Hello readers! Today I'm bringing light to something that has been bothering me.

Somebody who has been reading this story ever since I originally posted it in 2020, has been stealing lines/scenes from my story to use in their own.

Now at first I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and try to turn a blind eye as they were one of the first readers I received on this story back in 2020, and I always enjoyed receiving feedback from them in the comments... but as they kept updating their own story I couldn't keep ignoring it any longer. It wasn't just one or two instances, it became several.

The writer is travisclark620 , they've gone through a few different accounts with similar names since they first followed me in 2020. The fanfic I'm noticing has scenes copied from Cruel Summer, is called "Lydia Gilbert"

So I'm gonna share the similarities I found between our stories.

First of all, their main OC:

My main OC:

Am I bothered that they're both Gilbert twins with powers and are queer? Absolutely not. I'm actually not at all bothered that the main characters have similarities because Gilbert twin stories are very common.

Cruel Summer is not the first ever Gilbert twin story and it most certainly won't be the last!

But it was many other things I noticed that feel like they've been copied right from my story, such as this OC:

In compassion to my OC:

Now there's a couple of different things about them like their faceclaims, love interests and sexuality. But what's similar is that they're BOTH the cousin of Tyler, and they are both named Sienna.

Come on man, you could have at least given her a different name?? Then I may have let this one slide. But the reason I really believe they have copied my OC is because they have stolen a lot of her lines.

Now I'm gonna compare scenes from each story.

The kitchen scene from the pilot episode...

Their scene:

My scene:

The main OC's first interaction with Stefan...

Their scene:

My scene:

The main OC trying to figure out what Stefan is...

Their scene:

My scene:

The main OC confronting Stefan which lead to them revealing their supernatural identities...

Their scene:

My scene:

This Night of the comet scene...

Their scene:

My scene:

Main OC using their powers on Damon for the first time...

Their scene:

My scene:

This Lockwood dinner scene...

Their scene:

My scene:

This scene from Stefan's birthday party...

Their scene:

My scene:

Main OC using her powers in front of Elena for the first time...

Their scene:

My scene:

That was most of the copied scenes I found, and although it might not look like much to some, it's very obvious to me that this author was using my story as a reference while they were writing their own.

Now I can understand taking inspiration. I had found about 4 or 5 Gilbert twin sister fanfics that inspired me to start writing my own back in 2020, but not once did I plagiarise (the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities—). I rewatched TVD episodes, found episodes transcripts online for dialogue and used my own damn imagination. What a shocker.

This isn't taking inspiration though, it's straight up plagiarism because they've copied these lines from my OCs almost word for word.

All I ask is that the author removes the story. And for my Cruel Summer readers, if you would like to do something I ask that you report their story:

I think what disappoints me too is that I literally just reposted this story over the previous weeks. I had it unpublished months ago because I was hating it, and when I made changes and decided I finally wanted to republish it again, someone decided to copy my writing 😐

After this, I'm very unmotivated to write this story... so I'll be putting it on hold until further notice and working on some of my other projects.

If you're still reading this update then thank you, and I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. 💕

EDIT: To my knowledge the story has been removed, so thank you to everyone for your help!! I really appreciate it 🩷

But to be honest the fact that the author took no accountability, didn't even apologise AND blocked me tells me that he is just gonna continue to do this bs once the dust settled... which is very unsettling.

But for now I'm taking it as a win that the story has been removed.