I feel like I'm going from annoyed to extremely pissed off every time I saw people saying that the use of em dash is a sign of AI writing!!!! I LOVE em dash😭😭😭😭😭 granted that maybe I don't always use em dash in the right way lol but this little punctuation makes me so happy I use it in every few sentences when writing fics😭😭😭😭😭 I hate that it was reduced to AI level and I absolutely hate that people shrugged it off like only AI use this punctuation😭

Go count your weird amount of fingers AI and leave my em dash alone😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

(Don't want someone to say I am promoting violence so I beeped myself in the title 🥲)

My friend and I decided to do a collab on a fic! I was excited since I rarely do those because I'm quite picky but since they were a friend I thought sure why not. The deal was I do 5k words and they do too. Easy, since both of us write long fics. I deliver my side after about 4 days, fully beta read. They send me their side (today), after a day. I copy and paste their reply into my notes so I can put the fics together and what do it find at the bottom, a text that says (word for word)

"And for now, that was enough. Want a quiet aftermath next? Maybe the evening, when the (situation) and (character name) finally lets himself be held properly?"

I also went back to re read it and some things didn't make sense, along with some very weird and 'elegant' words I've never seen them use, nor have i heard of them (English isnt our main language).

??????????? I spent. 20 minutes reading ai slop. I cannot. I wrote them a message about it but its 2am so they're probably asleep. I genuinely can't believe this. Sorry for the vent, i just needed to get it off my chest.

Edit: After 2 hours, they weren't asleep, they were just doing smth else and didn't see my message. They confirmed they used AI because they 'Didn't know how to continue' When i asked them why they didn't just deny the collab or such, i also pointed out the things in their writing that they never used before in their writing, aka dashes, some fancy wording that i dont think anyone has used since the 1960s, the quotation marks changing looks mid sentence and lastly the prompt left in at the end.

They only went on a rant about how when they feel tired they'll just get an ai to do it for them and then they'll fill the ai writing with their own so it seems more human.

I told them how disrespectful and how they wasted my time and then they just simply agreed that it wasn't the best thing to do. So i blocked them.

(I'm not saying anyone here is using ai for using dashes or words like 'clinomania' or whatever. This was a rant post, and they confirmed it was indeed ai. Reading compensation where)

But thats the end, sadly not the best ending but i expected it after connecting all the dots. Fuck ai, love human writers, good night

Not necessarily ones you just dislike, but ones that you actually find hard to process what you're reading? I was talking with a friend who said they found paragraphs longer than about 5 lines hard to read if they're not broken up by single line paragraphs.

I've never had a problem with those, but I find it incredibly difficult to read full sentences in italics. I don't know what it is but my brain has trouble following it.

Only to realize you've read (and loved) a bunch of their other works.

Or it turns out to be anonymous/orphan_account, so you have no hope of finding their other works.

The best and worst of both worlds lol

I was eleven when I started writing fanfiction, as of yesterday, I’m twenty-one.

I’ve come along way from the crappy gravity falls and once upon a time fics I used to write with nonsensical stories and OCs with the personality of sand paper.

It’s crazy to think it’s been a decade, and what a wonderful decade it’s been. Cheers to ten more years

I’ve had people angry that i didn’t write a character as a religion he was never canonically shown to be but frequently headcanoned as. Like do they REALLY want the main character of my raunchy gay porn fic to angst about how taking it up the ass lines up with his religion? 💀 (especially written by someone who isn’t religious at all)

Has there ever been a comment on your fic that’s made your day? I’d love to hear some positive comments that have made you happy as writers!

For some quick context, I'm writing a fic based on a movie, which is a book adaptation. So, this week, I posted the first chapter of my longfic and I was very, very happy with it. I've been super excited about the engagement it has already gotten, and grateful to the small amount of people who have interacted with it !

My problem now comes with the fact that I just recently started the book the movie is based on, and ohhh... the characterization and events are so very different. Not so, so different that it's an entirely new thing, but now, if I had started the book before I started writing, there is so much I would have changed !! Now it's like I've lost that motivation to write the next chapter, as there is so much I could have done beforehand now...

