I'm not a big fan of the Medium how to stories, anyway.

But in fairness to those writers, your story reminded me of a conversation I had the other day with a musician who, although far from famous, has done a lot of gigs over his lifetime in various parts of the USA. He said that it's pretty common to lift riffs from each other because it's just in their heads. The reason you don't see a lot of lawsuits over that is because they all know about it and it has to look pretty blatant to command attention.

And honestly, my first novel doesn't get written, I'm pretty sure, if Bill Shakespeare doesn't write Romeo and Juliet first! Thanks, Bill! I should have dedicated the book to you!