Recently, I read a Huffington Post article someone shared on Facebook.  The commentary was lame.  But at the end of it I noticed no less than 8 different venues to re-post said article.  It was one-click sharing.   Anything put out in the blogosphere is fair game to be shared … and then ripped off.

Plagiarism schmagiarism.

To be a good writer, you always have to be one step ahead of the competition.  The key is to write something catchy and clever before 8,134,845,762 bloggers do the same thing.  If (and when) they do, they will likely use your words.  The only buttons more popular than “share” are “cut” and “paste.”  When Princess Leia outed Vinnie Barbarino this week, it was a coup for The Advocate.  They got the original quote because the writer (shout out, Brandon Voss) had the cajones to ask a loaded question to Carrie Fisher about her friend John Travolta’s sexuality.  Fisher coughed up the perfect quote and The Advocate unleashed it to the Xenuverse, er, universe.

Now (according to Google) there are 329,000 articles on the subject.  80% probably don’t mention the writer’s name and 30% likely don’t even source the magazine.  I’m guessing, of course.  I’m too lazy to re-read the same article 300,000+ times and take a straw poll.

“Farkit!” I say!

In my illustrious writing career, I’ve had ONE article go semi-mainstream.  It happened recently too.  I wrote about Lisa Donnelly, a singer I cherish because she’s a hidden gem.  She loved the article and posted it on her FB page.  The rest is history.  In less than 24 hours, the article had been shared by her fans well over 100 times.   My hit counter went ballistic.   In the article, I actually plagiarized myself.  Shocker!  I had written about Lisa over a year ago and got no response.  So I repackaged the original article, freshened it, polished it and made it breakfast in bed.  It was infinitely better.

Now, I know you’re asking … have I ever ripped off something?  The answer is a resounding yes, but I typically give credit where credit is due.  It’s called professional courtesy.  Have I ever cut and paste?  Well, once, when I was a sophomore in high school.  Back then it was called, uh, “copying”.  Got busted too.  But it made me a better writer from then on out.  Hope you agree.