Anonymous asked: I have an accquatience that takes characters I've made and steals them, changes them a little, then calls them her own. Today I saw one of her new characters that she had just made and it was an exact copy of one of mine (who she knows exsists and has seen drawn many times), the only difference being that she added a tattoo on the characters face, just below her eye. She's told me that I inspire a lot of her ideas, but when she explains them I find she's just copying everything. What can I do?

Tazzy: Honestly, I think you should call her out on it. It’s one thing to have a friend who writes in a clichéd manner or has Mary-Sue characters, but stealing from another writer- one who’s a friend, even? I find that unacceptable.

It’s perfectly possible that to begin with she just took inspiration from you, but lacked the originality to create something new from what she had read in your stories. As it is, though, it’s glaringly obvious that she’s stealing your ideas.

If she doesn’t realise what she’s doing, educate her in how to create her own characters. You can show her character skeletons that she can fill out herself, and so on. I think you need to tell her that you feel like she’s stealing your ideas, and that you don’t like it.

Best of luck to you.