tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post1643833866404238097..comments2024-03-28T15:01:21.285-04:00Comments on SleuthSayers: Lend Me A SceneLeigh Lundinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-84906412984450550912020-06-30T20:46:42.434-04:002020-06-30T20:46:42.434-04:00I have a story coming out in a flash fiction antho...I have a story coming out in a flash fiction anthology whose idea came from something I read in a book of "true" stories of witchcraft back in High School; about a Medieval "sorcerer" who said he grew two small humans and a fruit tree in a large jar (what could possibly go wrong with that?) I added a couple of larger humans and a magic link between the four of them and I had my story!Jeff Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00316081079528920123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-61368196502374500162020-06-28T22:05:58.288-04:002020-06-28T22:05:58.288-04:00I can't think of anything I've done to dat...I can't think of anything I've done to date that has borrowed an idea or premise. A few times I wanted to when watching a movie or reading a novel and wondered why they didn't take a different direction.Leigh Lundinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07921276795499571578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-27395928686533707732020-06-28T18:15:14.341-04:002020-06-28T18:15:14.341-04:00Playing with a story idea taken from another write...Playing with a story idea taken from another writer is a well honored tradition in European fiction; it is so prevalent (and obvious) in some instances that scholars spend a lot of time analyzing what sort of commentary is involve in the borrowed version on the original. I just think it's a good way to jumpstart a story and give an idea a new twist.Susan Oleksiwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693057997469296068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-2169014894862105772020-06-28T12:46:24.036-04:002020-06-28T12:46:24.036-04:00Great column, RT. Good writers steal story ideas a...Great column, RT. Good writers steal story ideas all the time but manage to hide their crimes. The spark for my first published Weegee short story, The Dead Man in the Pearl Gray Hat, came from the excellent nonfiction book, Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous, by Christopher Bonanos. Weegee was a well-known 1930s-40s freelance crime photographer in New York City. His photos now hang in museums. (You might recognize the title of one of his books, Naked City). In Flash, Bonanos recounts Weegee’s claim that he would follow around guys wearing a pearl-gray hat (commonly worn by the “soldiers” of organized crime families) with the wild idea he’d actually photograph a murder in the act (the soldier being either the killer or the victim). Weegee was a notoriously unreliable narrator about his own life, so who knows if he really did it. But we know he never succeeded (otherwise his photo would have made the front page of every tabloid in the country). But for me his grim quest sparked the germ of story that eventually saw its way into Mystery Weekly.Bruce W. Mosthttps://www.brucewmost.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-26534337454806383972020-06-28T11:10:30.619-04:002020-06-28T11:10:30.619-04:00Now that was interesting. Way to go with your sale...Now that was interesting. Way to go with your sales.O'Neil De Nouxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03142721824657611738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-66677392781479311732020-06-28T11:00:50.523-04:002020-06-28T11:00:50.523-04:00Being your first reader I can tell everyone that t...Being your first reader I can tell everyone that this is a fun story. And yes, I have often borrowed from other writers. On July 15 I will be writing here about a story I wrote which was inspired by a story by our own Janice Law. <br /><br />Here is something I wrote years ago on a related theme:<br /><br />Lawrence Block once explained that he got a phone call from writer Brian Garfield telling him how much he had liked a novelette Block had recently published in Hitchcock’s.<br /><br /> What he said next was faintly unsettling, however. “I liked it so much,” quoth he,”that I managed to figure out a way to steal it.”<br /><br /> “Steal it?” said I. “Steal it?”<br /><br /> “Oh, it’s a legitimate form of theft,” he assured me. “You’ll see when it comes out.”<br /><br /> I countered by quoting Oscar Levant. “Imitation,” I pointed out, “is the sincerest form of plagiarism.”<br /><br /> “Couldn’t agree with you more,” said Brian, and rang off.<br /><br />Block prefers the term creative plagiarism to legitimate theft, and when he read the story he agreed that that was what Garfield had accomplished. “His story directly derived from mine, but he had so adapted the idea as to create a completely different story.”mystery guesthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10352979692241386956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-82623102339602235742020-06-28T09:26:21.463-04:002020-06-28T09:26:21.463-04:0047. Wow.
Re borrowing: I took a classic idea (...47. Wow. <br />Re borrowing: I took a classic idea (and I do mean classic; there's stories in ancient China, India, Middle East, etc.) - a woman disguised as a man accused of impregnating another woman - and used that in "Sophistication", where a trio of retired silent film actors move to Laskin. Eve Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03015761600962360110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-18083304587093063542020-06-28T08:55:40.031-04:002020-06-28T08:55:40.031-04:00I love this kind of column, RT, because such a beh...I love this kind of column, RT, because such a behind-the-scenes look at a story is something only its author could provide. And yes, congratulations on your impressive sales record at AHMM! <br /><br />Looking forward to reading this story in a future issue.John Floydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04001712728130488485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-53919195321979314142020-06-28T06:42:55.205-04:002020-06-28T06:42:55.205-04:00Congratulations on your story - and on 46 others t...Congratulations on your story - and on 46 others to AHMM. That is a most interesting detail about how Hugo conceived his two main characters. Of course, all sympathy is with Jean Valjean!janice lawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119105822589181967.post-53068446826635833702020-06-28T05:30:35.264-04:002020-06-28T05:30:35.264-04:00You know what they say, RT: Good artist borrow, gr...You know what they say, RT: Good artist borrow, great artists steal. Or as I prefer to think of it, I get inspired by those who've gone before :-) .Paul D. Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15466234708772287399noreply@blogger.com