Watt in the World

Watt Goes Around, Comes Around

Long ago, like last year guys I was involved in a bit of a skirmish that turned into a big deal. I left a critique that still to this day I defend that it really wasn't as harsh as I know critiques can be. My main issues were the story was the fact that the story was loosely inspired by other works. And the loosely wasn't quite so loose. But whatever she had her own characters and I'm sure as the story went along she (hopefully) provided twists to make it her own. I pointed out some flaws or inconsistencies with her main characters from her chapter because it seemed like she wanted them to be her own thing but at the same time wanted to stick with the theme of the story she was inspired by. 

If you looked throughout her comments, her comments varied from "this is so good! It reminds me of ____" to "you're flat out plagiarizing the plot to _____" so I wasn't the only one who thought that her chapter seemed a little too close to the plot of a different thing. But whatever. Then the author got all butt hurt and unleashed a horde of horny 12 year olds. 

And we all lived happily ever after.

Now months later, I see something curious pop up in my newsfeed. 

Apparently some idiot decided to plagiarize the story I just mentioned with even the same name. The hordes of horny 12 year olds were defending the first author because they worship her and reading all their comments it was like "that bitch stole _____'s story word for word!" "that's disgusting!" blah blah blah. 

Now I think plagiarizing is disgusting and I hope anyone that does it gets caught and is punished for it. There are actual writers who love writing and work hard (for the most part) on their stories. For someone to just come along and take that is disgusting. Get your own creativity. 

So being nosy, I pulled up both stories. The "original story" features two popular leads from a popular tv series dealing with vampires. The "copied story" features a popular member of a very popular band dealing with directions. 

They both have the same name. 

And while I thought the original story didn't have the best spelling/grammar/all that jazz it looks like a pro compared to the new and (not) improved story. Oh my God that second story has horrible spelling, barely any puncuation and it's just stupid. But I read it. And here's what I found.

Believe it or not, it is not word for word of the "original story."

It features a young girl who becomes a lady of the streets. Her parents tragically died years earlier and she's still in pain over that. And it has a guy willing to pay her to pretend to be his fiancée. Oh and he likes to take control if you know what I mean. 

But really the story sucked and was told very poorly, the time frame and amount of money he's willing to pay her is different from the original story. 

So okay yes you can easily argue that it is plagiarized and hell yes I'll say "yes it is plagiarized!" 

But what I find crazy is that the horde of horny 12 year olds and the original author herself are condemning this story for doing the exact same thing that the original author herself did with other material. 

Go out there and tell me that there aren't many, many, many stories with a damaged girl who has lost her parents and falls in love with a controlling handsome man. You want to accuse this girl who is frankly an idiot but still you want to accuse her for doing basically what you did? Did you not take those same plot elements to make it your own story? 

So that's where we have to figure out what the line is between plagiarizing and being inspired. And frankly, we shouldn't fucking have to figure it out. You should know. It's not wisdom, it's common sense. 

Until next time. 

BAAAAAMMMMMM! 

(This post is loosely inspired by a certain book called The Alvarez Accounts, want to get into the nitty and gritty of Watty then check this book out! By the lovely @ReynaAlvarez). I think her name might be Alvarez but frankly that's a wild guess.