character robbery

***WARNING*** Public rant about to blow. I don't do this, but yeah...I am now because this is ridiculous.

I've been stewing over this since yesterday. To be quite or not? And well, I'm no less upset now than I was then. Just for the record, I do copyright my work with the Library of Congress. I pay for that copyright to protect myself and my work. I'm sick of people stealing and sharing our work without our permission. Quit being assholes. It's not right. If you can buy yourself a bag of chips and an Icee at the 7 eleven then you buy a damn eBook legally. I mean seriously! It's priced ridiculously cheap for an 80,000+ word count book. Now, onto my next pissy rant.

Ever read a blurb for a book and think to yourself, "Wow, that sounds a lot like my story." Ya know, the one I wrote a year ago? So you read it and then think, "Well, that was interesting." Yeah, that... it sucks. I wonder if you left me a review when you read my books? I'm happy I inspired you to write a story, but here's a novel idea for the next one - maybe, come up with your own characters. I get similarities for us might happen, but some are just too many to be coincidences.

If you write characters exactly like another authors characters, even if you change their story and the scenes...are they really your own characters or just characters you snatched and wrote your own story with? From the way they look, the age they met, them growing up as best friends, their parents death (you changed the reasons), their past, their fears, their hobbies, their spot by the water, him getting a football scholarship, her being a writer, their widowed parents bonding etc. <--That is a hell of a lot of coincidences, don't you think?

Is character robbery a thing if you change the story line?

A different story with another authors characters under different names?

How many characteristics are coincidental, and how many are just a tad bit too many to be claimed as your own creation?

Not sure how I feel about that. I'm having some mixed emotions here. Should I feel flattered or pissed off? It's obvious that you read my books and liked my characters enough to align your own to be exactly like them for your debut. I get it. Josh and Riley are awesome. That is very true. I created them from scratch in my own imagination, let them thrive and grow to fruition. I developed an emotional, painful and beautiful story between two best friends. It has taken me an entire year to write this story and come full circle. I let Josh and Riley overcome me, and I became them. I let that story bleed out of my heart and warm the hearts of others it may touch. So, I'd totally understand why you'd want a Josh and Riley in your story, but um...they were already occupied in my own. You're welcome for the inspiration. Glad, I moved you so much that you needed to try your hand at writing, too. But um... when writing a story, you need to create the characters too because taking someone else's isn't very nice. Just saying.