Should I stop?

[Gee]

Hello everyone,

Last night I send jaws a message:

Two weeks ago, I had a phase during which I had little to no sleep for reasons I don't know. During this time, I started looking into mindmaps to have something to do and I thought about using it to structure a story I believed I had in mind.

Today I found a story in my favorites in Literotica, added to my favorites during that phase of sleeplessness, that bears much resemblance to the story I posted here and have laid out in my mindmap. Obviously in my sleep-deprived state, I started the mindmap after I read said story and in the days thereafter I stuffed the mindmap with my ideas. Background to the protagonists, plans of the locations, etc.

But this doesn’t make this my story, and doing it unknowingly – I swear – doesn’t alter the fact that I wrote a rip-off.

So I’m asking you to please delete the posts/threads.

I am sorry, I really am
Gee

The story in question is: https://www.literotica.com/s/paperwork-pt-01

To those of you who read what I’ve posted here: Am I right to think that I have only created a rip-off and should stop, or do my changes / additions justify to go on with the story?

[SteveBurke]

If you think that your story will be enjoyed by others, by all means continue.

[ZeeChromosome]

Gee:
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Give us your take on it. If you write it, it's your art. In the end, we're all recycling the same tropes over and over again. They're tropes for a reason. My main character literally sells himself into slavery to save the family farm. How over-used is that?
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The fact that you are writing the story puts your artistic stamp on it and therefore it's just fine. We're all amateurs here, none of us are writing Great Art.
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So show us what you've got.
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We'll support it.
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Zee