> Looking back on this now, of course, it's almost
>horrifying to me that I not only lifted the line,
>but I lifted it knowingly, and I reused it in three
>or four different pieces of writing -- at least the
>creative writing assignment and the game,
>potentially other short stories as well.
>

I feel the same way about the stuff in my novel. I look at it now and can't believe I ever thought it was a good idea to do that. I can't explain to you why I did it at the time, or why it didn't strike me as obviously wrong and thus something I should NOT BE DOING. What I find ironic is that the story I wrote at 15, which was later reworked and expanded into the short novel I wrote at 17, actually contains LESS rip-offs than the later version. So at a time when I should have been older and wiser, I was actually ripping off more. I can only surmise that I didn't even know enough at 15 to be able to recognize a particularly good turn of phrase in anything I read, so there wasn't really any reason to be ripping any of them off for my own work. But that's only a supposition--I don't have very vivid memories of writing that first story, whereas I have several very distinct memories of writing the later work, including the writing of several of the rip-off lines and scenes. I think the fact that I have memories of these points to the fact that at that point, I knew what I was doing was wrong, at least on some level. The fact that I did it anyway, and wouldn't THINK of doing it today, only shows that I have a greater understanding of the issue today, and more confidence in myself as a writer.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only one who can empathize at least somewhat with this girl's situation.

-- Dave