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More broadly speaking, I’m definitely tired of the “AI slop” on YouTube. It particularly bugs me when the video is supposed to be about something factual, because you don’t know whether the AI is using actual facts or just making stuff up.

Ok, I actually made some progress on The Lake House today before having to leave for work. Let’s see how far I get in a week.

A nice quiet birthday was today

Agreed. Where you REALLY see AI is in some of those visual books on Youtube. Hubs likes to listen to them. Mind you, I’ve read countless sci-fi books, so when he’s listening, I can usually tell him which book and/or author they’re stealing from 🤣

Well, due to work, I haven’t gotten any work done, and we’re down to five days counting today. But if what Invidia and George said is true, and you all are ok with this even if it’s a week late or something, let’s see what I can get done quickly! *opens word processor*

I’m probably way too busy and appalled at recent world events to be this bored. Or at least, I ought to be. Someone accused me of not being able to write properly. Someone in an official capacity. I should be too rageful to be this bored. Meh.

The people who leave negative reviews on e-books reporting sex scenes are my heroes. It’s easy enough to filter in smut when you’re reading fanfiction, but the e-book writers get coy about it in their descriptions. If not for sex-averse reviewers, we’d risk reading a “spicy book” that never passes first base, get clam-shelled over the lack of smut, and have to go start a fight with our husbands or something. ...not that I’m speaking from experience, or anything. But yeah. Someone left a squicked one-star review on a book I was considering. Granted, the review was just the word “sex” written three times – like they’re starring in a demonic possession porno or something - and shoop, there the book went. Right into my cart. I hope it’s filthy. People like that are heroes.

I think someone might have cracked out a phial of starlight, or perhaps a million of you all did. Start spreading the news… 🎵and so on and so forth... [message ends]

When one considers the size of the target and the size of the projectile, one would think a cat’s foot would miss tender spots more often than it would hit. So why do they always—always—manage to stomp right on nipples and testicles? How does that make sense?

The Shortest Day is the Longest Night. The Year’s Nadir Approaches. Steady in step. The Unseelie Court’s doors open wide to Fall’s Aplenty. It is comforting to remember that though the fallow cold and sterile ice peer down from their cyros thrones. That which is loosened for but for a brief time. From the Abyssal Depths that gives up her brood. To the very foundations of the world stewed by the nameless hungering things. No night may yet last forever. Illimitable Dominion over all though the Red Death may hold. Tis but fragile stewardship it remains. Not even Jadis herself could hold Winter but never Christmas. The Ages of Ice are but brief idle sleep. Ponder then that evergreen promise of spring. Inevitable bequeathing the darkness reluctantly compelled. No matter how iron clad the toothsome and fierce the dark may grow. The things that uprose unhindered within their gruesome nadir. Shudder at light’s glow! Flee at first kiss of day! Toothless then they shrouded by death’s decay. Terrifying then must be inexorable, insistent renewal aquiet in its cradle bed. Cruel yet marching till tender spring bears again the crown. What fear then must fester abreast in that of darkness and stillness that winter doeth inspire? For what fierce dominion can they claim? That will not in time be taken by light and spring! Life my dear, Always finds a way. Always. What winter’s bark whine with agonied bite the kiss of spring long a fated. For even in Winter’s Apex does not Spring await insistent yet patient at the gates? Force fully marshalled? For what honor? What glory lay in preening bargains yet made. Be worth the enmity the coming of tomorrow’s day? What use could be worth the barbed trap the fine print surely dwells? Reject the ill gotten gain In favor of the labor of honest day. For yesteryears guest is tomorrow's brow crowned alighted! Eat. Drink. Be Merry! For Faust benighted a prince pauper. The Snowmen pall against the door allergic to the taste of hearth kindled warmth. The Sugar Plum Fairy with faerie treats a many. The game of hospitality is afoot! Enchanted! Does not Krampus scamper at yule father’s behest? Short Will Be His Prime. Great will be his Abeyance. The rules are thus in art regal procession! Tags at the top of the story Holiday theme Original Fiction 50k word limitation!

@BronxWench From BronxWench on November 01, 2025 Glad you enjoyed! I, too, remember the days of bad horror movies coming on late at night, and of the signoff (which, IIRC, usually consisted of “The Star Spangled Banner” followed by the test pattern and that tone). And yelling at the screen was inevitable. Thank you!

