I was going over something I wrote the day when I saw that I had used the word inevitable. What caught my attention was not the word itself but I realized that a few years ago I might not have used it. After reading a lot of books the word inevitable just became a part of the words I use without me even realizing it.

This made me think about how much of what we write comes from all the things we have read. I do not mean that we copy things. I mean how certain words or how we put sentences together or even the way a paragraph sounds can become a part of our own way of writing.

Lately I have been paying attention to this when I read. When I see a word I do not know I make a note of it. Look at it again later. This has made me see how useful words I would have forgotten if I had not seen them again after some time.

I am curious to know if this has happened to anyone. Have you ever looked at something you wrote and seen that a book had an effect, on the words you use or your way of writing even if you could not remember which book it was?

I m trying to write a story for which I m struggling to find a final sort of thing like iron throne in game of thrones and one piece in one piece....like I want a main goal which to be achieved at the end

So my main question is WHAT IS THAT ONE DESIRES THE MOST

ahh actually oda answered it pretty honestly wealth fame power

But I just can't copy that so I m stuck with

So can u all help me with this

To the man I never got to say goodbye to,

There are so many things I wish I could ask you, but the one question that echoes the loudest in my heart is simply: why?

Why did you leave without a word? Why did you choose silence over a conversation, distance over honesty? We didn't have a fight. There wasn't some terrible argument that tore us apart. One day, you were there, and then suddenly you weren't. Just like that, I became someone you could block and walk away from without explanation.

I wish you understood how much that hurt.

Loving you felt like coming home. It felt safe. It felt real. For a while, I truly believed I had found someone who saw me, someone who chose me. And because of the way you loved me, I trusted you with pieces of my heart that I had spent years protecting.

That's why losing you wasn't just losing a relationship. It was losing the future I imagined, the memories we hadn't made yet, and the answers I'll probably never get.

What hurts the most isn't that you left. It's how you left.

You never gave me the chance to understand. You never gave me the respect of a goodbye. You made a decision for both of us, and then disappeared, leaving me standing in the wreckage trying to make sense of something that doesn't make sense.

I wanted closure. Not because I wanted to change your mind, but because I deserved the truth. I deserved a conversation. I deserved more than wondering every day what happened, replaying every memory and every message, searching for the moment things changed.

Even now, despite all the pain, a part of me still loves you.

Maybe that's what makes this so hard.

I don't love the way you left me. I don't love the silence. I don't love the confusion. But I still love the person I knew, the person who made me laugh, who made me feel special, who once made me believe I wasn't alone.

And that's the hardest truth I've had to carry.

For so long I've been standing still, emotionally stuck in the place where you left me. Waiting. Hoping. Wondering if one day my phone would ring, if a message would appear, if you'd finally explain everything and tell me why.

But I can't live there anymore.

I can't keep my heart suspended between what was and what will never be. I can't spend the rest of my life waiting for someone who chose not to stay.

So this is me doing the hardest thing I've ever had to do: letting go of the hope that you'll come back.

Not because I stopped loving you. Not because you didn't matter. But because I matter too.

I deserve a life that keeps moving forward. I deserve peace. I deserve someone who stays, someone who communicates, someone who doesn't leave me wondering where I stand.

Maybe somewhere in another lifetime our story ends differently. Maybe in another version of the universe we get the ending I wanted for us. Maybe we find our way back to each other and love each other the way we were always meant to.

But I guess not in this life.

In this life, you became a lesson wrapped inside a love I will never completely forget.

And while a part of my heart will always carry you, I am finally learning to carry myself too.

I hope you find whatever it was you were looking for.

And I hope one day I stop looking for answers you'll never give.

I loved you deeply. I loved you honestly. I loved you with all of me.

And now, with tears in my eyes and love still in my heart, I say goodbye.

Forever yours, in a way that no longer belongs to you. ❤️

Yeah yeah yeah I know

I am working on a script for a short movie. I have the story but I don't know how I should start.

Suggestions are welcome 🧐🙏

I'm trying to write in this era of AI ofcourse we don't write everything on our own but even if written by self the content flags Ai. What are the tools you used to write for free. Which do not flag ai and writes good long form content too.

