Plagiarism- It's Just Wrong

-Stupid

-Disrespectful

-Lazy

-Backstabbing

-Hateful

-Wrong

-Illegal

-Egotistical

-Takes a whole bunch of nerves to even attempt it

-Satan-motivated

And you might even end up in the 9th ring of Hell if you do it.

Okay, well, maybe not something as severe as that [I wish]. But I've seen people, mainly on a Site That Will Not Be Named, that have done so. With no shame. To one of my dear writer friends, no less! In short, they caused a whole bunch of drama and pretty much said, each and every time they posted a part on the site, "Ew, look at this b--ch, what a f--king horrible writer, I hate her so much. Oh, and here's effing Part Ten by the way."

Don't end up like her. I wish on her a lot of horrible things that will Also Not Be Named.

So what's this really about? A rant on how horrible you must be to plagiarize something? Yeah, mostly. But also a few heartfelt statements from the bottom of my endless writer's heart, that it really IS wrong to plagiarize, and it not only hurts your reputation as a writer, but it hurts the person you copy-catted from. You really have no right to simply copy-and-paste in the span of a few seconds while they took the time to sit their asses down and write the damn thing. Pardon my french, but it's amazingly true. If you admire them that much, quote them and give them credit. Cite them. Whatever- you're going to have to do that in college and even high school anyways, what with Bibliographies and all- and now they have software that they can use to scan in your papers and see if the parts you've written are truly yours, and that you've cited everything properly. YES, we're that high-tech now.

I can't believe some people would really have the audacity to do such a thing. Someone had to spend a portion of their life, however little or big, to write down something THEY thought up, all on their own, and people would steal such an innocent glory? My gosh. What has this world come to?

Bottom line is: no matter how much you love a story or a person's writings, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give them credit if you happen to quote them. I'd get on my knees and personally beg you if I could, so here's a little e-Beg! Or link back to the person's writing. Seriously, we have enough criminals as we do now. Don't be another one, whether anyone knows or not.

Thanks!

By the way...

This wasn't plagiarized. So you can sleep tight. ;)