chilichiscake

[chilichiscake]

Plagiarism alert! "Forever Red" by elle1975 (also known as Call_Me_Elle and elle_grey)

The short version:

"Forever Red" by elle1975 (as she calls herself on Fanfiction.net) / by Call_Me_Elle (as she calls herself on AO3, previously elle_grey) plagiarises multiple stories by multiple authors, most significantly my Black Widow origin story "Fearless".

Please support the original authors, rather than this plagiarised work! Your readership, comments and kudos deserve to go to the original authors who actually wrote the words and came up with the ideas, not this thief who just copied and pasted them into her story.

The original stories and authors who have been plagiarised are:

Fearless by elle1991

In The Afterlight a novel by @alexandrabracken, published by Hachette Children's Group

Red by @foolondahill17

The Wyvern by @emmagnetised

The plagiariser's modus operandi seems to be to "bookmark" the stories that she later goes on to plagiarise, so beware if your stories appear in her bookmark list.

Evidence of around 50 instances of plagiarism in "Forever Red" have been collated and can be found here.

The long version:

A while ago, I noticed that someone called elle1975 had left kudos on my Black Widow origin story "Fearless" on AO3. My username on AO3 is elle1991, so my interest was naturally piqued by this person with a very similar username, so on a whim I decided to check out their profile, just for fun.

What I found was... pretty creepy. Instead of it being an innocent coincidence as I had assumed, it looked like this person had deliberately copied my username and also the way I'd written my bio. What the hell?! I thought. This is super weird. Is this person obsessed with me or something? Why are they copying me?

I decided to check their stories and noticed they were posting a Black Widow origin story. Already feeling suspicious since this person had seen fit to copy my literal name and bio, I decided to give it a read.

Immediately, I recognised certain paragraphs and plot points as being very familiar - because I had written them! I felt sick. This was a story that I had spent a significant amount of time, love and energy writing, and this copycat had just lazily copied and pasted whole sections into her own story. Multiple people have told me, over the years, how much my story Fearless has helped them through difficult times in their lives. It is a story that means a lot to me and the people who it has helped, so it felt gross and distasteful that someone would seek to pretend they had thought of my ideas and take credit for my words.

As I was reading, certain other sentences jumped out as being extremely well-written. On a hunch, I copied and pasted these sentences into Google and what came up was sadly not a surprise. These sentences had also been copied and pasted from other people's stories. So far, using plagiarism detection technology, I've been able to identify four stories which have been plagiarised and incorporated into "Forever Red":

In The Afterlight a novel by Alexandra Bracken

Fearless by elle1991

Red by foolondahill17

The Wyvern by emmagnetised

However, plagiarism detection technology is not perfect and will always result in an underestimate of plagiarism, since it does not pick up on all instances of plagiarism (because it relies on the original stories having been indexed by the search engines, which is not always the case). Therefore, there may well be other stories and authors whose hard work has been stolen by elle1975/Call_Me_Elle.

Here are just a few side-by-side comparisons showcasing examples of the plagiarism. In total, I was able to find 50 separate examples of plagiarism, which is far too many to post here, but if you would like to see them all, you can find them all collated here in this Google document.

As well as the above examples where she literally copies people's words, she has also copied multiple plot points and ideas from my Black Widow origin story Fearless, which were entirely original to my story and which I thought of using my own brain (because that's what real writers do). Original ideas that she copied from me include:

A mission to dress up as a sweet little girl with ribbons in her hair at an opulent mansion and deliver a letter on behalf of the KGB (to a Soviet politician in Fearless, to a German politician in Forever Red).

An original character best friend at the Red Room Academy named Elena (in Fearless)/Yelena (in Forever Red).

Madame B hurting Natasha to teach her that "pain is only temporary".

The premise of the entire chapter "Lessons in Seduction". Once the Red Room Academy girls reach the age of 16, Madame B tells them that they must learn how to use “seduction” as a skill to add to their arsenal. They must do this by watching pornographic films, and then they are made to have sex with a male KGB agent.