I can’t count them all. I first started writing Tolkien’s Middle-earth collaborative roleplay and fanfiction stories on the One Ring (.com) forum back in 1999. Many fell into ruin with various website crashes and moderator deletions for being ‘too adult’. Fair enough, so I started my own forum on EZBoard in 2022, and had a lot oif saved stories posted there. Unfortunately EZBoard was sabotaged by a disgruntled employee on May 31st 2005 and wiped clean. The then mirrored the wiped site to the back-up. Fortunately, an old back-up was found after it was discivered that proper back-up hadn’t been done for nine months. There was a difference between ‘backing up’ and ‘mirroring’. Anyway, many stories were recovered with the last part lost. These days, I have an external harddrive I store them on, along with my One Drive and iCloud, and I had a lot of them saved under the RP Repository roof in a group I develope. Sadly, not being in control of it, it got deleted when I handed it off to someone else when I was asked to move on. Still, I have many from over 20 years ago, but equally as many have been lost ofer the time when various forum sites ceased to exist.

“Leaffall” by BronxWench Tags: AFFO; MCD; NoSex; Violence Human and fae should never mix, especially when the veil between worlds is thin.

It certainly wasn’t stolen, and January 6th 2021 was an insurrection. Sadly, the insurrectionists ‘won’ in 2024.

Happy Halloween Everybody!

IMHO, for this site (and similarly for AO3), what most people are against is the AI slop. (Feed a prompt to Chat GPT, get a “novel” from it. TBH, quite sophisticated and impressed it’s gotten as well as it has; basically a million typewriter monkeys that have some pattern recognition grasp at what the humans are seeking.) I don’t think folks would be against you using something like grammarly, or similar spell/grammar checker with some AI backing to it. I don’t think they’d be really against you using an AI created image as a writing prompt/aid to help visualize the scene you’re about to write/describe. I don’t think that’s at a level of needing disclosure. But then we get closer to the gray line with something like an AI character profile, backstory, or it helping you finish/write a scene. Right now, if AI is forming a substantial chunk of the writing process, disclosure is likely the best policy, and let the reader decide if they want to continue or not. (Just remember, you’re still on the hook for whatever you post.)

For sure, my short one shot ideas always end up becoming longer stories whether I want them to or not.

Yes, That tends to happen sometimes. My own threatens to take more attention than it should.

And that is alright it happens! If you’re not too busy. Leave a Review <3

It’s also devaluing to be accused of using AI for writing simply because you like dashes, ellipses, or using proper grammar.

Virtually recreating ‘infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters’ is going to destroy the planet. All AI companies should be done under whatever the Trade Description Act is in all territories for their use of the word ‘intelligence’ Additionally, a hot cup of tea should be poured into each server. And I say this as someone affectionate to and in favour of true conscious AI. Honestly it’s like having a penchant for custard creams and being gaslit by someone violently screaming in your face for you to admit that’s what an Oreo is. (grumbles incoherently)

As much as I would love to see people use something that would correct formatting and spelling, the onus for that is on the author and not the site. My inner editor may be reduced to tears frequently, but site policy is to let the attempted murder of written English stand around with its flies undone and its complete inability to comprehend homonyms on full display.

This just in: some school districts in the US are banning books about cats. Apparently, somebody needs to have a chat with the administration and tell them those books “aren’t about that kind of pussy.”

I worry I can’t contain myself to a short story though. Although that might be an interesting challenge. To see if I can do something that quickly. I once wrote a 30 page story (which is currently on AFF) in 48 hours. I’m all about the stamina.

I look forward to your entry should you choose to do so

You can always post it regardless. Yours is always worth the wait.

There are now precisely three weeks until Halloween. I wonder...can I write The Lake House in that time? No promises, but I’ll see how far I can get! And of course, even if I don’t finish, I’ll review your works. 🙂

You could always do a flashfic. I’m sometimes amazed by the stories some people can tell in 500 words or less.

Sixteen years on from this post and 77,303,568 people voted to do just that, and more. Sad what has become of the States.

At the moment, I’m mostly using AI for stories that I’m almost certainly not going to write. I have like 50 story ideas that I came up with before AI was a thing that I’m slowly working my way through using my brain. What I’m using it for is fun stuff. For example, there’s a couple of soap opera characters that I’d love to be an actual couple but it’s unlikely to actually be a thing. AFF actually has a couple stories from that soap opera on the site but not with any of the characters that I’m thinking of. So AI helps me have fun with the idea. There’s almost no chance I will ever write them myself or put it out there into the world. That way the idea isn’t nagging me to write it instead of what I’m currently writing.

