I don't know how many of you have been following this story. In the grand scheme of things, it's not all that important, but as an aspiring writer myself, I have been following this story with mild interest.

For those who don't know, the young woman, Kaavya Viswanathan, is a 19 year old Harvard student who recently had her book pulled from shelves under accusations of plagiarism. If you go to Wikipedia and search on her name, you'll find an article that details many of the alleged infractions. Some of them are a little ticky-tack, but the bulk of them taken together certainly point to Ms. Viswanathan being unduly "influenced" by the two books by Megan McCafferty she is accused of stealing from.

The latest development (detailed in article I linked to) is that not only is her publisher pulling her book, they're cancelling her contract for a second book. If I know anything at all about the book publishing business (and I don't know much, I'll admit, but I'm fairly sure about this) the young woman's career as a writer is effectively over as of right now. She'll never live this down, and at the age of 19 she's done in mainstream publishing.

I'm of mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap this young woman fell into. When you're just starting as a writer, you don't even notice you're doing it sometimes. I wrote a novel when I was 17 that is just littered with the same types of infractions she is accused of. I read it now, and I come across some particularly good dialogue or turn of phrase, and I think "Wow, that's not too bad!" Then I realize I lifted it word for word from something else, and realize *why* it's not so bad--I stole it from someone who wrote better than me. I know at the time I didn't worry too much about what I was doing. I just liked the bit of dialogue, or the turn of phrase, so I used it. I sort of knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway, rationalizing alternately that "nobody will notice" or "I rephrased it enough so it's not plagiarism". I'm sure if by some miracle that unpublishable piece of drek had ever been published, I would have been proven wrong on both accounts.

Copying is a phase every writer goes through. You do it for the same reason painters will try to copy the paintings they admire, or musicians learn to play other people's songs--to learn your craft from your betters. Learning which pieces of dialogue and which turns of phrases are *worth* cribbing is the first step to figuring out *why* they're good, and then learning how to craft those things on your own. I just think that Kaavya Viswanathan had the distinct misfortune of having some of her "practice" material published, and now she will in all probability never publish anything else.

I'm certainly not defending plagiarism. Passing off someone else's words as your own is wrong in every way. As a person who has had that happen to him, I know how it feels, and trust me, it doesn't feel good. The positive side of this story is that in getting busted and having her book deal cancelled, it serves as an example for others. But I feel sad for her as well, because it's entirely possible she just got in over her head, and did exactly all the things I remember doing myself--she just had the "misfortune" of actually having her stuff published.

Of course, it's also possible, as per the Wikipedia article, that she didn't even write the book to begin with. In that case, screw her.

-- Dave