Necessary struggles in writing

There’s no theft if there’s no damage. If you took your work based on someone else’s idea and published it, then the original author would have something to sue over. If there’s no monetary loss, there’s no theft.

Just give proper credit and stop worrying about it.

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I agree with absman420. If you feel that your story is very close to someone else’s, but is still your own unique flavour of it, then give the person a mention at the top of your story, linking to the original story (or naming author and title if you’re not comfortable with linking). If, on the other hand, you read someone’s story and got a really derivative idea based on one small feature of a character, or maybe an idea or a few lines of dialogue in the story, then it’s probably not worth even doing that much. Inspiration can come from many places—sometimes that’ll be your imagination, sometimes it’ll be someone else’s story, sometimes it’ll be real life. It’s all good!

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Thanks everyone. It is based of another story and credit will certainly be given at the top.

It’s some of the scene descriptions where I feel I could subconsciously recreate something I’ve read. Maybe it is due to an overactive memory. Never my intention but I do hope the reader is distracted in other ways and doesn’t notice if it happens by accident.

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It can also be really nice to send the original author a quick email letting them know before you publish it, assuming they’ve left some method of contacting them.

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I’ll definitely let the original author read it first. I’ve reached out already. He holds the right to the idea. I want to be sure it complements his story.

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Personally, I only had a problem with it one time. A guy wrote and asked me if he could write something based on THE NEW SUPERMEN. I said sure, but asked if he could avoid using a particular character, because I had plans of my own for a sequel and I needed that character.

So he sent me his story to read before he published it – which he totally didn’t have to do, but I thought was nice – and it was all about the character I’d asked him to not use.

I wrote him back and questioned him and he shrugged it off like I was over-reacting. It went back and forth a little bit and – out of frustration – he finally changed the story enough that it wasn’t based on mine anymore – whatever.

Looking back on it now, I would just let him publish his story even though he didn’t follow my rules. It’s not worth being upset about.

I’ve learned to realize the flattery behind “fan fic” and my reaction should have been, “I’m glad I inspired you to write… even though you’re not good at following rules.”

We learn, we grow.

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Does anyone else feels like they have trouble on thinking whether they should have a sex scene now or not?

It’s erotica, so basically most sex scenes feels rushed and that…bothers me.

I usually write longer stories, but I get that people here want a quick wank so sometimes it feels rushed when there’s sex after a thousand words. But at the same time, when it’s too much of a slow burn, it costs you your readers.

I’ve been writing this story and in the first chapter, I’ve been contemplating if I should add the blowjob or just do like a kiss to add tension. But at the same time, I have doubts about it because I feel like it’s not much payoff for the readers. I know that we should write for ourselves first (and I am doing that), but I still want readers to be satisfied with what I’m writing.

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You’re never going to satisfy all of your readers when it comes to this. For some of them, the sex scenes are “the good bits,” while for others the sex scenes are the “boring bits” that get skimmed. As you said, you’re much better off just writing what YOU find sexy. It won’t please everyone, but it will please the readers who are on your same wavelength.

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Appreciate your thought about writing what I find sexy. I’ve sometimes “installed” sex scenes because I thought a story was perhaps lagging for the reader seeking it. Probably would have done better not to have done that. I write long. I like to have a hint of something ahead . . . and then get to it when I get to it in the story that I want to write.

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For sure. For me it’s so hard to tell if I’m sounding preachy or annoying if I add too much. But without anything it’s also kind of boring too because I don’t feel connected to any of the characters. I just try to ignore that feeling and write what I want and hope that maybe someone else wants it too.

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On YouTube there’s an interview with Jonathan Harris who played “Dr. Zachary Smith” on the tv show “Lost in Space.” He describes the first episodes of the show as - by implication - not terribly interesting. So then he got the idea to start amplifying his character to have fun with it - and essentially steal the show from everyone else, which made it a short-lived hit.

Sounds like you need to let one of your characters speak for themselves - or introduce someone who can. :slight_smile:

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