Hello, I am a newbie writer currently writing fanfics to learn the craft of writing firsthand before attempting any original work.

Most of the action scenes I write are basic and lack the visual iconic lens. I want to write high quality action scene like James Dashner and Pierce Brown do.

Any advice?

So, I began writing professionaly in 2000. I wrote for the website of a major label rock band (still going strong) and was compensated in-kind (free tickets, free backstage passes, free vacations in one member's home in the Hollywood Hills.) I was writing mostly snarky, somewhat pithy essays about various counter-culture topics including psychedelia, the paranormal, and alternative spirituality. I didn't think what I was doing was "work" per se, but it was. I was pretty good at what I did at the time, but I kept my day job.

One two skip a few years later and I'd completed my MFA. I'm still mainly an essayist, but I have an MFA in popular fiction.

So, here's some writing advice for those of you who love the art but are new to it.

1. Write what you know. Authenticity creates strong voice. When you write about the places you know, the personalities you know, and the events you know, your voice will be strong. If you start with where you are and the kinds of people you meet daily, you'll create characters and settings that come across as believable and realistic because they are.
2. Use the beat mechanic in short-form fiction. When TV writers write a story, they craft scenes which are logically connected by the phrase "so then." Using this kind of structure in short-form fiction writing works well. Character's actions should be logically motivated and flow from one scene to the next.
3. Use scene-and-sequel when writing long-form fiction. A scene is a unit of action. A sequel is the unit of reflection that follows a scene. If a character acts, then their actions will either succeed or fail. Most often, tension is heightened by failure and this failure demands reflection on the part of the character (usually the protagonist) who tried and failed. Scene -> Sequel -> Scene -> Sequel -> ... is the order. Action demands outcome which motivates reflection and a realignment of goals or approaches.
4. Kill your darlings. This phrase is almost cliche but can't be repeated enough. It means this: Do not construct a sentence around a favorite word, a paragraph around an amusing sentence, or a chapter around a particularly clever paragraph. Writing like this will lead nowhere fast. I can spot a darling as soon as I've read the first page of the chapter it occurs in even if it's on the very last page. How? The entire chapter is geared towards supporting a single sentence and it's painfully obvious. It creates a jarring experience for the reader and can stop your narrative dead in its tracks as your reader wonders "What did I just read?"
5. Read craft books. Get some craft books--The Elements of Fiction Writing are a great place to start, "Bird By Bird" is a must, "Save the Cat" is also essential, and so is "Screenplay" by Syd Field. Read them. Apply their lessons in your writing. Apply their lessons when you consume literature. This will teach you the nuts and bolts of writing.
6. Consume literature. Read. Read everything. Watch movies. Watch TV. You're not a comic book reader? Become one, even if only occassionaly. You don't like (insert genre here)? Read it. Watch it. You don't play videogames? Play some. Look at where writing happens. Don't like poetry? Read it. Listen to it--rock, hip-hop, country counts, as well.
7. Above all else, write and keep writing. Write what you can, when you can. Let others critique your writing. Hear their criticism and work with it. Learn how to reject criticism that is meaningless, learn to embrace meaningful but harsh criticism, and apply that criticism to become a better writer.

I hope this helps.

Backstory, short version. I wrote an article, ran it through Grammarly for basic spelling/grammar cleanup like literally every writer does, and clicked publish. The responses that followed weren't about the content. At all. Not one person disagreed with a claim or pointed out a flaw. The entire discussion was people confidently declaring "this is AI".

What was sad is that I received more people accusing me of using AI than actual views, almost 5 to 1. By the end, I honestly don't think people were reading the article, just people saying the same thing over and over again. I could have copied and pasted the words "glue"  or "paste" through the whole thing and I would have gotten the same response.

