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Indeed it shows that the author is a hack and would flunk out of an academic program but taking phrases from other authors is inevitable. Writers are allowed t
by sireat 3y ago
Indeed it shows that the author is a hack and would flunk out of an academic program but taking phrases from other authors is inevitable.
Writers are allowed to write "It was a dark and a stormy night" over again.
Maybe the author liked the expression "fur-trimmed Afghans" - maybe he had the other author's book in front of him maybe he read it the previous day who knows?
As long as he is not copying whole pages verbatim and the end product is enjoyable this is not actionable.
There are plenty of authors who might be good plotters but stink at character development and vice versa.
- FireBeyond 3y agoTwo or three words - your examples - I can agree with. But it stretches credulity when you start applying that to phrases like "the gaudy harlequinade of youth much in evidence", "The man settled behind the rifle. He felt the tension in the trigger, found his stockweld and slid up to the eyepiece, staring into it and seeing the ridge and the trees and the vegetation through the mil-dot-rich reticle.", or "the misty slopes of the massif of the Montagne de Charbon stretched above the treeline".