Story edit rejected, now original is gone

[nylav]

I uploaded my first story a few months ago. It was approved and published. Recently, I tried submitting an edited version to correct some mistakes in the text and add a tag. The edit submission was sent back and now my story is not available on the site at all.

The reason given for the rejection was that my story was derivative of someone else's work. In my original submission, I clearly stated that I took loose inspiration from a story that has since been deleted (in fact, the author of that story deleted their profile and all their work from the internet). I wrote my whole story myself, and it is significantly different to the story I was inspired by.

I feel like it was flagged in error, since I clearly gave credit and the other story doesn't even exist anymore. When I tried contacting Laurel, I got an automated response.

I tried resubmitting, but now I'm not sure if I'm better off removing the mention of the other (now-deleted) story to get past the filters, or if that would just cause more issues. I'm frustrated that my story is no longer available while I try getting this fixed.

Any advice?

 

[AG31]

I uploaded my first story a few months ago. It was approved and published. Recently, I tried submitting an edited version to correct some mistakes in the text and add a tag. The edit submission was sent back and now my story is not available on the site at all.

The reason given for the rejection was that my story was derivative of someone else's work. In my original submission, I clearly stated that I took loose inspiration from a story that has since been deleted (in fact, the author of that story deleted their profile and all their work from the internet). I wrote my whole story myself, and it is significantly different to the story I was inspired by.

I feel like it was flagged in error, since I clearly gave credit and the other story doesn't even exist anymore. When I tried contacting Laurel, I got an automated response.

I tried resubmitting, but now I'm not sure if I'm better off removing the mention of the other (now-deleted) story to get past the filters, or if that would just cause more issues. I'm frustrated that my story is no longer available while I try getting this fixed.

Any advice?

Oh, wow!!! That's what I've been afraid of!!! That's why I haven't improved my Lit stories. Let us know if this turns out to be a mistake and is fixed.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I had one my first stories rejected because I mentioned being inspired by another author's story. I resubmitted it, changing the intro to say that my story included none of the original writer's words, characters, or situations (and that the original writer had read the story and not complained). It was published.

--Annie

 

[nylav]

I had one my first stories rejected because I mentioned being inspired by another author's story. I resubmitted it, changing the intro to say that my story included none of the original writer's words, characters, or situations (and that the original writer had read the story and not complained). It was published.

--Annie

Thanks for the response. The issue I have is that the author whose story I read has deleted their account, so I'm not able to contact them.

Edit: I've taken your advice to amend my introduction. I explained that the original author has deleted their works and account, and I made a statement that if the original author contacts me asking me to amend or delete my story, I will. I also specified that my story contained none of the same text and had original characters, themes, and series of events. Hopefully that is enough.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks for the response. The issue I have is that the author whose story I read has deleted their account, so I'm not able to contact them.

Edit: I've taken your advice to amend my introduction. I explained that the original author has deleted their works and account, and I made a statement that if the original author contacts me asking me to amend or delete my story, I will. I also specified that my story contained none of the same text and had original characters, themes, and series of events. Hopefully that is enough.

The site clamps down on plagiarism or suspected plagiarism pretty hard. You did yourself no favours declaring that your story was inspired by another story, and while you might have given credit to that author, the implication is, you didn't get their explicit permission. And now that that author has gone, you never will. I suspect the site will err on the side of their caution.

The highlighted sentence suggests that you already know your version is very close to the original. You might get lucky, but I wouldn't bank on it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Oh, wow!!! That's what I've been afraid of!!! That's why I haven't improved my Lit stories. Let us know if this turns out to be a mistake and is fixed.

Your concern has always been that an edit will be rejected for suspected AI (which I think is an unfounded concern - your writing contains none of the typical AI patterns).

The OPs situation is quite different. They've got themselves caught up in the, "My story is inspired by someone else's" loop, where they've openly declared a close connection, but they've not got explicit permission from the other author, to be so closely inspired. And now, with the other author's departure from the site, they never will get permission.

Which once again demonstrates, write your own story; and if you can't be original, don't publish.

 

[nylav]

Your concern has always been that an edit will be rejected for suspected AI (which I think is an unfounded concern - your writing contains none of the typical AI patterns).

The OPs situation is quite different. They've got themselves caught up in the, "My story is inspired by someone else's" loop, where they've openly declared a close connection, but they've not got explicit permission from the other author, to be so closely inspired. And now, with the other author's departure from the site, they never will get permission.

Which once again demonstrates, write your own story; and if you can't be original, don't publish.

I didn't anticipate this problem, since I am new to publishing on the site. I see how I didn't do myself favors.

 

[nylav]

Thanks for the response. The issue I have is that the author whose story I read has deleted their account, so I'm not able to contact them.

Edit: I've taken your advice to amend my introduction. I explained that the original author has deleted their works and account, and I made a statement that if the original author contacts me asking me to amend or delete my story, I will. I also specified that my story contained none of the same text and had original characters, themes, and series of events. Hopefully that is enough.

Update: this worked. In the intro blurb of my story I better explained the situation with the other author having deleted their stories and account before I started my own story, as well as offering that if the other author contacts me asking to change or delete my story, I would do so. And clearly stating that my story had its own original characters, themes, and series of events. I explained this in my note to the mods, and it seems that satisfied them. My story edit was accepted and my story is available again. Thanks all for the input.