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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36816
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

So, I'm writing a novella about this guy named Peter, who is an actor living in LA. In the fall, he comes back to his hometown, a small town in New Jersey, after a gap of three years. He has a large family, namely three sisters, a brother, and his parents. When he comes back to his town, he meets his youngest sister's good friend and the girl who lives next door, Sophie. Sophie is several years younger than Peter, and is in sophomore year of college. Naturally, when Peter sees the beautiful woman Sophie has grown into from being a little kid, he feels attracted to her. Now, Sophie secretly used to love Peter before he left for LA, but it was a one-sided love, and led to heartbreak when Peter moved to LA. Sophie's father is the sheriff of the town, and her mother passed away when she was in high school. It is a fall season themed romance.

Now, I was reading online, and I found a story on Wattpad that is quite similar to my story. The Wattpad story is a summer-themed romance. In there, the female protagonist, Martha is in college and eight years younger than the male protagonist, David, she is also his youngest sister's best friend, and she used to have a crush on him when she was a kid. David is a doctor, entering his internship. They meet again when they both go to David's family summerhouse for a vacation with their friends. Martha goes with David's sister and David goes with two of his male friends. They feel attracted towards each other. David, again, has a large family, consisting of four sisters and his mom, but his dad died years ago. Martha had a neglecting, unloving mother and her father walked out on her when she was a little kid.

Now, I know the plot of both the stories sound similar, but I had not read this story before writing my story. However, I'm worried my story sounds like a rip-off. The plot points, events, incidents, dialogues, everything is completely different. But these above similarities are there, along with two scenes. In a scene of my story, Peter watches Sophie undress from his room because they are neighbours and their rooms are opposite to each other with windows facing each other. And in the Wattpad story, David watches Martha naked on the docks as she goes out for a swim. Secondly, there is a bonfire scene in my story, and there is a bonfire scene in the other story as well. The bonfire scenes are executed completely different. But apart from these two scenes, and the obvious background similarities, nothing else is similar. The development of the romance in my story is completely different than the Wattpad story. The Wattpad story is a slow-burn romance, while mine is more like love at first sight. But, I'm still worried that the background similarities and the similarities of the two scenes might make it copyright infringing or plagiarism.

What would you say? I know copyright infringement and plagiarism are different, but would my story fall in either categories?

Thank you in advance.

Original score: 6