First of all, with the wealth of daily material it would be impossible, even for a speed reader, to read and digest every single article on Medium. Not to mention the number of books out there about writing fiction.

That said, what you have written concerns me. It concerns me because, as I read on Medium, online, and in print material, I constantly take notes on content that I want to remember (If I write it down word for word, I place quotes around the content.) AND I record ideas of articles I could write, including personal opinions and experiences.

I’ve always worried that someone will determine that I have plagiarized them, but to find an ENTIRELY ORIGINAL IDEA is virtually impossible. For example, my husband and I can watch the same court show, documentary, news broadcast, television show, or movie; and we can have the same ideas and inspiration from it.

Sometimes, things I have done (but never written about) for years are written about by someone who I have never met, but the ideas the person writes about duplicate mine. Does that mean that they plagiarized me? How could they because I never shared my idea or strategy. But it is still my idea.

Just like there are only a certain number of plot concepts for any work of fiction: according to Georges Polti, there are 36; but yet according to Christopher Booker there are only 7. However, it is the characters, the setting, and the voice of the author that creates originality.