Most writers will not hesitate to define themselves as creators of the articles or blog posts that they have written; although I would love to consider myself the creator of this article, the truth is that it was inspired by another article written by another writer. So, in this respect, am I still the creator of this article, since it is sort of modified to sound like me and written with different words?
Writers and bloggers alike will not hesitate to agree with me when I say coming up with something completely original to write about is just about the most amazingly painful thing to do on your off days. That is how some writers or bloggers stop doing what they like to do. Their well have run dry or they have received too many negative feedback from people (who have nothing better to do than to ruin other people’s day) who read them. Things like that happen all the time, trust me, but I am one of the few who prefer to bulldoze my way through. Thankfully. Otherwise, I would be a part of the stats of people who stop writing because they have run of ideas.
This, then, brings me back to the humbling fact that this article is not completely original...well, the article is original but the idea isn’t.
In our (writers or bloggers) defense, I say that it is perfectly alright to be inspired by others to write something. It is fine to let others prompt you with ideas, thus, rendering you a curator of sorts. Inspiration can be found everywhere, for instance, I continue to use MindBump to come up with things to write/blog about. They are not always about relevant things but it makes you think and search within yourself for answers.
One would have to take up a very stern stance if one is to label someone a curator when they use MindBump to find blog topics. We live in a world of curation, don’t we? Let’s look at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Plus and the likes of online social networking. Although we are encouraged to update our innermost thoughts and statuses, people are encouraged to share, retweet, repin and reblog stuff that other people have posted online. The more shares, retweets, repins, reblogs and pluses, the more popular and promoted the material is. Hence, isn’t it fair to say that most of us are curators? And we are encouraged to be so.
My point of view is that, as a writer and blogger, it is fine to be a curator and be inspired by other thoughtful writers. Stop before even coming close to plagiarism! How else would we survive if we had to be original every single time? In fact, even the most original ideas in this world have their starts when the creators are taking spins in another person’s thoughts and ideas.
So, go on and be inspired by others and we can all be half-curators, half-creators. That’s how we roll.
And by the way, in the same vein, I heard that Flipboard is turning its curation-based engine and handing over the reigns to content cretors so that they can, with a flip of their finger, come up with their own 'magazine'. Experts are currently curiously wondering what kind of impact it is going to have on the traditional publishing industry. Are they going to flip out, freak out or hop on the bandwagon?
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Article originally posted here
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