My Life. In Ruins.

I'll keep it brief as I am not much of a whiner. (Yeah, right.)

I am in the middle of a shitstorm that started this morning when the content manager for a web site I publish articles for informed me that I was guilty of plagiarism in at least two of my works. My entire writing portfolio is under a strict review and my fate will be decided within the next week. The best possible scenario I can hope for is that I will be allowed to continue my writing and continue collecting revenue from my already-published articles. The worst case scenario is something I do not even want to think about and that is, I will no longer be allowed to write for the web site and all of my articles written over the last two and a half years will be deleted.

The problem is - I did plagiarize, though I didn't see it as plagiarism when I wrote the texts. I frantically checked all of my articles ( about 200 of them) in a plagiarism finder type of software, upon hearing the alarming news. I found at least eight articles where I spotted plagiarized phrases. The content manager informed me that, as he looks through all of my articles thoroughly, he will be able to forgive me if there are only a few instances of plagiarism. And I am afraid that while 90% of my work is completely original content, those eight articles might just be the straws the break the camel's back.

I'm sorry I, unknowingly, plagiarized. I really am. I really feel like if I am no longer allowed to write, a part of my identity will be taken away from me. I have been as passionate about writing and I am about architecture and lately, I have been writing daily because I just have that fire inside of me that urges me to write and write and write. I don't want that part of me to be taken away. I despise my situation because I am the only one who contributed to my own demise.

Keep your fingers crossed for me and I promise to never ever plagiarize again!

On a personal note, my love life is heading down the toilet as well, though with interesting consequences of which I will speak later, when my mind isn't so preoccupied.