.