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[MellzBellz]

Ok I need some advice... I admit the fan fic world is not a world filled with much originality especially in the romance genre. There's only SO much you can write. I've had A Little Taste of Sin outlined for a few months now. I'm just a VERY slow writer. Recently I came across a fic on AC with a very similair plot which is great. I've been reading it to help me with my own story and to take notes. As the story went on though I've just come to realize that completely by coincidence TWO plot points are like blatantly obviously similair. Like carbon copy similair. Now I know this author is definitely not plagarizing. (How could she when no one has seen my outline, but me and my beta Teri?) It's just the romance genre and its dumb limitations. I'm just concerned because I don't want to make it look like I'm ripping off her, but I also don't want to change my whole story around either. I mean I already started to set up one of the things.

Has anyone had this happen to you before? Any suggestions? What would you do in this situation?

[mare]

I think this happens a lot actually. It's happened to me several times but I guess the only thing is I was the one who had my story up first. LOL

I think everyone kind of understands that there's only so much you can do in fanficland and that sometimes that's going to happen. Maybe if nothing else, this will force you to take a new approach to writing this story, so it doesn't come off as similar. If you are really paranoid about it though, you could always contact the author and let her know. Maybe let her read what you've written to assure her you aren't copying her work?

[Sakabelle]

Ergh that would irritate me so much, but I don't think it's ever happened to me before.  I think mare is right about possibly contacting the author.  Either that or changing it a bit to make it less similar.  Boo on the limitations of the romance genre!

[nicksgal]

I think this happens a lot actually. It's happened to me several times but I guess the only thing is I was the one who had my story up first. LOL

I'm kind of curious about which stories this happened with. lol

[MellzBellz]

Well I left her a review telling her I enjoyed the story and appreciated the direction she was taking it in especially because I am writing a story similair in plot and some of the events were sort of similair by coincidence. I found her AIM name on AC so I'm going to try to IM her and explain myself a lil better to cover myself and assure her that I'm NOT ripping her off. Cuz I know if I were in her position I'd be like Uhh what the hell?

I just don't want to take my story too far from how I see it right now because I'll admit I'm stubborn and I'm REALLY excited about where its going and I see it so clear in my mind that changing it around wouldn't seem right to me at this point. It's just frustrating.

[mare]

I'm kind of curious about which stories this happened with. lol

LOL sometimes all you have to do is read story titles or summaries.

[Purpura Lipstick]

This is one of the reasons I don't read a lot of fanfiction. I know that if I read more stories I would "steal" ideas and then my stories would sound similar to them, but if I don't read any I can honestly say "I didn't know you had a plot line like that too."

My honest opinion would be to stop reading the story even though you like it.

[Sakabelle]

Well I left her a review telling her I enjoyed the story and appreciated the direction she was taking it in especially because I am writing a story similair in plot and some of the events were sort of similair by coincidence. I found her AIM name on AC so I'm going to try to IM her and explain myself a lil better to cover myself and assure her that I'm NOT ripping her off. Cuz I know if I were in her position I'd be like Uhh what the hell?

Oh my... Mel, after I was done on the forum I went to check my favourite stories list to see if anything had been updated, and I see a new review on my absolute favourite.  Curious, I click in because I'm always interested in people's differing opinions on this differing story.  The author of this story and I have been reviewing and talking back and forth for a little while, she's really sweet.  If anything I think she'll find it interesting that you had the same idea as her.

Yay!  Two stories filled with awesomeness.  I'll have to read yours now too! hehe

[RokofAges75]

Aww, that sucks, Mel!  I would go ahead and write the story the way you want to write it.  You might contact the other writer and just tell her.  This thread is here as "proof" that you've had this idea going for awhile before posting it.

I don't know that it's happened to me where I've thought of an idea and then found a similar story before getting mine up before... but I have worried that people would think I was copying before, and I have also been contacted by other authors worrying that people would think they were copying me.

Broken was totally inspired by Swollen Issues, and I have always admitted that, but I didn't set out to COPY Swollen Issues.  I wanted to take the inspiration and write a story that would make my readers feel the same way I did when I read Swollen, but I obviously wanted to do something different with it so that I wouldn't be copying.  There were a lot of similarities between the two at first, but I took Broken in a different direction, and by the end of the two series, hardly any similarities at all.

Awhile after I started writing Code Blue, Kat or Amy (I don't think either of them are on here, but some of you know who I'm talking about) contacted me about their Backstreet General series, which had the same premise of the Boys being doctors.  They had been working on it for about as long as we had been working on CB, without realizing our story existed, and they were worried we would see their stories and think they had copied when they hadn't.  It didn't bother me because I knew both of them, knew they wouldn't do that, and could see that their story was similar only in the basic premise, not the way it was written or actual storylines.

I don't think I've ever been totally copied, except the blatant plagiarism of Tanja.

[MellzBellz]

Oh my... Mel, after I was done on the forum I went to check my favourite stories list to see if anything had been updated, and I see a new review on my absolute favourite.  Curious, I click in because I'm always interested in people's differing opinions on this differing story.  The author of this story and I have been reviewing and talking back and forth for a little while, she's really sweet.  If anything I think she'll find it interesting that you had the same idea as her.

Yay!  Two stories filled with awesomeness.  I'll have to read yours now too! hehe

Oh yea I LOVE the story! I think its REALLY well written and she's an amazing writer. We'd prolly get along great since we seem to think along the same lines lol

And thanks Sakabelle. My story is actually a sequel, but you can prolly read it without reading the first one. I purposely tried to fill in as much for new readers as possible.

[nicksgal]

LOL sometimes all you have to do is read story titles or summaries.

Too lazy, just tell me. lol

[Sakabelle]

And thanks Sakabelle. My story is actually a sequel, but you can prolly read it without reading the first one. I purposely tried to fill in as much for new readers as possible.

Sequel eh?  I need something to read instead of refreshing AC every minute to see if anything has been updated lol...

[MellzBellz]

Wheww! I'm glad that most authors seem to be pretty cool with the whole "same idea different place" thing. Makes me feel a lot more at ease. See I knew you girls would reassure me!

And I admit I draw inspiration on things I read too. For instance ALTOS was greatly influenced actually by BMS. You wouldn't think that off the bat, but I was actually really intrigued by what Julie did with keeping Claire and Nick apart for so long and Claire was with Jamie and Nick was with Laureen, yet there was obviously feelings there. Of course I'm choosing to take that scenario with my characters being involved with different people and take it a step further into what would happen if the main characters actually gave into those feelings.

So I know that other fics can spark new ideas with a new spin on it and I think thats really cool about fan fiction. I guess I just need to focus more on the differences in my story.

[MellzBellz]

Sequel eh?  I need something to read instead of refreshing AC every minute to see if anything has been updated lol...

The first story is 60 chapters and its pretty long, but if you're REALLY looking for something to read I'm not going to discourage you.

The first story is Under my Skin and the sequel is A Little Taste of Sin.

And sorry for the shameless plug  I bet Dee is proud lol

[mare]

Too lazy, just tell me. lol

LOL I can tell you there was one on my Brain Candy site. She had contacted me and asked me to host her and then as I was reading her story it was a knock off of Shadow Woods. She even called it something like OMg what did she call it? AH! I can't even remember, Shadow Grim or something like that. I said "uh...you might want to change that title because it might appear you are copying my story." I knew she wasn't going to stick with it anyway because I can kind of just tell. And sure enough after about three chapters of Shadow Grim she was never heard from again. loll