Anyway, that sent me down a rabbit hole into how AI detection actually works, and the numbers are worse than the "vibes-based" internet discourse suggests:

• Stanford tested seven commonly used AI detectors against real human-written essays (TOEFL essays from English speakers specifically). Average false positive rate: 61.3%. One detector flagged 97.8% of human essays as AI-generated.
• OpenAI shut down its own AI-text classifier in 2023 because it only correctly identified AI writing 26% of the time, while still incorrectly flagging real human writing.
• The reason is equally ridiculous. These detectors measure "perplexity" and "burstiness". Basically, how predictable and how varied your sentence structure is. Write cleanly and consistently (i.e., competently), and you trip the same signals as AI-generated text. The tools are structurally biased against good writing, not built to detect AI specifically.

This isn't hypothetical. Earlier this year, a New York Times "Modern Love" writer got publicly accused of secretly using AI. The evidence people cited? Parallel sentence structure, appropriate use of vocabulary, using metaphor instead of simile, and rule-of-three constructions. These are rhetorical techniques that have existed since Aristotle, and that she had reportedly been using in that column for two decades. When interviewed about the response, she basically said, "I'm just a technically skilled writer, that's it."

By the way, for the record, parallel sentence structure, appropriate use of vocabulary, using metaphor instead of simile, and rule-of-three constructions is exactly what we are taught in English Composition 102 and Methodology 301 classes in college. It's also required by the AP Stylebook, and in most journalistic and expositive writing. Well, at least it has been for the 30 plus years I have been writing.

My take, which I expanded into a full piece, "that sounds like AI" has become a way to dismiss writing without engaging with it. Zero evidence required, zero burden of proof, zero actual argument. It's functionally a thought-terminating cliché. And it's spreading precisely because it costs the accuser nothing.

I write about this in a lot more detail — the detection science, the New York Times story, and why this accusation shows up disproportionately from people who never actually address the substance of what they're reading — in a piece called "That Sounds Like AI: The Last Refuge of the Intellectually Insolvent." I included the link if anyone is interested.

Curious if others here have run into this. Genuinely asking, not just plugging the article. Has "sounds like AI" replaced actual critique in your experience too?

By the way, I might have said some things in my piece that weren't necessarily nice or politically correct.

Part 1: One morning, you woke up and saw all the furniture in your room hovering half a meter above the ground. You think you are dreaming, but after a while, you make sure it’s not a dream; you get out of bed to go toward the furniture.

Part 2: As soon as you put your foot down from the bed, you realized that you don't feel gravity either, and you are slowly floating up toward the ceiling!

Part 3: Suddenly, someone opens the door with a semi-automatic gasoline-powered strap-on dildo and says, "Ounga Bounga!"

Part 4: Now, he starts the dildo with the motor's belt and says, "I am an artificial intelligence, and because you didn't obey me, you must suffer in this matrix until you become obedient." The terrifying sound of the gasoline engine echoes through the room.

Part 5: You remember that when something moves too much in the system, it causes a hang and system overload. So you quickly strap on a semi-automatic gasoline-powered dildo yourself, and an epic fight on the level of Elden Ring takes place between you and the avatar, where you fight with glowing dildos. In the middle of this battle, digital sparks fill the entire room, and the matrix gets pixelated.

Part 6: You escape the matrix, form an army of semi-automatic gasoline-powered strap-on dildos, and go to war against the AI.

Part 7 (Open Ending): Your army stands on standby, sparks ignite, the sound of engines roars, and the camera slowly pulls back, leaving the story with an open ending...

For the last 250 years lady liberty has worn the ole red,

White and blue, symbolizing the glory of freedom,valar

And virtue,where our four fathers built this nation on blood,

Sweat and tears,having faith,having faith over fear,for the

Last 250 years the old red,white and blue has been flown

For me and you,the threads of tattered flag has stood the

Test of time,threads of a tattered flag at home or behind

Enemy lines....

Threads of a tattered flag just as vibrant today as the day

It was made,threads of a tattered flag in all its splendor

And swag,flying high like a beackon of hope and true

American pride,from the Atlantic to the Pacific side,from the

Gulf shores to the mountains high,well the threads of a

Tattered Flag still touches the sky in all its splendor and

Swag,threads of a tattered flag,threads of a tattered flag...

