I believe her.
It's too bad, really, and unfortunate, but I can see it happening the way she says.
The thing is, if you *were* copying someone elses work you'd change the things that were left the same, wouldn't you? But if you'd read something many times and were writing your own novel with a similar "voice" and cadence and you're humming along making stuff up as you go, it makes sense that some descriptions might come out the same. I do that sometimes with my *own* stuff... not copying someone elses words (I hope) but my own... every now and then I'll think, hey wait... have I written that before? But you re-read and revise and after a while it get's all jumbled up.
Read any author who's written a lot of books and after a while phrases will start to pop out at you that are repeats from one book to another. They don't do that on purpose either.
It's too bad, really, and unfortunate, but I can see it happening the way she says.
The thing is, if you *were* copying someone elses work you'd change the things that were left the same, wouldn't you? But if you'd read something many times and were writing your own novel with a similar "voice" and cadence and you're humming along making stuff up as you go, it makes sense that some descriptions might come out the same. I do that sometimes with my *own* stuff... not copying someone elses words (I hope) but my own... every now and then I'll think, hey wait... have I written that before? But you re-read and revise and after a while it get's all jumbled up.
Read any author who's written a lot of books and after a while phrases will start to pop out at you that are repeats from one book to another. They don't do that on purpose either.
Comments
There were later reports about this particular case and it turns out that the girl may not have even written the book herself... which is a different issue. What I said goes for whoever *did* write it. Though immitating the "voice" was probably deliberate. (Anyone who thinks that "literature" is free of binding constraints compared to genre hack work is deluded.)
I'm reading a series at the moment and I'm seeing my own ideas in the books... my own details... but did the author rip me off, or do we just think alike?
The fact is, that in certain situations there is a somewhat limited scope to the details that will work logically and believably.
(holy cow... word verification, rbdxxhae)