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Q&A Would employing the use of philosophical ideas in fiction without citing the sources be considered plagiarism?

Footnotes and citations in fiction (and, in particular, children's fiction) are extremely rare, and I recommend against using them. It's often said that ideas are common; it's how they're used an...

posted 8y ago by Neil‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:24:42Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23765
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:24:42Z (almost 5 years ago)
Footnotes and citations in fiction (and, in particular, children's fiction) are _extremely_ rare, and I recommend against using them.

It's often said that ideas are common; it's how they're used and implemented that matters. Nevertheless, fiction writers who feel they owe a debt to another writer's ideas _usually_ say as much in an acknowledgements section. In extreme cases, they may write an entire afterword if the story is complex (and something the reader would care to read).

There are exceptions to this, though. (Aren't there always?) An obvious example os Terry Pratchett, who used footnotes in his novels to great comedic ends. But he had an extremely strong authorial voice, and an awful lot of experience writing. I'd hold off unless you're _certain_ a footnote is the right way to go. Just do it knowing you're writing something that's a bit off-beat that may take the reader out of the experience temporarily.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-07-11T02:42:15Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 4