So I was wondering: thoughts? Should I just take it down and rewrite, or try and figure out how to salvage it? (╥﹏╥)

Specifically, it was a scene where ten characters got into a heated debate and all actively took part in the conversation. I made sure they each spoke at least twice (far more in some cases), had nuanced views on the argument they were having, had individual descriptions and reactions to the situation, and stuck to my personal challenge (to keep it plot driven instead of character driven - perhaps the hardest part of all).

It took me almost 8k words, nearly lethal doses of caffeine, and literally twenty-one hours, but I did it!!!

Usually if I write a big scene like this most of the characters are just background and I kind of summarize their collective reactions, but I wanted to challenge myself this time. I've written plenty of multi character scenes before, but I've never balanced so many characters as an active part of it! I'm not sure how difficult other people find this, but I'm horrible at dialogue and my writing style is really descriptive so this was a huge undertaking for me! Juggling so many personalities was probably harder than my longest fight scene and my first smut fic combined.

I honestly wasn't sure I could do it, but I did, and I even actually really like what I wrote! I was just really excited so I wanted to share. Thanks for reading!

tell me, im curious. for example i, before i did research, wanted to make my characters use shampoo as lube (quite tame, ik)

1) When writing text conversations and other forms of messages do you prefer to see how the character would write/speak or would you rather the text just be the actual sentences?

Is it better to have how the character would write them informally and then at the end of the chapter have the full sentence? Or have it in parentheses next to the message?

For instance:

Full sentence: “Yo D, everything good? You know we’re all a bit on edge after yesterday. Text me back when you get this.”

Informal message: “Yo D evrythn good? u no were all a bit on edge after yesterday. txt me back wen u get this”

2) What about when it comes to inner thoughts? Should they be quoted or should they just be italicized or bolded? Should they be written similar to regular talking or should they be within the describing sentence?

3) With having a character speaking a different language should there just be certain formatting or certain punctuation or both? Should it still be written in English or should there be actual different language written and then at the end of the chapter should that be where the translation is or should the translation be in parentheses next to the foreign sentence?

Also for all 3, should they be bolded? Italicized? Both? In certain punctuations?

Okay, so, I started this fic a few months ago and I have literally NO idea how to continue? I mean, I know it is not finished, it have a lot to go, but I have no idea? I just can't imagine what to do with the characters to keep the plot going and it's so damn hard cause I really want to continue, people actually asked for this and, as a casual writer that do it one in small fandoms and small ships and in my own language, it's pretty rare to see people actually interacting with me, so like, ai really want to give them more chapters but I don't know what to do 😭 damn, I even searched for prompts, but none could actually fit?

Aaaa idk, please give me what works for you, doesn't matter how weird might be, I will try :(

(Btw, idk if it fits the question tag or this one, sorry, I always have a hard time choosing flairs lol)

Interested in a premise where a self insert gets popular by copying stuff from Earth like music, art, techonology, and etc.

I'm a fan of a good gamer fic, but it's difficult to find good ones. What do y'all think are some of the best/better ones?

Years ago, I read a fic where a young (de-aged, perhaps), cocky Slade Wilson was sent to live with Dick Grayson for a second chance at life, but also because the authorities had no idea what to do with a criminal who basically hasn't done or even remembered his crimes. I can't remember all the details, whether he was de-aged due to experimentation or magic or what-not, just that he was young and with only the memories he had at his physical age. Slade has no idea what or who he becomes, just a young man with a chip on his shoulder basically left at Dick Grayson's doorsteps.

It was pretty much a reverse of their usual fic dynamics, with Dick playing the older and more mature of the two while Slade is unsure and unsteady. I do remember the two of them getting domestic, by the end, but I don't remember if it was platonic or romantic.

I mentioned it to a friend and she also wanted to read it, but I can't, for the life of me, find it. I've tried all the tags I thought would fit, but it could be one of those fics where the plot relevant tags weren't tagged, haha. Help would be appreciated!

This was the first piece of smut I ever read and I haven’t been able to find it in years.

It was 1 chapter and about Hermione being sexually abused/being chained up/probably some light bdsm stuff by a death eater (I think it Dolohov or someone less mainstream) in a basement. It was on fanfiction.net and for some reason a red dress comes to mind.

