Hi all! Throughout my unfortunately substantial experience with my work being stolen, I’ve learned a lot of really useful tips to deal with plagiarism. I hope these help!
-Compiled and written by Meggie Royer
I’ve lost track of how many times I have been asked this question and I dread it every time.
Trust your own advice above anyone else’s. Try to stop asking this question of others and instead ask yourself. Do your own work and your own research. If you fixate too much on what everyone else is doing, your work won’t be your work anymore. You’ll think their way is better when maybe yours actually is. You might lose your originality. Trust your gut, not theirs.
Ironically, I just gave you advice. But this is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned throughout my years writing.
Not all of mine stem from personal experience - for instance, I write a great deal of pieces about Greek mythology and pieces with fantasy themes. However, if I am writing a piece about a subject I have no personal experience with, I always do research and I will never write about a subject I feel as if I do not have the right to talk about or voice, or a subject I feel as if I do not have enough empathy for.
My constant writing motto is “ Writers don’t write from experience. Writers write from empathy” by Nikki Giovanni.
I believe that as long as you follow those rules, it is okay to write about a subject you have not personally experienced.
But never EVER pretend to suffer from something you actually do not in your writing. Ever. Never pretend as if you are an alcoholic in your writing, for instance. Pretend as if the character or narrator is, if you have to. It is never okay to claim an identify for yourself in your writing that you do not possess in real life, especially an identity that is oppressed. If you want examples, look up Michael Derrick Hudson.
There is a huge difference between pretending to be someone, and your character or narrator pretending to be someone.
The Young Authors Guide from NewPages has a lengthy list of literary magazines to submit to for young writers, as well as contests!