Please don't be mad
if you're a fanfic writer and have noticed something awry...I can explain.

Something really funky happened when I was writing "If I Don't Have You"...

I don't want to be accused for plagiarism.
I am a writer, and like many out there, I want to do original things. But my philosophy of originality was somewhat killed when I wrote this story.

I have an acquaintance over the internet - one of many. She will remain nameless, but is the main cause of this.
While writing my story, she got me to tell her some bits of the plot. Not all of it- the story hadn't been set and fixed to a certain amount of events yet - but she knew some of it. Not enough to really go on.
She saw it was taking me awhile to write it, so she thought she'd help. She sent me random bits of scenes and ideas, etc, over email, suggesting I used them - "I thought this would be perfect for that one thing you told me about" or maybe "I don't know where this could fit, but I think it's nice."
I thought she had written these scenes and ideas out by herself. One or two seemed familiar to me, but I assumed I had read too much fanfiction over the years, and things always seem to overlap. I used some and thanked her.

As you know, I have some friends who edit the story for me. CK, also being almost the co-author for IIDHY, was my main editor.
She called me up one night, very upset. She had come across another fanfiction story that was online, and read me a bit of a scene that was almost word-for-word with something I had in some chapter of IIDHY.
The only thing I could come up with was that sometimes people think of the same things - it's scientifically true. However, that explanation didn't suffice when she found some more similarities with other stories days later.

I didn't know what to do. Then it dawned on me - what she was pointing out was what this girl had sent me over email...the girl had not thought of the scenes and ideas by herself, but had just copied them off of stories she had come across, and sent them to me. I didn't confront her about it; I was too busy and didn't want to deal with it.
I assume she thought I would change whatever she gave me, and/or not use it at all. I had deleted those emails when cleaning out my account, so I couldn't check to see which and how many of the ideas and bits of scenes I had used. I don't think it was too numerous, but I can't be sure.

I did change some of them originally, but not all. I tried to go through all 22 chapters, but that was tedious, and knowing me, I might have missed something.
CK assured me that she would notify me if she came across anymore similarities. In the past year or so, haven't had much leisure time to read BSB fanfiction on my own, and I haven't come across anything yet. I attempted to change anything I could remember and/or that I came across.
But I couldn't change anything too drastically - it would ruin the chapters or the actual story; some were too woven in to completely get rid of.

So, this explanation is a bit of an apology to any of the writers who might get very upset with finding a bit of their story in IIDHY.
I'm so sorry.
I don't know who you are, but I assure you that if this girl ever sends me any story "ideas" again, I will question her about them, or not use them.
I hope nobody is angry with me.

~sv*