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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.

Alright, that took longer than I’d expected. Invidia also has my apologies if there are a million notifications for a review, because I kept trying to fix a problem with the review of BW’s story, which meant deleting the review and resubmitting it. I put emphasis on “trying” because ultimately, the site seemed insistent upon crunching the entire review into a single block of text, removing all the spaces between paragraphs. I am sorry for how much of a pain that is to read, as it was not my intention. 😅

Well, as you all know, I was able to make progress on The Lake House, but not to finish it by a week after Halloween. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, because I was struggling with how to integrate the theme of the piece into the ending, and it wasn’t until after the deadline had passed that I realized how I might be able to use it. So the extra time will (hopefully) lead to a better end product when it’s finally completed. I’ll keep working on The Lake House, and will either post it when it’s finished or throw it into the ring next Halloween season (fingers crossed that things are still stable for me next Halloween). In the meantime, I’m working on Meaningful Gifts again and have left reviews for both Invidia’s and George’s chapters of the Halloween story. I’ll read BW’s chapter on break at work tomorrow!

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 🤣

Happy Turkey Day! <3

For those that celebrate it today, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! p.s. Also, remember to set your bathroom scales back 10 to 20 pounds.

@InBrightestDayFrom InBrightestDay on November 16, 2025 The intent wasn’t to get you thinking of any particular movie, but yes, we’re all armchair quarterbacks when it comes to judging the decision-making of horror-movie protagonists. You’d kind of hope that were we in the same scenario, we’d remember that its smarter to run out the front door than down into the basement or up to the attic (thank you, Sydney from Scream), but you just never know what snap judgments you might make. Thanks for the comments!

It’s a wonderful review—thank you!

I was wondering why my phone was randomly going off. lol.

A very happy birthday to @DemonGoddess! Hoping the day, and the coming year, are happy, healthy, and safe!

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.

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*

*dies laughing* I’m telling you, that would be my luck! And I’d probably get extra lashings for random abuse of Gaeilge while they’re at it.

*Bronx opens the door to find two men in suits standing outside* ”We work for the Irish government, and we hear you’ve been telling an unhealthy amount of stories about faeries...” “...The Irish government reads Adult Fanfiction?” “DON’T QUESTION OUR METHODS!”

🥰

We are aware of the issues with TinyMCE. Manta is working on patches now, in preparation for a big upgrade in December. -- Manta has patched all the editors. They’re basic, but should work for what is needed.

Okay, I figured it might be a bigger issue but also plausible that I somehow clicked the wrong thing.

Totally get that although I haven’t seen much of it. Most of the YouTube videos I watch aren’t using AI.

Insidious Sometimes a perfect day comes with terms and conditions. Idle wishes can be overheard. (Violence)(Corruption)

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.

Thanks. I don’t write as much as I did long ago, but still am deep in the Middle-earth fanfiction and collaborative writing. I’ll see about sharing some of my old stories here.

More than a few times my wife and my collaborative fanfic writing set within the lines of Tolkien’s Middle-earth canon has gone off the rails. Our ‘Kin-strife’ story and out ‘Last Princess of Cardolan’ story really stretched the limits of what ne could do within the written canon framework. We’re currently working on another one called ‘The Tale of Valacar and Vidumavi’ which is a prequel to ‘Kin Strife’.

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, trust me, I imagine the number of people who have actually read the Terms of Service are a distinct minority compared to those who are shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find out we have rules. They won’t be any more likely to observe site restrictions on AI, and yes, that is a deeply cynical point of view.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 can totally relate to the comments about overthinking, I’m accused of doing that with everything!! When it comes to character building, however, I kind of treat it the same way as I do when I develop the general plot of the story. I create a Word Doc entitled “Cast of Characters for...” and list what role they play in the story. It is seriously a big help when you’re working on a story that ends up being presented in parts, like what’s going on with a story I’ve been working on for a while. I made the fatal mistake of falling in love with my villain and that took the story in a direction I didn’t want to go.

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.

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