I’m fairly certain that I read at least parts of it if not the whole thing. But yes, that’s probably true about the terms of service for most people.

Remembering Many Paths To Tread and Open Scrolls Middle-earth fanfiction sites. The former was working fine until the domain expired and it went away forever, and the latter wasn’t tech-maintained and fell into ruin. The domain is still active and I get the default splash page, but the link to the Hall of Scrolls won’t open.

Hello! Apparently I registered here back in 2018 and made one post. Computer changes had me lose the link, and now that I again got a new computer (Thanks Microsoft for ending Windows 10 support) I decided to cleanout my email clutter. Under an ‘Accounts’ folder, I found my activation email for here, so decided to visit. I updated my account and here I am! I do write some fan fiction; mainly in Tolkien’s Middle-earth (my namesake is an OC I created embedded in the Lord of the Rings story). I have recently written some adult modern day drama with several OCs I created, and with some characters others had given to me to use. I could edit and share some of them here if that is acceptable. Anyway, like so many other forums, it looks like activity has waned from the beginning of this decade. The last intro post was in 2023. Hope to be around more since I now saved a bookmark.

Oh I totally get that but there are some who could really use the help. I’ve seen stories where like every sentence is it’s own paragraph or half a sentence is a paragraph. Say what you want about AI but it usually involves structuring stuff pretty well. I’ve been accused of sharing AI images for stuff that I have no idea if it is or not. I just happened to find it on the internet, like a meme or something. The evidence one person used is that a “human being would never make a mistake like that image”. But the problem is that the very type of mistake that “proves” that it’s AI is something humans do all the time… make mistakes.

Using my prior example, the book most often hijacked by AI for those videos is Starship Troopers. Can’t tell you how many times I read that as a kid. Then, when they start going into robotics and whatnot, they start lifting from Asimov.

You may be experiencing what I do. Which is your connection may be unstable. When that happens, the archive draws improperly, or refuses to load at all.

I had ideas… but I didn’t want to restrain any to being a oneshot, and the potter fanfic wanted attention.

Yes, sadly I’m not going to be able to put anything up this year. Probably next year.

A principle that I usually follow in most things. Or at least I think I do anyway.

Sounds good! People underestimate the K.I.S.S Principle. Keep it simple silly.

Perhaps, although my initial feeling is that it’s not Halloween enough. My basic outline has a woman getting out of a sudden rain storm and happening upon a lone cabin with a guy inside. They ride out the storm together, both literally and figuratively. Many dark twists could be done from this.

Agreed!

muses are unpredictable.

Vamp fics can be such fun!

Eventually we’ll have fifty shades of AI. For those that want to use a small snippet for their stories, I’d suggest we have the author mark it out, treating it like any other quotation/excerpt, not to exceed up to, say 10% of content? And if we get a fully sentient self-aware AI, doubt the posting rules here will matter, we’ll be adopted out to responsible AI overlords. Based on the GoT HBO series, doubt AI could make the ending any worse…

Nah, nah, took a night king to torment us with its warning about those who dare to resist him with a book that’ll never finish!

We’ll do that when you join the staff as Review Moderator.

Hmm, maybe we ought to make AI-generated-reviews a FEATURE? Author wants such a review, press the button, ask ChatGPT for its opinion on your story? (Secretly, we’ve hot wired it to troll/flame mode.)

I already have so many author created characters to choose from that it’s almost ridiculous! Different things can inspire an entire story for me, even reading a simple quote I found on Pinterest can result in a flash commercial in my mind for a storyline. That’s when I sit down and take it from there, fleshing out the story and picking which of my characters I’ll cast as actors. I know, kind of bass ackwards I suppose, but it works for me for the most part. The only real problem I have is being overly critical of myself and my writing. That’s why I create the story outline, kind of like a book report on a book that hasn’t been written yet, and try to stay on target. Unfortunately, that’s why I end up with multiple stories going on at the same time. It’s also the reason it takes me so long to publish a story, I have to feel comfortable enough with where the story is going so I know I’ll stay on target. I know things happen but it’s disappointing when I’m reading a story someone else has posted and I’m really getting into it then it just stops and I’m left hanging. I want to do everything I can to avoid that.

My first story was hand written, which I had for ages until it mercifully disappeared. I also had a typewritten story or two that likewise thankfully disappeared. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly crying in my soup that they're gone.