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References

Patricia LesleyPatricia Lesley
edited December 2014 in Writing
When writing short fiction, and including a reference to a famous text do you include publisher, author, and title of the text from which you took the reference, at the end of the story?

Comments

  • CarolCarol
    If you're writing fiction you don't usually have any reason to include reference
    details...

    Are you just mentioning the title for some reason?
  • Patricia LesleyPatricia Lesley
    Hi Carol, Happy New Year. I'm including a description from Homer.
  • CarolCarol
    Happy New Year, Patricia. :)

    Do you have a specific publication in mind to send the completed story to?
  • Patricia LesleyPatricia Lesley
    You mean ask the competition organizers don't you? Good idea.
  • CarolCarol
    So much is to do with context, but if you ask the question in a general way that should suffice.
  • Baggy BooksBaggy Books
    I doubt they'll enter into any communication. Most competition rules have that in the small print.

    Are you using a direct quote? Does a character acknowledge the source? It really does depend how you're using it.
  • LizLiz
    As it's such a short work, can you use the actual quotation with its author's name and where it comes from, on the second page of the story after the title, as a sort of taster? That way you'd get the reference in, but it wouldn't be untidy. Otherwise I'd do it as a footnote.
  • Patricia LesleyPatricia Lesley
    edited December 2014
    I've added quotation marks, and put details at the end of the story. I like the method you suggest Liz. Gerald Durrell used it, effectively, in his book titled, 'My Family and Other Animals', but the quote I'm using is only of three words which aren't sufficient for the purpose. The character doesn't acknowledge the quote Baggy, so I can't deal with it in context. I agree with Carol. My story isn't an academic essay so it doesn't need references, but I thought that if you used a quote from someone else's book you were, legally, obliged to acknowledge the fact?
    Cut off date is Jan 1st 2015 so I'll send it and be hammed. Thanks for all the advice, and loadsa luck in the New Year.
  • CarolCarol
    As it's such a short work, can you use the actual quotation with its author's name and where it comes from, on the second page of the story after the title, as a sort of taster? That way you'd get the reference in, but it wouldn't be untidy. Otherwise I'd do it as a footnote.
    It's an interesting question, isn't it?
    I thought that if you used a quote from someone else's book you were, legally, obliged to acknowledge the fact?
    Cut off date is Jan 1st 2015 so I'll send it and be hammed. Thanks for all the advice, and loadsa luck in the New Year.
    The quoting from someone else's book can be an issue in a competition entry, even if you reference it. Depends on the rules.

    If it is still in copyright- and those few words are so recognisable- then it might infringe the competition rules using them without relevant permissions.
    After all if it should win and part of the prize is the story being printed somewhere, then that would be an issue.

    How old is the main text, and is the author alive or dead?




  • Baggy BooksBaggy Books
    edited December 2014
    It's from Homer, Carol.

    I found this online - it doesn't really help Patricia, but it does demonstrate how muddy the waters are. It's from a PDF version -

    Homer’s Iliad



    This text is published free of charge and can be freely distributed and redistributed in any

    medium without penalty. It is published under the fair use provision of United States

    Copyright Laws and is intended solely for non-profit private entertainment, educational

    and scholarly use.



    The text is based upon the edition found in The Internet Classics Archive by Daniel C.

    Stevenson, Web Atomics. World Wide Web presentation is copyright (C) 1994-1998,

    Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics. All rights reserved under international and panAmerican

    copyright conventions, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in

    any form. Direct permission requests to [email protected]. Translation of “The

    Deeds of the Divine Augustus” by Augustus is copyright (C) Thomas Bushnell, BSG.
  • Patricia LesleyPatricia Lesley
    Thanks Baggy. Carol, I guess that using three or four words of Homer's text wouldn't be punishable plagiarism. I'm going to have a look at the comp. website.
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