Hey, this ask isnāt exactly an about self-doubt, but feel free to ignore this anyway!
I came across a reel which was about certain fanfic āwritersā who were caught using ai in their works, and many comments were along the lines of, āthis is why I read fanfics written before 2020ā or āthe overuse of the em dash is always tellingā or āif the sentences are choppy/if there is a lack of conjunctions, itās probably aiā; you get the idea.
I have been writing for a while now, but I only started posting my works recently. While Iām aware that writing or anything creative should be done for personal enjoyment, it always feels good when your work is appreciated. But because of the insane AI witchhunts, I canāt help but feel that it hampers the way I write, as I am constantly thinking if I should write a sentence a certain way, or use a different kind of punctuation(for I like using the em dash), use certain vocabulary, etc. Iām aware that this is more of a personal problem. Even so, do you have any advice on how to get over this paranoia? Should I consider making slight changes in the way I write? Since you write fanfiction, what is your take on these AI witch hunts? This might seem like a silly ask overall, but I feel helpless as I really want to put my work out there, but I'm scared that it will be flagged.
I donāt know if youāll see this, but thank you nevertheless <3
my take is they'll pass. the "witch hunt" is a handful of people with too much time on their hands (teenagers), time that could be better spent.
You won't be confronted. If anyone does, they've watched too many gossip vids and read too little literature for their literary criticism to matter. They can't harm you in a way that matters unless you let them hurt your feelings.
Scroll past or block drama-mongering videos like that. If you don't feed the paranoia it will eventually go away on its own.