Elena/Yelena being killed in order to make Natasha more focused on her studies at the Red Room Academy.

Burning down a maternity hospital full of babies, and then her rival classmate (named Katerina in Fearless, Evgenia in Forever Red) tries to kill her on that mission, and then Natasha kills her.

Killing an MI6 agent by stabbing them in both eyes, and then carving a message into their chest with a knife to warn MI6 to stop snooping.

The Sao Paulo mission is to break into a heavily-guarded compound surrounded by a five metre(in Fearless) / five foot (in Forever Red) tall wall, in order to steal documents. The villain (named Ernesto Silva in Fearless, Pedro Pereira in Forever Red) knows in advance that she's coming and says he is "excited" to meet her.

Natasha wanting to be a ballerina when she grows up, Elena/Yelena wanting to be a writer when she grows up, Elena/Yelena wanting to go to the beach.

Pretending to be a supernatural being (an angel in Fearless, a witch in Forever Red) in order to kidnap the two children of a diplomat/politician.

Kidnapping the two young children of a diplomat (in Fearless) / politician (in Forever Red) and holding them in a secure location so that the KGB could use them as a negotiating tactic.

Breaking into the Kremlin to deliver a message to President Gorbachev, which brings about the fall of the Soviet Union.

When Natasha finally confronts Madame B as an adult, Madame B taunts her with the name she was born with (“Natalia”) and Natasha has a strong emotional reaction to this taunt, telling Madame B that that is no longer her name.

Madame B locking the Red Room Academy girls alone in a room with only a dead body and their thoughts for company, in order to teach the girls not to be afraid of corpses.

What has been elle1975/Call_Me_Elle's response?

When I originally noticed she was plagiarising my work, I left her a comment on Fanfiction.net asking her to remove or edit the plagiarised sections. She deleted my comment, contacted me privately and claimed to feel "awful". However, she did not apologise and did not accept any responsibility for her actions.

Instead, she gave the worst excuse ever: she claims to have a "photographic memory" and that she therefore remembers stories perfectly and "accidentally" writes them into her work because she thinks they're her own words. Which is complete rubbish, obviously, because if she really did have a photographic memory, she would be able to remember (in perfect, photographic detail) that she read it in another person's story and then copied and pasted it into her own work!

Nevertheless, if this is the position she's going to stand by, then the only solution for writers seems to be to ask her not to read your stories, so that your words don't end up in her "photographic" memory of texts that she then conveniently forgets were written by someone else.

If you want to contact her to tell her she is not welcome to read/plagiarise your work, you can find her on AO3 (currently Call_Me_Elle), Fanfiction.net (currently elle1975), Pinterest (currently elenasfakianopo), and email (available on request, DM me).

What can you do to help?

Spread awareness by sharing this post. People deserve to know who the original authors are, so that they can read the original works and give comments/kudos to the original authors, if they wish. People also deserve to know that elle1975/Call_Me_Elle is a repeat plagiariser and that anything you read of hers may not actually be written by her.

Report her story(s) to AO3 and Fanfiction.net, if you find that she has plagiarised your work. The more reports the websites receive, the more likely they are to take action to take down the plagiarised works.

Be aware that her modus operandi is to bookmark stories that she later goes on to plagiarise from. If your works have been bookmarked by her, you may want to keep an eye on her works to see if she starts plagiarising from you. You could also try reaching out to her directly to ask her not to plagiarise from you, to unbookmark your work, or to tell her that she is not welcome to read your works.

[chilichiscake]

seriously? you’re telling me the fanfiction i meticulously planned out in my head doesn’t already exist and i have to write it myself? unbelievable.

[chilichiscake]

When the whole party is down but your bard is up

[chilichiscake]

Mint, a Hurricane, and Tranquillity.

