Europeana talks a lot about encouraging the use of its collections by professionals in the creative industries. I\u2019m a fiction writer. As such, I\u2019d consider myself part of the creative industries. So, how could I use Europeana\u2019s collections in my creative endeavours? For artists and designers, the concept of using whole parts or aspects of someone else\u2019s artwork seems to be ethically acceptable, provided you give the original the right credit. You\u2019re building on something, you\u2019re being clever, you\u2019re being artistic and design savvy. But with writing, you\u2019re in danger of committing plagiarism. And that\u2019s bad.<\/p>\n
You might use a well credited quotation at the beginning of your novel, or even at the head of every chapter. And if you have done specific research, you\u2019ll probably acknowledge that in a foreword or endword, just in case anything\u2019s accidentally crept into your storytelling that someone else might feel comes from their work. But that\u2019s as much literary re-use as most writers would be comfortable with. Because plagiarism is bad. Did I mention that?<\/p>\n
To do more than that takes guts. It\u2019s a brave thing to use someone else\u2019s characters or plots. Not least because to be worthwhile, you need to use a character or plot that people are familiar with. That means a successful one. That means you\u2019re in danger of upsetting people by playing with their favourites.<\/p>\n
Here are a few examples (and here I must apologise for the outright British bias – feel free to recommend me a reading list in the comments!)…<\/p>\n
You could \u2018re-use\u2019 a famous character – Jane Austen\u2019s Mr Darcy reappears in \u2018Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary\u2019 by Helen Fielding. I\u2019m not a fan of the book but I do like the way the reference was nicely underlined in the film version by having Colin Firth, who played Jane Austen\u2019s Darcy in the BBC adaptation of \u2018Pride and Prejudice\u2019, resuming the Darcy role.<\/p>\n
You could \u2018steal\u2019 a plot the way New York-based musical West Side Story uses the plot of Shakespeare\u2019s \u2018Romeo and Juliet\u2019, and the film \u2018Ten Things I Hate About You\u2019 and the musical \u2018Kiss Me Kate\u2019 both use his \u2018Taming of the Shrew\u2019. Or you can go all out and continue a successful franchise – \u2018House of Silk\u2019, is a new Sherlock Holmes novel not by Arthur Conan Doyle but by Antony Horowitz, which I enjoyed very much. And one I\u2019m more concerned about is a new story about PG Wodehouse\u2019s iconic butler Jeeves, one of my absolute favourite characters. \u2018Jeeves and the Wedding Bells\u2019 is written by Sebastian Faulks, I\u2019ve got it on my wishlist and it\u2019s going to make or break Christmas for me. I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s a winner as Faulks is no stranger to franchises having written a new James Bond novel, \u2018Devil May Care\u2019.<\/p>\n
As a child, I loved the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton, and once I\u2019d finished all 21, I read a few of Frenchman Claude Voilier series continuing the five\u2019s adventures. I was always disappointed. Something just wasn\u2019t quite right. That\u2019s the danger. That\u2019s why I\u2019m worried about my Jeeves. So, how about going one step further and stealing not just characters, plots and premises, but the exact words another author has used? That\u2019s exactly what Seth Grahame-Smith did to create the parody mash-up \u2018Pride and Prejudice and Zombies\u2019.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s Jane Austen\u2019s original opening: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. “My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?” Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. Extract:\u00a0Pride and Prejudice<\/a>, Jane Austen, Project Gutenberg, release date 28 August 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"