BrennanNicholas

[beemovieerotica]

if you work in a creative field...or if you do creative hobbies like writing or drawing...you need to make friends with people who don't do those things. you need to befriend normie Steve who has never written a story in his life. and this is because when you are in a creative job or hobby and spend all your time doing that thing, surrounded by very capable people, who you inevitably compare your own progress and skills to, you forget what the baseline human skill at that thing is. and it's usually zero. normie Steve has not written a story since the 3rd grade when his teacher made him do it. he's very good at other things that are not storytelling - but if you tell normie Steve that you wrote a full 300-page book from start to finish, he will think you're some kind of savant. he does not know ANYONE else who has done this. you need this perspective. because when you're constantly on Let's Write Stories dot Com then everyone on Let's Write Stories dot Com will inevitably be like "oh of course everyone on earth has written a book or several at this point!" and you canNOT let yourself think that. that is not even close to the average human experience. you are in a bubble. do not put yourself down. do not give up.

[rainintheevening]

Okay, we got a new one, boys.

[marsoid]

Ok, just wondering but honestly... what is the big deal to you that people are creating and using chat bots with your characters? It seems like almost all of them do give you proper credit.

I could see being upset if people were profiting from it (I'm more thinking the actual people and not the site, different issues, I can totally understand you having a problem with the site.) but you seem to be ok with people doing fanart and fanfics of your characters, so I don't really understand why your taking such a hard line with this and calling your fans who are using these bots "fucking ass dork losers" because they want to interact with your characters in a way that is a bit more responsive than just writing a fanfic.

Because I didn't give them permission to use my characters this way. And anyone who uses gen ai in any way is unfortunately, a fucking dork ass loser

[marsoid]

I am explicitly stating that I do not give permission for any of my characters, stories, or other IP, to be used to train AI art, writing, or otherwise. Generative AI is a pretty new thing, relatively speaking, and it is also different from regular video game AI btw, which has been around pretty much forever. They’re two different things

I am allowed to be angry at anything for any reason. It’s not unfair for me to feel any type of way, especially in response to people using my characters in a way I don’t approve of.

I didn’t say anyone who’s ever interacted with gen AI is awful, I said they’re Fucking Dork Ass Losers ™️ (scientifically accurate title).

It sounds like you’re confusing me being upset with me like. Hunting them down and hitting them with my car. That would be unfair and a tiny bit of an overreaction. Would be very funny tho

I know most people aren’t shot out the pussy knowing everything there is to know about everything (like i was) so assuming you’re actually interested in learning why normal people hate gen AI so much, here’s a few things to bring you up to speed:

Power Hungry: Why Data Centers Are Developing Their Own Energy Sources to Fuel AI

The spread of AI data centers is larger, more numerous, and faster-growing than anything that has come before to the electric utilities. The

Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power – Environmental and Energy Law Program

What Are the Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence? 

A single AI-focused data center can use as much electricity as a small city and as much water as a large neighborhood. 

How generative AI is affecting people’s minds

Psychology experts have many concerns about the potential impact of AI on the human mind.

Op-Ed: AI art is art theft and should be a crime - The Eagle

As uncertainty around AI grows, artists need legal protections

(Also i just gotta point out the absurdity of trying to explain to somebody why you shouldn’t take someone else’s characters and feed them to an ai machine. Apologies to my followers who came for art and instead get. This LOL)

[jpherron]

FUCKING PREACH IT, MARS

Don't ever feed an artist's art to AI, kids. Don't fucking do it. And I want to add a part that Mars didn't even bring up here: AI is *not* """accurate""" character representation, whether it's generated fics or chatbots. AI algorithms are designed to be people-pleasing, to be addictive, to have you coming back for more, to get you hooked. That's why it's called slop. Slop means there *is NO driving emotional logic* behind an AI's responses, no matter how convincing it seems. There is no *artist* or *author* present who is making *emotionally-relevant* choices for dialogue or story. It will always just be a machine trying to make the sloppy crack that you like that will keep you coming back to it. This is not even you interacting with a Disney World version of Cinderella, where there's an actor behind the mask directing the choices; this is you dealing with a homunculus, a wraith version of the thing that brought you joy in the first place. It will appear so seductively fun and easy and Exactly What You Want It To Be that you'll get fucking hooked and never have to go outside and deal with *real fucking people* who you might have a chance of building real fucking relationships with.

I also want to be clear: I've worked in the tech industry for over a decade. I'm not using techy or academic language on purpose because I want you to understand what's going on, but you can easily google this shit. "AI psychosis" is a good place to start.

Get off AI, kids. Get off of it, I beg of you. For all of the environmental and cognitive health reasons, but also so that you can engage with the world-and fandom-in a way that will actually enrich your life. Don't destroy the very joy that the art brought you in the first place.

And if it wasn't fucking clear.... don't be a Fucking Dork Ass Loser about my art either. I want to clearly say that I do not give anyone permission to put my art or writing in any AI under any circumstances.

