“Boring When You Aren’t Around,” He Said With A Grin. Finishing Up His Own Food And Standing, Holding

Project “Love Up Fic Writers” is go.  

In light of the recent spike in negativity directed towards fandom writers I’m issuing a personal challenge to myself (and anyone else who wants to join) to perform at least one (1) act of kindness and/or encouragement towards fanfic writers a day for the month of May, particularly towards authors who are often overlooked or are not as well publicized.  

Acts of encouragement include leaving comments, writing notes of appreciation, assembling rec lists, and creating fic illustrations, music, graphics, gifsets, etc, as well as other shows of appreciation not listed.  It can be as casual or labor intensive as your personal comfort level allows (I’m sure a lot of you guys do these things already lol) as long as the act shows your personal appreciation towards the writers in your life.  

Note: Please don’t use this as an opportunity to lash out at popular fandom writers or perceived BNF’s – this is a challenge to uplift the fanfiction writing community as a whole and particularly those who aren’t told often enough how much we appreciate their efforts.  

friendly reminder that it’s okay to leave fandoms

friendly reminder that it’s okay to not be as obsessed as other fans

friendly reminder that it’s okay to like things casually, you can like a book/movie/show and never talk about it, it doesn’t mean you liked it any less

friendly reminder that books/movies/shows can inspire original stories and artwork and new hobbies as well as fanart and fic and fandom related hobbies and it is 100% okay to steal parts of a story and make it yours

friendly reminder that you can be any kind of fan you want, including not outwardly looking like a fan

Writing Tip 4

Rather self explanatory today. Whether you're writing a fanfiction or a novel, do your research. I can't explain how many times I've stopped reading a story because of iPods in the 80s, matches in 307 BC, indoor plumbing in plague ridden England during the Dark Ages. Seriously, it's impressive when a writer adds history or cultural facts to their story (particularly fanfiction, which I love, but is riddled with problems). I don't mean just use Wikipedia, skim through history books or read up on villages or other countries. I promise in the end it'll make you feel good and further your pride in your work. Publishing companies also will usually throw your work automatically out for not researching things, if the above wasn't incentive enough.

Based off a dream I had. This is not me, but I dreamt of a girl in love with a pirate captain. She waited on the shore, waiting for his ship's signal but it never comes and she stood there in terror asking "What do I do now, Cass? What am I supposed to do now?"

@sinedra provided her name, Cece. The pirate captain's name is Caspian and he is here:

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you have to manually update your settings again in order to see any posts on this website. 🙄

How to Detect Text Written by AI

Once my mutuals reminded me not to let fear take over and to get out of my own head, I did. And when I did, I realized something—those who are feeding authors’ fics into these notoriously unreliable AI detectors are actually helping these companies by giving them more data. And most of these companies? They also have their own AI content generation tools, which means they are using the samples of the writing of from those authors’ to improve their own AI generation tools.

So now, I’m not just scared—I’m scared and mad.

Instead of making unproductive call-out posts that don’t actually help the community recognize AI-generated text, let’s do something useful. Let’s talk about ways you can be empowered as a reader to spot AI-generated content.

There is no fool proof method to figure out for sure if a text is AI generated, unless you are literally physically sitting with the writer watching them write like they are a zoo animal.

AI detectors are unreliable and inconsistent. Plus, with how quickly AI-generated content is evolving, these tools are constantly lagging behind, making them outdated and even less effective over time.

Thus far, the best AI detection is YOU. It isn’t easy at first, but the research shows that you can learn how to do this.

One article from the MIT Technology Review (2019) states:

Another study found that untrained humans were able to correctly spot text generated by GPT-3 only at a level consistent with random chance. The good news is that people can be trained to be better at spotting AI-generated text, Ippolito says. She built a game to test how many sentences a computer can generate before a player catches on that it’s not human, and found that people got gradually better over time.  “If you look at lots of generative texts and you try to figure out what doesn’t make sense about it, you can get better at this task,” she says. One way is to pick up on implausible statements, like the AI saying it takes 60 minutes to make a cup of coffee.

Fun fact: This article has the journalist submitting her own work to various AI detectors, one of them being Originality.AI, which indicated her writing had a 50-50 split on being AI and human.

One of the problems with these large language models (LLMs), as this article from Capitol Technology University points out, is that it has made AI generated text more complex, making it harder to tell it apart from human writing. But, they share some signs you can look for, as described from their article below:

Inconsistencies and repetition: Occasionally, AI produces nonsensical or odd sentences which can be a clear indicator of AI-generated text. Abrupt shifts in tone, style, or topic can point to AI that is struggling to maintain coherent ideas. Whereas humans often vary structure to create a better flow, repeated phrases or sentence structures can point to AI relying more on memorized patterns. Occasionally, AI produces nonsensical or odd sentences which can be a clear indicator of AI-generated text.

