tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post114590771674465536..comments2023-12-25T00:38:19.500-08:00Comments on Finding Wonderland: The WritingYA Weblog (archive): Kaavya Viswanathan: Too Good To Be True?Sarah Stevensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16534942492714970282noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-1146585173541866992006-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:002006-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:00This story has big reverberations, and has really ...This story has big reverberations, and has really brought out a lot of discussion from the writing world. Most people know that J.K. Rowling has been sued, but others don't know that <A HREF="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8917828/site/newsweek/from/RL.2/" REL="nofollow">Jane Yolen</A> has even felt that borrowing pinch. There must be some sort of collective unconsciousness in storytelling - after all, there are maybe about five real plots out there... It's just too bad that this chick had to take a plot, dialogue AND storyline and try to play them off as her own. The movie is scrapped, the book is now pulled, and Little, Brown has announced NO PLANS for any revision. I think they're coming down harder after the Oprah/Frey thing -- people aren't too keen on forgiveness at the moment.tanita✿davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01671822274852087499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-1146435619614008862006-04-30T15:20:00.000-07:002006-04-30T15:20:00.000-07:00Heh. Well, here is the end of the affair... I real...Heh. Well, <A HREF="http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6329230.html?display=breaking" REL="nofollow">here is</A> the end of the affair... I really do think that several factors came into play on this one -- one, that the girl was Indian, and two, that she was young and cute. I think Little, Brown thought: "chick-lit + ethnicity = MONEY FOR US!" and took a chance, giving her <I>writing coaches</I> and packagers to make this work. American Idol trumps American literature yet again, as someone on my SCBWI list-serv said. It's really disheartening!tanita✿davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01671822274852087499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-1146187304297223052006-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:002006-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:00<sarcasm>I get it! All I have to do to g...<sarcasm>I get it! All I have to do to get my six-figure book deal is <I>copy someone else</I>. Apparently I've been going about this all wrong. Forget spending months or years honing a manuscript so it sounds as much like MY writing voice as possible.</sarcasm>Sarah Stevensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16534942492714970282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10890387.post-1145984234866898762006-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:002006-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:00It seems now that she has stopped saying that she ...It seems now that she has stopped saying that she doesn't know what anyone is talking about; Kaavya Viswanathan has now made a statement <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/04/24/entertainment/e161138D18.DTL" REL="nofollow">admitting</A> to borrowing inadvertently from another source. This brings up the real question about reading while we're writing -- should we be reading YA work while writing it? Does anyone else feel like they have so absorbed the work of others that it could easily spill into their own work? I've never really experienced this, except I noticed someone using names of my characters in one of their pieces -and one of the names was quite unusual. I asked the writer about it, and they changed the names. It does happen, but...tanita✿davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01671822274852087499noreply@blogger.com