Yzabel / August 4, 2005

This stemmed from the comments left on John’s entry Blog Tips for Writers, as I was wondering whether this should be left as “simple” comments or be worth a spotlight here. I decided on an entry here.A few years ago, when I was new and naive regarding the wide possibilities of Internet, I used to have my own website, and I used to publish some of my writings there, as well as drawings. Granted, it wasn’t anything terrific, whether regarding the web-design work or the translation of my texts, but it was there nonetheless. This beginner’s website is now long gone, dead and buried along with the server on which it used to be hosted; however, recently, I’ve started to toy again with the idea of translating a few of pieces and on posting them here.That’s when the fear started creeping in me—the fear of seeing my work stolen and used, just liked it happened on several art communities I’ve been on in the past, just like it’s also happening on certain blogs, whose unscrupulous owners simply copy and paste full posts from feeds they read and try to pass them for their own. The world wide web is just like its name indicates it—wide— and the wider a system is, the more numerous the chances of seeing this kind of theft and plagiarism to happen.I know that my current website still features several of my drawings (mostly vector ones now, as I’ve switched to this mode of expression over the past two years); I’m however careful to not publish usable versions of these pictures. They’re 72 dpi, they’re not printable due to the sloppy quality this would result in. Words, on the other hands? Words are easy to highlight and copy in a text editor, words are easy to grab—unless it’s just a part of a piece that gets published, but for short stories or on poems, what would be left of them if only publishing a tiny part online? What would be the point for the reader?I am constantly torn between the choices I could make. I am primarily a dreamer, a person who wants to share her “vision” and feels happy when readers like her stories. If one day I could be officially published and make a living out of my writings, this would of course be a very good thing, yet I definitely don’t view my writer’s hopes as cash goals. I’ve never had, come to think of it. Perhaps this is why I’ve sent my creativity on many non-paid and non-official battlefields, from articles in obscure fanzines to role-playing games scenarii that only a handful of people ever played. This was writing, this was visions, this was a part of my imagination, and I was happy with simply sharing it.I realize that this is a tough choice. By not posting stories or even snippets, I am cutting myself from the possibility of getting noticed more quickly and of doing what I like to do so much, in other words: sharing. By doing it, I run the risk of someday seeing my fears become true (and it does happen more than one could think to “amateur writers”, even if it doesn’t involve money). I also realize that there is probably much paranoia in all of this, hence why I want to think about it more.Why am I afraid? I think I’ve narrowed it down, mostly. My fears are about being dispossessed, about seeing someone claim my work as their own. My concerns lie with these very unscrupulous people who would steal someone else’s work and pass it as their own. My worries are with the fact that I don’t have many connections yet, that I’m just an anonymous face in the crowd, that I’m a nobody who couldn’t defend herself were such a theft to happen. This is not to say that my writing is the best in the world—in fact, it would pretty much be the contrary, especially when I translate my words to English—and don’t intend on pulling the “woe-is-me, nobody understands the beauty of my art!” stunt. This is simply to say that, everything considered, if someone else was to claim ownership on something I have written, there wouldn’t be much proof for me to show that they’re the liars (a date on a blog entry isn’t a proof in my eyes given how easy it is to edit it in two clicks of the mouse). If some guy claims a short story written by Neil Gaiman, he’ll be spotted quickly. If the same guy takes one of Anonymous Yzabel’s stories, nobody will step up.In a way, though, don’t we creative types get through all of this at a point or another? Putting aside the amount of skill we actually possess, putting aside the fact that our works can only range from “good” to “not terrific” to”just average”, isn’t there this underlying fear of seeing someone else one day taking what has asked us numerous hours, days, weeks of hard work, regardless of whether this would ever make it to a publisher?John has however mentioned to me the existence of a place where a copyright could be placed on written works… so this could be a light of hope in the tunnel of my anxiety.Right now, I’m probably just thinking too much.Y Tags: writing | plagiarism