So... toothpaste and mixed signals?

people in fanfiction are so good at identifying v specific smells. I literally struggle to identify vanilla when I’m sniffing a candle labelled “VANILLA” how are these kids getting woodsmoke, rain, mint, and a whiff of byronic despair from a fuckin tshirt

[chilichiscake]

HE IS HERE

[chilichiscake]

It can be tough seeing a sprout where you want to see a tree, but your growth is that much more impressive when you start as a sprout! 🌱 We’re constantly growing and cultivating new goals, so allow yourself to enjoy the journey!  

Chibird store | Positive Pin Club | Instagram

[chilichiscake]

god I dont wanna fuckin go on dates or try to sell myself or expose myself to an unending list of potential heartbreaks i just wanna skip to the part where someone is holding me and i am cozy. fuck this bro

[chilichiscake]

There’s always a lingering question that I ask myself, which is why do I, a cis bisexual woman, enjoy romance between two men so much?  

There are easy answers, like that it’s just fetishizing.  And like, I find men attractive, yes.  But I also find women attractive.  I don’t have a problem with enjoying het romance, assuming I can find good ones.  I enjoy stories with female characters I can relate to.

But there’s something much deeper at play, IMO.  A friend of mine who is a gender studies professor was the first person to point this out to me, but a lot of women enjoy m/m romance and gay porn because of the lack of women.  It removes a source of pressure and sexism.  Without any women present, you don’t have to constantly evaluate the sexism of their portrayal, or be reminded of negative experiences in your own life.  It allows women to experience romance and especially sexuality without all the baggage that comes with it in our patriarchal society.

This was recently illustrated to me rather dramatically.  I read a recommendation for a het romance.  And it sounded cute, and came highly recommended.  The tropes at play were fun.  Until I read a snippet and realized this was a romance between a woman and her boss.  I had a visceral negative reaction.  

Instantly I’m thinking of sexual harassment stories I’ve read and heard from other women. I’m thinking of how uncomfortable it would be to have your boss develop feelings for you.  How icky the power dynamics would be, etc.  

And then I realized…this wouldn’t bother me if it were two men.  Now, there’s no logical reason for that.  Sexual harassment is just as wrong when its object is a man.  But I know I’ve read fics with a similar premise and never thought about it.  Because when it’s two men I can accept this is just a light romance, a fantasy, meant to be fun and sexy and not to represent the real world.

But I can’t when it’s a het relationship.  There’s too much baggage there.  Too much societal history of abuse.  I can’t relax enough with the premise to enjoy that story.  

Now some people can.  And that’s fine.  And some people are never going to be okay with power imbalances like that regardless of gender.  That’s also fine.  I don’t think having either reaction makes one morally superior.  It’s okay to just enjoy light entertainment for what it is without going into deep analysis.

But it’s much more difficult for me, and I think for many women, to relax and enjoy romantic and sexual stories when they involve female characters.  We’ve been burned too many times by shitty depictions, by shallow role models, by abuse portrayed as romantic.  We have developed a stress response, a trauma response to heterosexual romance.  We are hyper-reactive to a wide variety of triggers in regards to it.   But removing women from the equation makes stories safer for us.  And maybe it shouldn’t?  In an ideal world?  But for many of us, that’s the truth.

[chilichiscake]

[chilichiscake]

2020

[chilichiscake]

A few things I (a fanfiction writer) want you to know

 I write fanfiction because I love the characters and ships I write. I’m not a published author, nor am I trying to become one. I’m here because I got obsessed with a stupid tv show. That’s it. 

Kudos and/or comments fuel me more than you can imagine. 

Every day, I get a ‘You’ve got Kudos!’ email. Every day, I open it. I take note of which of my fics have been given kudos. I take note of the usernames I find there. If you’ve left kudos on one of my fics before, I’ll recognize you. I take a moment to appreciate your support. I feel validated and inspired after this. 

When someone comments on one of my fics for the first time, I go ‘Oh hey there, new friend. Welcome to my world.’

