When You Plagarise Yourself…

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imageI wrote up my latest Blogmas post yesterday about putting my drunken tree up and annoying the poor cat with various winter hats, and by the time I pressed the publish button, I was happy with how it looked.

Underneath my posts are links from my blog that focus on similar themes, so out of interest I clicked on a few of them to revisit things I had written a year ago – I like to do this every so often as a reminder of the progress that I have made.

It turns out, I had written an almost identical post a year ago, and the year before that. Drunken tree, cats in hats. I even used the phrase ‘positively sozzled’ in last year’s post, despite the fact that I felt I had written something quite humorous this year.

After 800 posts along with another thousand that I have deleted over the years, has it really got to the point where I am now plagarising my own work???

I think I need to get some new ideas…

What about you guys? Do you find that you write in cycles, revisiting the same topics at certain points in the year? Do you write identical posts when doing this?

60 thoughts on “When You Plagarise Yourself…”

  4. I find myself doing the same thing. I like the way a phrase sounded so much I use it at regular intervals throughout the novel I’m writing. I am positively smug over how clever it sounds…that is until editing stage and I realize what I’ve done.

  5. As you know, I’m prone to waffling!!! I therefore regurgitate my old posts on a regular occasion! However, in my defence, my audience changes over time so I think someone has to be reading it for the first time! That’s my reasoning anyhoo 😉

  6. Yes, I have. It makes me feel as though my thinking is somewhat limited. I purposely read and try to learn new things so I can engage in different thoughts and conversations. But it seems like my mind takes on a mind of its own and just does what it wants to do….Who’s in charge? Me? Or my mind?

  9. Yeah, amazingly, I check that on a lot of my posts to make sure I don’t do ones I’ve done before. Though after years of doing it, I can take a post I did way back then and have a totally different spin on it, because, you know, I’ve changed a lot in 4 1/2 years.

  11. Yep. I often start writing then think ‘I’ve done this already.’ I do think it’s because I write along certain themes. And I’m now having to do a search on my Wednesday Wanders, just to make sure I’m not writing about a place I’ve already written about! Haha. I’m about 500 posts into blogging, so I guess I’m bound to repeat something at some point.

  12. Okay, I’ll admit it -I’ve actually re-posted some posts I like. So I plagiarize, too! New eyes are reading your blog every year, so I don’t see a problem.

  13. When I read the title, it reminded me of something (which has little or nothing to do with what you wrote about). I took a writing class a few years ago at a local college, and in the section on plagiarism and academic dishonesty, we were told that it was considered plagiarism to use your own words or ideas a second time in another piece. Weird, I still can’t wrap my head around this…

  14. Don’t worry too much about the repeating phrases thing. All writers do it all the time. I read two novels by the same author back to back last year. They had probably been written about five years apart, but both stories came to a head in a similar way and the author used exactly the same sentence to set up the rest of the story. That was the only thing the books had in common and it was a terribly good sentence, which was why I remembered it. I catch myself doing the same thing all the time – not the terribly good sentence part, just the repetition.

    You probably should worry about the rest, though. 🙂

  16. Yes I have done that as well! (Not under this blog name, but in other stuff I have done.) It seems like our brains go in theme cycles and are determined to kick out those kinds of tales whenever locked into that theme mode. Also it could be a caffeine deficiency. 😉

      • I bounce between really introspective posts about enlightment to truly lacking in sleep moments of self derision to general goofiness (thus the elf action under this particular name). I prefer to stay upbeat but life goes in waves and I have noticed that my posts have mirrored that over time. What’s your top topic target (intentional or otherwise)?

      • Awesome comment! I often talk about my daily life, so I would say that my main topic is me haha! That’s what causes the issue – the routine results in the replication of activities…

  19. Your Christmas tree was drunk? You did say “drunken Christmas tree.” Thanks to you though the word sozzled is part of my vocabulary. I love to write in cycles and revisit the same topics. Sure, go ahead and post old posts. Call it Throwback Thursday! I’m pretty sure though that revisiting the topic of Christmas will never go out of style. 🎄

  22. I think we all do this eventually. I mean, we have our own voice and style and interests…it’s bound to happen. As a matter of fact, I was going to write one to post in a week or so and looked back to see (as you do) where I was this time last year and thought, “Well that says everything I want to say, so…” I might tweak and repost. Or not. Happy Holidays! ❤

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