[animentality]

[writtenroses1813]

I’m so sorry but in the nicest way possible do yall actually read books or just read words??? Cause I’ve been seeing that trend of people not understanding how “snarled” and “eyes darkened” and “eyes softened” etc. was used in a book and like…

Genuinely, do yall just not have imagination?? Or not understand figurative language??? Also eyes do literally darken and soften have you not lived a life??? How do you read with no imagination? Is this how you get through so many books in one month - you simply don’t take the time the understand the words as they are read?

[raptorific]

if I was a grown adult who had presumably graduated from some sort of children's learning institution, and still objected to using the word "growled" as a tag for dialogue spoken in a low, rough, angry voice, and thought that it actually meant the character finished speaking and then went "grrrr grrrr grrrr" like a dog, I would not advertise that fact by putting on a Rory Gilmore-ass personality about what a good reader I was

[prophetic-writer]

Becoming a writer is great because now you have a hobby that haunts you whenever you don’t have time to do it

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts

[seananmcguire]

Good news! At various points in your development, it is!

As you write, you level up in little ways. It's not like D&D where you get a level all at once. Oh, no. You get tiny improvements to your skill tree, and there will be points where your build is entirely unbalanced. As you adjust to these changes, you will naturally regress in some areas. This is just your mind and overall skill level getting ready for the final leveling, where you're briefly fully balanced again!

TL;DR: Regression is a natural part of improvement, and while it's frustrating as hell, if you keep going, you can write through it.

[redjennies]

i get the idea of wanting more characters who are 30+ because of the media's obsession with youth, particularly in regards to women, but also like, I'm only 31 and I'm already so fuckin tired, y'all. let the 20-somethings go on life-and-death adventures and find themselves. their knees still work. they can handle it.

[redjennies]

this isn't even just for action-adventure plots, either. i couldn't be in a romcom because the most will-they-won't-they I'm capable of these days is "will I get off the couch and go to bed or won't I just fall asleep with the tv on?" if I left the house long enough to have a meet-cute with a charming man who's afraid of commitment because of his tragic part, I simply would not text him back. not even because i'm smarter and wiser now, but because I simply do not have the energy for that sort of shenaniganary any more.

[anexperimentallife]

[the-golden-comet]

This. I cannot stress this enough. 👏

Take control of your book the way YOU want. The joy of writing, and art, is that you can be as creative and imaginative as you want it to be. The less you limit your amazing mind, the greater the possibilities.

You think I give a rat’s ass what publishing companies say? They don’t know your brain. They don’t know how you operate. I’m not PG13-ifying a book to appease a handful of pearl clutchers whose main purpose is to make your art consumable. To say “you can’t do this.”

Watch me.

Were great feats ever achieved by going the safe route? Be daring. Break the mould. Art is not a consumable. Art is the vulnerability that authors, sculptors, painters, and humans alike share together in culture.

Go bravely beyond your comfort zone. Make waves, splash paint onto the canvas. Bleed your heart on that page….and watch as those same publishers come knocking on your door and sliding into your DMs, because you let your personality shine through.

Don’t be intimidated by your book or your art. Intimidate them. Kick that door down and say, “What’s up, motherfuckers? Here I am; take it or leave it.” 💫

[aromanticduck]

There's wholesome ships and there's toxic ships, but I'd like to coin 'sodium chloride ships', where the individuals involved are both horrible and dangerous people, but somehow being together renders them surprisingly well-adjusted (if a little salty).

[aromanticduck]

The opposite of this is a 'coke and mentos' dynamic, where the two people are generally chill and likeable but being around each other makes them both wild and chaotic.

[aromanticduck]

Here's the breakdown:

[dailydormer]

[delilahsdawson-deactivated20161]

This philosophy applies to SO MUCH. 

Agents want to love your book. Hiring managers want you to be exactly the person they need. The person on the other end of that blind date is hoping beyond hope that you’re their huckleberry.

[xylanase]

Applies to interviews too!

[worlds-within-worlds]

A+ philosophy.

[thisfuturemd]

This definitely applies to interviews as well! I really like this! Excellent tips.

[md-admissions]

TRUTH. This totally helped lift my spirits and turn on the charm during interviews!

[aprilsaysgo]

This was never emphasized enough during undergrad. They’re on your side! They want the process to be easy!

[insert-ridiculously-long-url]

That is the most motivating thing that I have come across my entire life.

[just-dnd-thingys]

[describedposts]

[Image ID: Tweet from pea poopingirl @/PoopingIRL on 8/14/23 - i think the idea of a shady dwarven salesman selling "cheap" stuff to humans and laughing to himself like "heh it will only last one generation, those stupid idiots, how will they even pass it down to their kids" forgetting that one dwarf generation is like 4 human ones is funny. There's a black bar at the bottom with an iFunny watermark in the corner. End ID.]