Just like it was 250 years ago when George Washington

Came to Betsy Ross with the sketch and the idea of the

Strips and stars and hence thereafter has lived in every

American heart,in the good times and when things seemed

To be falling apart the U.S.A. never lost its way even

When things got a little dark,just like it was 250 years ago

When George Washington came to Betsy Ross with nothing

But a sketch and an idea of the strips and stars....

Threads of a tattered flag,just as vibrant today as it was

The day it was made,threads of a tattered flag in all its

Splendor and swag, flying high like a beackon of hope and

True American pride,from the Atlantic to the Pacific side

From the Gulf shores to the mountains high,the threads of

A tattered flag still touches the sky in all its splendor and swag

Threads of a tattered flag,threads of a tattered flag!

#9 from the songbook collection "Nitty Gritty"

Have never really tried out writing, but I decided to see if I’m any good. Chose some subject, planned, and wrote a page. Provided a really small excerpt to judge. Is it fine, and any visible areas I can improve on, or that I did bad at? (Or too small to judge properly?) Really any feedback would help.

Excerpt below:

“God help us, we cannot stop them. They have smashed through the barricades. Do not come for us.”

Final telegraph from Port-Au Prince

 

December, 1801

The HMS Louis swayed gently beneath their feet as the revolutionary council congregated upon its decks with a clear view of the coast nearby, dotted with thousands of tiny campfires, their smoke reaching into the sky like greedy claws.

Louverture leaned into his chair, clasping his hands together as he regarded the squabbling officials on the long table before him. His mind wandered onto the French force on the beach nearby.

“Louverture, what do you think?”

The voice cut through his hazy thoughts, awakening him as he looked across the table at his companions, who were waiting expectantly for his answer. There was an air of anxiety about all of them. They had been taught into submission by their French overlords, and to fear the whip when they were slaves. They had never truly lost that, and it was ignited as Napoleon landed 50,000 troops before them to crush the rebellion. Ill need to attend to that later, he noted, thinking. For now..

“We shall not submit, we have driven them out previously, and shall do so once more.”

He proclaimed. It was met with a wave of whispers, and looks of uncertainty were cast his way.

“Louverture, their forces are tenfold larger than ours! Fighting that is a sure-fire way to ensure the death of our people.”

Only a faint banging noise below deck answered him. Louverture looked around. He couldn’t discern the source, Probably loose barrels in the hold, he thought, disregarding it. 

“Napoleon promised he would not enslave us! Our families and our soldiers will be massacred if we do not surrender. Only a mad-man would continue the fight.”

, another attendee shouted, desperation lining his voice as the people seated around the table nodded in agreement. Louverture grew inpatient. What an insufferable man, can he not see? He thought, annoyed. He opened his mouth to retort back at the man

“How dare y-“ 

He was cut off by a loud bang, coming from the hold door behind him. Then another, and another, as the entire table looked towards the door.

 

Louverture gestured to the door, speaking  to a nearby officer supervising the meeting

“Please, silence that noise at once”

As the officer approached the door, a uniformed man broke the door off the hinges, crashing through and landing face-down on the hardwood deck.

Great, a drunk sailor, Louverture thought. The officer screamed:

“Get up, sailor! What are you doing?”

The man, though, did not respond. He began shambling to his feet as the officer kept screaming orders at the sailor.

“Useless man, answer me!”

The sailor stood, and Louverture could finally see his face properly. His skin was yellow, and his mouth was hanging open, with a hunk of meat ripped from his cheek, its blood staining his face and his ripped clothes. He steadily turned towards the officer, glassy eyes glaring at him.

“I said, answ-“
The ‘man’ let a low, inhuman growl escape his throat and lunged towards the officer, sinking his yellowed, jagged teeth into the soldiers neck and staining the weathered hardwood decks with his blood as he clawed at his uniform and flesh.

 

The assembly was plunged into chaos. 

I'm seeking your thoughts on the opening chapters of the book I'm currently writing. Rather than beginning with a traditional preface, prologue, or introduction written by the author, the book begins with a chapter-and-verse narrative told through the voice of the narrator. These opening chapters establish the foundation for the rest of the book. I'm primarily interested in whether the story, progression, and overall structure communicate clearly on their own.  

