A question about plagiarism in research

[William Blake Bradbury]

I realize the irony of my asking about this on a messaging board, considering I'm a professional journalist with a bachelor's degree in communication and media law, but I have a question about plagiarism. It occurred to me recently that the reason I'm having such a hard time writing a short story is that I don't do enough research. One of the best ways to place subtle detail into your writing is through extensive knowledge about the exotic locales about which you're writing. If you want to know about germophobia, look up Howard Hughes, and so forth, and so forth. But how much of this research are you allowed to integrate into your writing? I'm aware of public domain and all of that, but, say, if I have a character's who's a germophobe, and I read somewhere that Hughes refused to shake a person's hand unless he'd first wrapped his in tissue paper, am I allowed to use that in my short story? If I read a funny anecdote about Katharine Hepburn somewhere, do I need to credit that in a short story? I know you can't copywrite an idea, only the expression of an idea, but I read short stories like "The Shell Collector," where the author credits his sources, but I read other stories like "Farangs," included in "Best New Voices 2005," which also obviously required research, but there's no citing there. I have a lot of anecdotes floating around in my head from my education, derived from textbooks and teachers, do I need to cite these? Do the same rules in non-fiction extend to short and long fiction? Just thought I'd ask:hat

[novelator]

In your specific example of Howard Hughes, what I would research would be symptoms of the disorder, not so much people with the disorder, although I might read their accounts just to note how the disorder is manifested. A disorder such as this will affect each person just a little differently. The same is true for your character. If you wanted to use something like the hand wrapped in tissue paper, fiddle with it a little. Could be your character needs a surgical glove in order to shake hands, perhaps he's not a mega-millionaire, just a common joe, and maybe the character's not a man, but a woman. There's nothing in the world wrong with "borrowing" the idiosyncrasies of famous or disturbed people, as long as the context is changed from published accounts. My closest friends know they're apt to see their quirks in one of my novels one day, and more than once, I've been inspired by some happening in the news, but I change things depending on the story.

I research extensively on all fronts for my novels, but I don't copy things verbatim, nor do I count on a single source for information, but many sources to verify. I couldn't possibly credit every bit of research I collect, but then again, I don't use anything directly attributed to any one source. Rather, I learn all I can about a given subject, then integrate my new-found knowledge as needed into my work.

Mari