Is it acceptable to plagiarise yourself?

[Bramblethorn]

The word I looked up was "plagiarize,"

Which seems like a poor choice at the point where you're arguing about whether "self-plagiarism" is a Real Word.

As a professional author and editor, you've been around dictionaries long enough to know that dictionary definitions are rarely intended to be exhaustive; they aim for a brief and approximate summary of the most common uses, not a comprehensive listing of every possible way it might be used or compounded to form a new term.

which was the topic

As I look at this thread, the title refers to "plagiarising oneself". The concept of "self-plagiarism" seems on-topic for that.

until an irrelevant concept was brought into a discussion on the writing we do here, which is fiction, not academic writing.

While "self-plagiarism" is most commonly used in the academic context, it's actually not exclusive to that sphere, and the links I provided recognise its use in creative contexts.

The dictionary.com definition I linked provides two example uses from Project Gutenberg. The first one is clearly in the artistic realm:

"The paintings of Murillo, though met with in all the best collections of Europe, where they take their place amongst the works of the first masters, are, nevertheless, valued by foreigners rather on account of their rarity than of their execution. The fact is, those of his paintings which have left Spain are nearly all devoted to the same subject—the Madonna and Child; and, even in that, offer but little variety either in the disposition, or in the colouring of the figures. The Spanish artist is, consequently, accused of want of genius and self-plagiarism."

The Merriam-Webster definition explicitly includes "artistic expression", as I quoted here. Cambridge neither explicitly includes nor excludes artistic expression.

The bottom line is that there is no plagiarism problem with repeating phrases/sentences/paragraphs you have written in another story you are writing for Literotica, and those telling you there is are providing limiting disinformation on what you can write for Literotica.

I have no argument with that - it might be called "plagiarising oneself", as the OP wrote, but I agree that it's not a problem. Had that been all you said in this thread, I would've been nodding along in agreement.

But instead, you chose to derail the discussion into argument about whether "self-plagiarism" is a real word and then doubling down in the responses rather than just acknowledge that you hadn't been familiar with the term.

You can either make points on me by chasing irrelevant goalpost changing here or you can support Literotica writers by not confusing them about what they can write for posting here. Choose. Which is more important to you?

Keith, you're the one who wanted to start debating whether "self-plagiarism" was a legitimate term. But in the interests of not further assisting that derail, I'll leave it here.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This has no application at all to fiction. If I write Story 1, and then I take big chunks out of it to create Story 2, I haven't done anything ethically wrong in the same sense that an academic writer has. It's just fiction. I personally wouldn't do it, because I personally feel an obligation to try to be original each time I write a story, but I can't come up with a strong ethical reason why everyone else should be ethically bound to feel the same way. Fiction allows more flexibility.

Agreed in the context of Literotica, though there are other circumstances where it would be unethical in fiction - specifically where there's a customer or publisher who's been led to believe they're getting something new and original.

 

[SimonDoom]

Agreed in the context of Literotica, though there are other circumstances where it would be unethical in fiction - specifically where there's a customer or publisher who's been led to believe they're getting something new and original.

Yes, I agree with that.

 

[KeithD]

Which seems like a poor choice at the point where you're arguing about whether "self-plagiarism" is a Real Word.

The bottom line is that I'm trying to help Literotica authors understand what they can write to their stories and you're trying to make "gotcha" points off me. Your last post reeks of that. I'll pick helping Literotica writers navigate their writing and separating out disinformation on what they can/cannot do each time. Have at your king of the mountain game.

No, I don't believe/accept "self-plagiarism" as applicable to fiction writing for Literotica. Everything else here was a moving of the goalposts--and now your rationalization for doing so so you can show you're king of the mountain here.

This board frequently is "graced" with disinformation on writing for Literotica and then is lathered with confusing and irrelevant goal post changing.