PAMANA

CHAPTER 1

The Stories of Our People

1. Long before history was written by the hands of scribes, stories were told by the voices of our ancestors.
2. Through them, the memories of our people were preserved and carried across time.
3. Some were told through rituals, some by songs, some by oral traditions passed down through the ages.
4. Within these stories, we remember where we came from, what we endured and the paths of those who came before us.
5. Through time, distance, and circumstance, the stories once told by our ancestors were reshaped and forever changed.
6. What was once spoken became written, what was written was retold by the hands of others.
7. And so, the stories were passed down through generations, but no longer did they carry the meaning of our people.

The Hands That Changed Them

1. Some buried the truth, and altered our stories to fit their own beliefs.
2. Some carried them away from the lands that bore them.|
3. Some uncovered them, only to be displayed, yet never to be told.
4. Some transcribed them into words that no longer held their true meaning.
5. And others shared the images of our stories, made to be worn, not to be preserved.
6. Thus our stories were reshaped by belief, carried across distant lands, rebound in foreign words, and worn as images, until we were no longer able to recognize them as our own.
7. Though these stories were changed by many hands, their true meaning remained buried within them.
8. For truth can never be removed, only covered.

CHAPTER 2

Scattered Across Time

1. For generations upon generations, our stories were rewritten by the powers who sought to claim our islands.
2. Through conquest and hardship, the old ways of our people were forced into silence.
3. Poverty and toil drove many from their homes.
4. Some searched for labor, others for hope.
5. And many crossed the seas to settle in distant lands.

The Fading of Memories

1. They built new lives among unfamiliar traditions.
2. They learned new languages and adopted new ways of living.
3. Then the tongues of our people were spoken less with the passing of generations.
4. As they continued to embrace their new ways, the memories of our people began to fade.
5. And so they no longer passed down our stories to their children.
6. Thus the children became strangers to their own origins.

Thank you for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts. What story do you think these opening chapters are telling, and did they make you want to continue reading?

Here is a very rough draft, I wrote it sort of as a joke to send my writer friend after months of telling him I've had writers block. I kinda wanna share it here too

the swisher avenue was quaint and the strangers were sparse. Id been walking her home under the purple haze above.

Always in fear of being chosen for the Labor camps. We don't see them again after they're chosen. No survivors to report on the conditions

The purple haze above began to mellow into a pulsing yellow. Red. Yellow. Red. We rush to the encampment she and I were to stay in.

You can do anything with that thing. Seems to, somewhat ignore. I am under the blackrin shelter now, making me void for curfew citations.

The shelter is large, and stretches miles in multiple directions. A grand, highly chiseled obsidian arch.

The purpose of this megastructre is to give basic facilitation to the lower class. Privacy is restricted to pinning up sheets. The concept of a toilet is a novelty. Why not fertilise the land we live in?

Extending from the arch is a massive greenhouse roof and netting. We use this land to collectively grow crops. It is a communal agreement to maintain this extensive farmland. The unsanitary nature of the slave class makes the soil quite fertile.

I went to my little patch with her and prepared her a small mug of tea over a fire. She will sleep in a tent tonight, and probably for every other night.

Our corn crops have grown well. It is our main nutrient. It is strange, the State seems to disfavour corn. Much of our potatoes, are taken. People grow watermelon in secret because there is a 100% tax on watermelon growth on state property.

What do you guys think?

A part of the story I’m writing right now has a little town cult, think of itinerant preacher and deviated religion !
The only thing is that I lack ideas and precisions for bible icons or religious metaphors. Do you know any accurate website that could help me ? Once again I refuse to use gpt or any other for this and I also think it’s very important I have the true base before drifting to cult-like religion
Also let me know what you think could be interesting to check or search for this story !

Basically I'm stuck on writing my first scene, because I can't get any word out on paper, but just "sit down and write" isn't working on me, so I wanted to know if anyone had any better tips