Context and content: If the text seems to be unable to grasp the larger context of the writing, is missing the point entirely, or references specific details without appropriate context, it could be AI.

Does that mean all inconsistencies, excessive repetition, or overly descriptive writing automatically indicate AI-generated text? No, absolutely not. Writing styles vary, and many human writers naturally have quirks like these.

This article from Forbes (2024) identified 5 ways to help identify AI generated content, but I feel these 3 specific ones best apply to fiction and fanfics:

Language Patterns: AI generated text tends to lack emotional subtlety, be overly formal, or use complex words, leading to the sentences sounding stiff and not flowing well. Alternatively, the over use of cliches. Consistency Issues: AI generated text tends to struggle with narrative details, leading to abrupt changes in the story. For example an abrupt change in the description of a setting without explanation. Unusual Language Errors: Sometimes AI generated text uses odd and unusual phrases that feel out of place.

Again, does this automatically mean that writing lacking emotional subtlety or being overly formal is AI-generated? No, not at all. Writing styles vary, and some authors naturally have a more formal tone or a direct approach to storytelling.

If I find a story that I think is AI-generated, what should I do?

1. Pause and Assess – Don't Jump to Conclusions

AI-generated text can sometimes be hard to distinguish from human writing, and many of the so-called “signs” of AI can also be just someone’s writing style or someone being new to writing. Before assuming a fic is AI-generated, take a step back and look at it critically.

Does it actually feel off in a way that suggests AI (such as major consistency errors, repetitive phrases, or nonsensical sentences)?

Or does it just have a different writing style than you’re used to?

2. Don’t Rely on AI Detectors

As shown in multiple studies and real-world examples, AI detectors are not reliable. They are inconsistent, often outdated, and can flag even completely human-written work as AI. Using them as definitive proof, even with the above information does more harm than good.

Also, some of these AI detectors programs also have AI generation programs. You are literally providing more data to these programs to help improve generate AI text.

If an AI detection program does not appear to have a a sister program that generate AI content, ask yourself:

Could this company be mangaged by a parent company that DOES have an AI generated program?

Have you read the terms and conditions to agree to use this AI detection program? If not, have you considered where does the data you have it analyze go? Is it stored and sold to 3rd parties to be used to improve AI generated content programs?

3. Consider Reaching Out to the Author First

If you still have doubts, and you feel it’s appropriate, you could politely reach out to the author. Instead of accusing them, ask about their writing process or how they developed the story. Most human writers love to talk about their inspiration, research, and creative choices.

4. Avoid Public Call-Outs

Unless you have strong, irrefutable proof (which is very hard to get), publicly accusing someone of using AI can do serious harm—both to the writer and to the community as a whole. False accusations drive real writers away from sharing their work.

5. If You’re Concerned About AI in Creative Spaces, Advocate for Constructive Discussions

Instead of call-outs and AI detectors, push for conversations on how to navigate AI in fandoms and creative writing spaces in a way that doesn’t rely on fear or false accusations. Encourage transparency, but also respect that writers shouldn’t have to prove their humanity just to share their work.

Thank you and I will now go back to playing in my little section of the dragon age sandbox where I make Solas kiss Lavellan.

@janeopries they all speak to me. I don't know what you're talking about.

Tropes that are totally overused and I love them to death

grumpy jerk and actual ray of sunshine are BFFs

mutual unrequited pining

character A falls fast and hard for character B

character A slowly falls in love with character B over the course of several years, realization hits them that they’ve been in love with B for a long time hits them like a truck

cool badass is actually a giant fucking nerd

The Power of Friendship ™

flat “what” reactions

sweet adorable characters with horrible tragic pasts

villains-turned-heroes becoming the Weird Uncle

characters that aren’t actually related having a parent-child relationship

characters that aren’t actually siblings having a sibling-like bond

“I can’t stand this person but I would die for them”

@janeopries, right back at you.

That random person you met online and now is a big part of your life

@sinedra

@janeopries They would stop living, just give up, not even fight.

Hello there, gorgeous. Absolutely perfect, could do no wrong, ever. I'd die for them. Oh, and Reave's there too.

All kidding aside, absolutely amazing work. I love this so much. And it's not even my commission (but I did make the bastard, soooo maybe?) Love your work, Jano!

@sihakadan, I know you're drooling over him.

Almost done working on this commission!