In Prose Style:  A Handbook for Writers (New York:  McGraw-Hill, 1972), Stone and Bell define plagiarism as follows: 

      Plagiarism is literary burglary.  At its worst it involves an outright intent to deceive, to pass off another's 
     work as one's own.  More often, it is the result of carelessness or ignorance.  But whether intentional or 
     unintentional . . . plagiarism is always an error, and a serious one.  Whenever you borrow another 
     writer's words or ideas, you must acknowledge the borrowing.  The only exceptions are information in 
     the public domain (Columbus landed in America in 1492; oxygen was originally called phlogiston; 
     oranges grow on trees) and opinions within anyone's range (Hamlet is a great play; time flies) . . .Claim 
     as your own only what is your own. (260) 

     In the fan fiction world, plagiarism is an issue.  The most blatant form of it is the copying of another writer’s work word for word, or taking pieces of someone else’s fiction and inserting it into your work with failure of any citation of source or quotations to identify quotable portions.  But plagiarism is not only the using of words.  It is also the copying of ideas.  What people fail to understand about that is this does not include taking a general idea and altering it creatively so that it is DIFFERENT from the original idea (IE it branches from).  For example, “the best friend” storyline that is so prevalent in fan fiction land.  This premise has been used by just about everyone.  What makes this storyline NOT a form of plagiarism from whoever originated it is that each writer interprets the relationship in his or her own way, drawing and twisting it with their originality so that it becomes an alternate idea.  Storylines like the friends who fall in love, people having affairs, love-hate, getting married in Reno or Atlantic City, all of these would be interpreted as using a public domain idea as a basis, as Stone and Bell point out in a Prose Style: A Handbook for Writers they are “opinion’s within anyone’s range” (260).   However, the notion of the public domain idea, should not be confused with the manifest taking of someone else’s original idea without any alteration or citation.  If it is in that form, then it  can be called plagiarism. 
     I’m going to be blunt when I say this.  You’re probably NOT going to find a storyline in fan fiction land that hasn’t already been done before in some sort of way or another.  So, this is my “word to the wise” advice before you accuse writers of plagiarism.  Please understand the definition before you go off on your moral high horse.  Don’t go around making off handed comments if you read stories that seem similar, because again storylines tend to be overused.  If it isn’t an overused storyline make sure before you condemn people of something this major that it is indeed the same exact storyline with no changes whatsoever and it doesn’t involve “public domain ideas”.  Also, be aware that perhaps the author thought that their idea was an original one, so if you’d like to point out that it isn’t than please be kind enough to include a detailed description of the other work they supposedly took from (links and title would help in this case), so they can see it for themselves. Who knows maybe they aren’t the plagiarizer but instead they themselves are the victims of it. 
     Charging a writer with plagiarism is not something to be taken lightly.  So PLEASE before you go and do it be aware of the circumstances that surround what it means.  I don’t know about all you other writers out there, but I am sick and tired of trying to justify my originality.  And yes you are allowed to quote me on that one.

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