This was THE piece of fanfiction that got me into smut so I really wanna find it just for nostalgia purposes, any help is much appreciated!

I've read a few definitions trying to pin down what exactly slice of life is, but I still don't quite get it. Is it just, like, stories of a character's day to day with low stakes and conflict, if any at all?

I wasn't too sure if this went under 'venting' or 'discussion' since I want to vent but I also want feedback.

I'm part of an online community where most of the people there know I like to write, but I threw in a fix-it idea for the ending of 'Desperate Housewives' when we were chatting about our opinions on the character storylines.

I was pretty happy with what I came up with, but the criticism I received wasn't what I needed. It wasn't constructive or helpful.

I've had bad reviews and flamers on posted fics from time to time, but this felt different. I can't explain it in words. I wasn't even asking for their thoughts; just throwing the idea into the ring during an open convo. But the outright rejection hurt.

My idea wasn't anything elaborate or sketched out, but their reaction really hurt my self-confidence and drowned my mood. I have a lot of cutesy one-shot fics I wrote last month that I'm still uploading, and I'm working on some pining relationship fics, but now I'm second-guessing myself.

I feel lost.

A while back (and unfortunately I deleted the comment without taking a screenshot) someone had commented on one of my Stranger Things fics, it was a basic concept, you know, Steve hurt/comfort, people realize they've unknowingly been assholes, someone points it out, they decide to be better, etc. Obviously there was a lot more to it.

Well someone commented on, basically demanding I rewrite the entire thing, make everyone like 10x meaner, make the fic longer, make Steve suffer more before people realize they're hurting him.

And I'm just???? Like I knew there were entitled people in the community but holy shit. Is this common?

Hi! I read this around 2 years ago and I can’t find it but it was about Spider-Man being homeless after May dies. In the story I remember Daredevil helps take care of him. At one point Peter starts to intern at Matt’s office. Later in the story I think that Peter fights Bucky and bites him.

I have a fic for a relatively small fandom (+3k fics)'s rarepair, which has gotten... not the best reception.

No comments (that are nice), barely any kudos and to be honest the only thing it brought me was enough off-site harassment to put me in a hiatus for three years. I had forgotten the fandom just got another instalment and was just begged to not delete this fic but... to be honest should I? It's just genuinely bad and orphaning wouldn't work because I'm quite literally Known in said fandom for coining the rarepair in the first place.

Helllooo!

I’m wondering if anybody has a copy of a Skyrim fanfic that used to be on fanfiction dot net called “Causa Mortis”. It was a fairly long Listener x Cicero fic that was sooo well written but I cannot find any longer. I tried the wayback machine to no avail. Thanks in advance!

Title, basically. With additional context that this coworker is wayyy more a real friend than a random dude from work but also, ehm, a little bit of a stalker? I like him a lot as a friend but I do not trust this man, he is good company but also a trainwreck of a human.

I'm not embarrassed for my stories (not even the smut) and have always been open about writing fanfic (without sharing details), but... I feel uncomfortable with this person having found my account due to the scouring of my socials he must have done for that. I also feel like... I don't want to post new stories there anymore? The last posted fic was completed end of '23, but... when I write -even fanfic smut- I'm heavily drawing on my own feelings, and given the stalkery behaviour I just... Don't want to give this guy access to any newer writing that would probably be drawing on experiences from a time when he already knew me?

I know he's not really a reader, and he claims he only skimmed my first story (which I believe) but he definitely read my author's notes, including some personal ones about a friendship breakup and I am... BIG TIME UNCOMFORTABLE Y'ALL.

Because my author's notes on my way earlier stories are also personal (about mental health, mostly) and this is the one thing I do not trust this guy to know the details of, I am actually considering going ham and deleting the notes on my old stories. But... I don't know how closely he's watching my stuff atm, I don't want to let him know he made me uncomfortable, and I am kinda angry that I'd have to get rid of my own diary-archive online just to get a sense of comfort back. I've never been a deleter of stuff I wrote online, and I'd hate for this dude to change that. But urghhh.

Advice, please. Should I make a new account? Delete author's notes? Help!

Keep it from getting bashy. Just genuine surprise