If you’ve commented on one of my fics more than once, I know you. I’ve checked out your profile, your works, your bookmarks. When I see your username, I feel like I’m meeting a friend. I’m like ‘This is the person who likes the same rarepair I do.’ - ‘This is the lover of fluff/smut/angst fics.’ I remember.

I read every comment I ever get, many of them more than once. I try to answer them all. I’m not always fast with that, but I promise you, I appreciate the hell out of your feedback. Sometimes people ask me why I’m grinning so dumbly down at my phone, and many times it’s because I just got a new comment. You’re making my day with this. 

Sometimes I get a comment on a WIP I haven’t updated in a while, and in most cases, it motivates me to get the next chapter out. You’re reminding me why I started writing this story. You’re making me want to finish it. 

When I feel down and unable to write, I go back to the comments on stories that mean a lot to me personally. They give me new life. I treasure them. You have no idea how long they stick with me. 

My ask box is always open. You want to express an opinion on my writing anonymously? You have a prompt, an idea, a wish? You probably don’t know how easy I am to persuade to write something. Honestly, try it. 

No fic is too old to comment on it. Never. 

If you’re too shy to leave a comment, you are valid. I’m happy to have you as a reader. I’m a crazy fangirl like you. I’m dying to talk to you. If you can’t, that’s perfectly fine though. 

If you don’t know what to comment, believe me when I say that it doesn’t matter as long as it isn’t rude. You’re too tired to leave a proper comment? I read fics at 2am too my friend, I understand. You don’t know how to put your thoughts into words? You can literally leave me a HI and I’ll be happy about it. 

If you’re too shy to comment in English because you’re not a native speaker, you’re valid. You’re good enough to read fics in this language, you can be proud of that. I know how to use a translator. You may comment in whatever language you want to. I’m not a native speaker either, I’ve long stopped trying to sound like one. I take no shame in that. 

If you have ever taken time out of your day to read one of my stories, I appreciate you so much. If you have ever hit the kudos button on one of my stories, I appreciate you so much. If you have ever written me a comment, shared your genuine feelings about my writing with me, you are responsible for a big, stupid smile on my face and a significant bit of motivation. 

Thank you!

[chilichiscake]

Your blog is so informative! Much love! Do you have a spell from your Grimoire on keeping a love faithful?

Take something of theirs. Wrap it in red thread. Hide it. “As long as this to me you lease, your faith and loyalty shall not cease.”Hide something of yours in their possessions. A single hair can do wonders. “As long as this piece of me you own,  feel my passion in your bones.”

[chilichiscake]

favorite writing feelings

when you write a line and you know it’s a quote a fandom would love and yell about and put on aesthetic edits and analyze over and over again 

when you’ve been doing slow, steady, gradual work on a project, making a little progress at a time, and suddenly something clicks and the words are flowing so easily and typing feels like flying 

when your character has been through so much and it’s finally, finally paying off and they’re learning and growing and you know they’re going to find joy and you feel a little burst of love for them like they’re a real person 

when you write a funny bit and laugh at your own humor 

when you’re rereading something you wrote and you’re like oh my god???? this is GOOD??? I did this? I did this! 

when a friend who’s read your work talks about your characters and legitimately cares about them and it feels like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

when you find a song that perfectly encapsulates a story/character and you listen to it over and over because it just feels right

when you have a brand new idea and it’s so fresh and full of possibilities and you can’t wait to start writing things down and fleshing out characters and figuring out all the details 

when you’ve been working on a project for so long that the characters are like old friends and you look at the writing and know how much love and labor and time and effort you’ve put into it 

[chilichiscake]

“9/13 this year is the Chinese mid-autumn festival(a.k.a moon festival). Guess who are making mooncakes for us on the moon!” (x-post: /r/aww) https://ift.tt/31nZaBw

[chilichiscake]

what is a writer, if not a miserable little pile of ideas and half written google docs

[chilichiscake]

New Orleans ❤

[chilichiscake]

Every knitting pattern ever: Make sure you do the gauge first!

Me: