Writers’ Coffee Club for 10th June 2025
10. Where is the line between homage and theft?
It’s not a bright hard line. For me, homage is “using your own ideas and story, but emulating the style of someone you admire”. Theft, in this context, I interpret as “using someone else’s story or ideas or characters, changing them a little bit, and claiming them as your own”.
For example, if I wrote a story using characters and setting I made up, but emulating Sir Terry Pratchett’s style (very badly, I’m sure), that would be homage.
On the other hand, if I were to write a story about a child from our world who learns there’s a secret hidden magical society, and that they actually have the ability to be a witch or wizard, and are subsequently enrolled in a boarding school to learn how to use magic, and have lots of adventures involving defeating evil characters, playing sports on broomsticks, and getting into trouble with the potions teacher… then I’d *clearly* be writing a rip-off of “The Worst Witch” by Jill Murphy. 😉
#WritersCoffeeClub
Bern
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2025-06-09 22:53:58 UTC
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"content": "Writers’ Coffee Club for 10th June 2025\n\n10.\tWhere is the line between homage and theft?\n\nIt’s not a bright hard line. For me, homage is “using your own ideas and story, but emulating the style of someone you admire”. Theft, in this context, I interpret as “using someone else’s story or ideas or characters, changing them a little bit, and claiming them as your own”.\n\nFor example, if I wrote a story using characters and setting I made up, but emulating Sir Terry Pratchett’s style (very badly, I’m sure), that would be homage.\n\nOn the other hand, if I were to write a story about a child from our world who learns there’s a secret hidden magical society, and that they actually have the ability to be a witch or wizard, and are subsequently enrolled in a boarding school to learn how to use magic, and have lots of adventures involving defeating evil characters, playing sports on broomsticks, and getting into trouble with the potions teacher… then I’d *clearly* be writing a rip-off of “The Worst Witch” by Jill Murphy. 😉 \n\n#WritersCoffeeClub",
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