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@YouCanCallMeCorn :S

@YouCanCallMeCorn Unfortunately, all true. All those times I got bored when I was a kid because I didn't have constant access to a computer, or phone, or tablet, or whatever? Those were the times I had to get creative and make things to do. Like tell stories when playing with dolls, or go to the library and read, or start writing some of those stories down. People need more boredom in their lives so they can figure out how to use their brains again.

@katiegoesmew  I can’t bring myself to forgive her. At least, not yet. She was shocked that the new chapter was nothing like the AI's version, and I couldn’t help but think, What did you expect?
            
            People hate hearing it, but media literacy really is dying. Just look around: students relying on ChatGPT to write their essays, or Netflix recently decided to spoon-feed audiences by making characters narrate their thoughts and feelings so the story is easier to digest.
            
            It’s all about quick consumption now. Originality is fading, and everyone’s starting to sound the same. What’s worse is that most people don’t even care as long as it sounds “smart.”
            

@YouCanCallMeCorn That's...I didn't even know that was a thing. How can an AI bot predict a story's ending? I really, really hate AI.
            
            I had someone message me on another platform saying they liked my story, but they didn't have time to read it, so they wanted me to tell them the details of it. I was like, um, I wrote it for a reason, so you just have to read it. And then they were asking if I had it up on social media in an audio form so they could listen to it...I ended up blocking them, because even though they didn't have time to read my story, they apparently had time to keep harassing me about alternate ways for them to get the content? Idk. It was weird.
            
            Yes, it's very selfish, and it's very lazy. And what you're feeling is valid.  It's easy to say "don't let it get you down," but not so easy to put into practice. You're putting your heart and soul into writing, and there are people who don't value that, but it is valuable, and so are you. So, do what you need to do to take care of yourself, and just know that the people who settle for AI are settling for cheap imitations of a truly beautiful work of art. And that's their problem, not yours. *hugs*

@YouCanCallMeCorn I haven't read it yet, and it will probably be January or February before I do, but that is a big step for him

@katiegoesmew  I don't care if I'm being biased but I believe it was rather cute that Tetsuya finally had an agency and allowed someone to kiss him rather than being forced to. It's just sad that some readers don't see it that way

@YouCanCallMeCorn Unfortunately, there's a large population of fanfic readers who seek out stories with toxic, abusive relationships and apparently don't see a problem with it, which tells me they have no idea how much victims suffer or how harmful sexual violence is. I know broad generalizations can be wrong, but reading this post made me wonder if this reader (and others who dismiss realistic victim reactions) may read such content. On Wattpad, glorification of sexual violence is against the content guidelines, but it's literally "anything goes" on Ao3, so that stuff is easy to find. Sadly. :(

@YouCanCallMeCorn That's where a lot of the length in chapter count for my story "A Dove's Tale" comes from. Splitting up chapters. Which ended up emphasizing how long it is by a massive chapter count... XD

@katiegoesmew  I'm just used to long chapters thanks to epic fantasy books. Also, when I read fan fiction, I use ao3 or this Russian site, and chapters with over 10k word count are pretty normal there.  In the future, I miiight try the 2k word count for Wattpad. That means me splitting a long chapter into two for the Wattpad version 

@YouCanCallMeCorn Go for it. I think longer chapters in a book are fine, especially later, after you've hooked readers. Prologues with estimated reading times of 30min to an hour—probably not so much (and yes, I have seen this). Before I started paying attention to word count, I had chapters anywhere from 2k-6k words. Now, I *try* to stick to 1900-2500, because a few different writing platforms seem to agree that's the preferred length for readers, but I go over pretty often. Nobody's complained, either way. ;)

@ochun_2012 Because it's tedious and so tiring

Nooo, why? 

@YouCanCallMeCorn Yeah, there are so many things that I'm sure my readers don't catch and don't care about, but they bug me to no end.
            
            That's funny. Along with the comment in "The Kingmaker" in one of the first chapters suggesting the characters use something really modern. I don't remember what it was, exactly, but I remember staring at it for a moment before bursting out laughing. XD

@katiegoesmew The struggles of being a writer—or more accurately, a perfectionist! It's funny because, technically, we could just let these things slide. Plenty of published books have inconsistencies or fail to stick to their own in-universe rules. But just because they do it doesn’t mean we have to.
            
            I actually had the opposite problem with a reviewer once. They questioned why my story included guns. When I asked what the issue was, they said guns are "21st-century modern." I was stunned. It's like they had no idea the two world wars happened in the 20th century; or that firearms existed long before that!

@YouCanCallMeCorn Language is one of those details a lot of people don't think about. Recently when I wanted to type "automatically" in a story set in the Middle Ages, and I was like, nope, they definitely wouldn't say that. Going back through and fixing any language errors like that is on my to-do list for that particular story, along with focusing on historical accuracy...eventually. I'm almost done with a rewrite, so I really need to just finish it first. *sigh*

@YouCanCallMeCorn My brother has a Master's degree in Professional Writing, and learning about the publishing process and industry is part of English higher education. It takes so much money to keep a physical publishing facility open and maintain stock that they have to sell a certain number of books every year just to break even, which means they've shifted toward strong hooks and fast reads. And Charles Dickens is not a strong hook or a fast read, so, yes, they've definitely simplified. :(

@katiegoesmew  Is this a safe space to say that I blame the publishing industry for simplifying everything? I get surprised every time someone my age or younger than me can't read books beyond the 6th-grade level. Of course, there are other factors but succumbing to fast consumption is what is slowly killing the beauty of developing vocabulary 

@YouCanCallMeCorn Agreed. I love having to look up words while I'm reading.

@Olivia_Benedetti  delivering the donations 

@YouCanCallMeCorn what did you do for volunteering 

@Olivia_Benedetti It's the ugly truth about volunteering