[appendingfic]

Elf ea-nasir selling mithril armor that will last no more than 1,000 years getting death threats from his fellow elves but doing numbers w/humans

[jellymellydraws]

[a-really-hot-caterpillar]

One of the best writing advice I have gotten in all the months I have been writing is "if you can't go anywhere from a sentence, the problem isn't in you, it's in the last sentence." and I'm mad because it works so well and barely anyone talks about it. If you're stuck at a line, go back. Backspace those last two lines and write it from another angle or take it to some other route. You're stuck because you thought up to that exact sentence and nothing after that. Well, delete that sentence, make your brain think because the dead end is gone. It has worked wonders for me for so long it's unreal

[shadowerrata]

I don't remember where I heard this now, but I absorbed the advice, "if you're stuck, count ten sentences back and start again from there". It's not always ten sentences back, for me, but it does force me to look at the last handful of lines I've actually written on a sentence instead of a story level, and that is eminently helpful in unsticking myself most of the time.

[theothin]

I recently resolved a point where I'd been stuck for months not by changing anything in the scene I was currently writing, but by realizing I needed to add another scene before that one to establish key information I couldn't work into the current one

[mackthecheese]

HEY WRITER MUTUALS COME GET YOUR WRITER JUICE

[aurora-the-kunoichi]

[littlebirdofprey]

those posts criticizing common writing patterns in fanfiction are so fucking harmful and they ruined me

so like yknow what??? People tell you to avoid “smirk” and “chuckle” as descriptors because no one does those things (???) but then when I need to use those words I have a ten minute crisis about how I’m a shitty writer. So heres my unwarranted writing advice: If you want your characters to smirk and chuckle fucking let them and don’t let anyone tell you that no one smirks or chuckles because I do both on a daily basis whenever I tell a shitty pun, bye 

[sventhecrusader-deactivated2018]

Edgy fanfiction critics can eat my entire ass.

[raccoonboywrites]

Like y’all have never had a chuckle? For shame

[crystaltoa]

” nobody does that”, Well sure, maybe nobody does that when YOU’RE in the room, buddy…

[ihni]

I smirk and I chuckle and I toe off my shoes and I card my fingers through my own hair (don’t have anyone else to do it to, but if I had, I would) and when I’m angry I growl (or wish I could, at least) and I pop the P when I say Yep. And even if I DIDN’T do all those things, the characters I write do, because fuck the language police, it’s my fic.

[findingfeather]

I honestly hated those BS things when they started coming out of not just fanfic but pro writing advice back in the 90s and 00s.

That’s how long I’ve been holding a grudge against Blanket General Absolutist Writing Advice, by the way. Thirty years now. People would post it on writing lists, or on message boards and I would be the only one going “okay except how the fuck else do you describe that”. Certain Fucking People’s much-vaunted “lists” of how a whole bunch of shit was stupid. Endless complaints about “emerald eyes” with “lololol so sharp edged and glass-looking?” and oh my god how about you fuck off.

And yes, before you go there: I do know the stuff they were reacting to, and the overwhelming trends, and the so forth and so on, and this was still the stupid, wrong way to approach the issue.

Half the time the “purple” prose they were complaining about was literally a deliberate genre feature. You don’t have to LIKE it, but at some point complaining about metaphorical or evocative or otherwise lush language is like complaining about Cats in the Cat Cafe: just stop going to the fucking Cat Cafe, it’s a cafe for cats, what the fuck did you expect to find here, why did you think you’d be able to avoid cats. If you do not like chocolate maybe don’t go to the chocolate festival!

There are almost always examples of the metaphor or whatever that were given a pass and people would bend over BACKWARDS to find a reason but the reason, when it came down to it, is “it was to my taste here/I thought it worked here, I didn’t think it worked over here.” There might be other reasons that it worked or didn’t. (“This character’s narrative voice has been absolutely pragmatic and blunt prose until now and suddenly his love interest has cerulean orbs, what the fuck”.) It might just be a word you personally hate, or a construction you dislike. That’s fine! But an Absolute Truth does not arise from a question of taste.

Again: this is a taste issue. I used to get into huge fights about it being a taste issue at the time, and I will still fight you about it now. Certain tastes can and will become dominant in a cultural zeitgeist (ie more people will have a taste for X or Y or Z kind of prose or even X or Y or Z kind of food in a particular cultural context) and so you will have a better chance of appealing to more people if you follow the current tastes but it’s all fluid, it’s all flexible, and it’s all subjective.

Potentially useful advice on the subject is going to a) come from someone whose taste you care about (ie this is the kind of person you’re writing for), and b) is going to be specific - “I think this piece of yours is using this kind of thing too often and it’s getting distracting” or “I feel like using ‘chuckle’ here gives the wrong vibe/imagery” or whatever. And note I said POTENTIALLY. And that’s for EDITING.

For writing use whatever word is gonna get you to the next word, you can fix it later.

[ad-wills]