This has probably been obvious for a lot of people already. I'm just catching on now. There's always been a shifting template of what the average aspiring writer's traits tend to be. There are whole industries built on profiting off of new writers, whether it be with good business practises or bad. Forums like this, and I suppose various sub-Reddits, are where aspiring authors will congregate. Endless amounts of Youtube content and how-to books are marketed to this demo (and I must still be a new aspiring author, especially if following the If you see it, it's for you principle regarding the marketing for these things). New authors are also a target demo for LLMs of course. I've seen this on the periphery, but it never clicked in my head that the majority of aspiring authors will be using LLMs for their writing in one way or another, and this is the new normal already. They won't even be aware of most pitfalls. I wonder if forums dedicated to AI writing will also become the new muster stations, where LLM tailoring instruction is as common if not more common than actual writing advice. Even if people don't use LLMs to generate their prose, but rather to get guidance on how to write, they're going to end up with a different set of common detriments in their novice writing than one would normally see, essentially changing the template of an obviously new writer. I can't get over how weird and unavoidable that is. It made me realise that bad fan fiction is and always has been a treasure. It's never going to be the same. From Chapter 1 of My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie LLMs can't write like that. LLMs can't teach people how to write that, and that will certainly subtract a degree of new writer charm.
Fair enough. I can only speak for myself, of course, since I don't know how other writers work. Personally, I don't use and have never used LLMs. I started writing in the mid-90s, and (naturally) life was very different then. (We even had paper dictionaries. Yes, we were that antique). The first thing I wrote was fan-fiction, but since English is my second language, I always paid lots of attention to spelling and grammar. (Yes, I know. I'm a 'grammar Nazi'). I also read widely (and still do), and paid attention to basics like keeping my characters consistent and my plot coherent. (Ahem. I've studied the mechanics of the English language (and other languages) for a long, long time afterwards, so my writing has improved since then - I hope). At the same time as writing fan-fiction, I also experimented with song parodies, haiku, limericks, and other types of creative writing ... always for fun, of course. I wasn't taking it seriously in those days. Flash-forward to about 8 years ago, which is when I started teaching myself about story planning, outlines, beat sheets, and so on. (I suppose I should call this the 'mature' phase). Most recently, I tried learning more about marketing my stories, which is the hardest phase of all. Ugh. So what about you? ===================== ... *blink, blink* What the **** did I just read? How appropriate that you call this a treasure, NtW. The best place for it is to be buried deep underground. I tried reading Harry Potter. It was fine. I just couldn't stand the snobbery of some of the HP fans in those days, gushing about it as if it was "THE BEST THING EVA" and ignoring any sci-fi or fantasy authors that came before Rowling. The media hype around it didn't help. For decades, the fantasy genre was either ignored or ridiculed by the press. Then Potter came along, and suddenly everyone went apeshit about it. If Potter is your cup of tea, fine. But if you truly want to read, read widely. Don't ignore an old book just because it's old. Old books can teach you so much about -- well, everything. Wonderful metaphors, smashing similes, classic plots -- even simple descriptions of nature scenes or street scenes in ways you can't imagine. ... I'm sorry, I don't mean to rant. It's simply the bibliophile inside me. Every so often, I feel I have to say something about how fantastic old books can be. Thank you for reading. That's all right. I've seen some of the things that LLMs can achieve, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. I asked an LLM once to give me (for instance) a fantasy story about a dwarven hero. It gave me the very barest bones, full of cliches, plot holes, characters that made no sense ... and Important Magic Artifacts(TM) that appeared out of thin air. But hey, at least it was spelled correctly ... and it had fine grammar ... so clearly it'll appear as #1 on the NYT Bestseller List. A-yup. Any day now.
I think people are going to begin treasuring works with flaws and typos. Because it has a touch of humanity in it. I am part of the fan fic scene and it has changed so much. So many tags, trigger warnings and excuses now. I don’t use those and live by the ancient rule of don’t like, don’t read. But I think books could become more generic, too. Because books in the popular Romance genre are following the fanfic trends. Which I feel makes people shy away from creativity.
Fair enough. Still, creativity is one thing; using your own spelling and grammar (as above, with that Potter fanfic) is another. Just wondering, Gravy: of all the fanfics in all the world to choose from, how the heck did dross like Twilight and Fifty Shades ever get published, much less become so successful? I've never been able to understand that. Ah, well. You'll never go broke appealing to the lower common denominator.
Because both books wrote things that were not mainstream and yet desired by the readers. I don’t read much romance, but both books are darker, sexier and differ from the meet cutesy romance book. Women, straight or lesbian want a variety of romance stories. Because dark romances are taboo, readers in fanfic lean into it. Every fanfic fandom staple ship was dark. Like Harry/Draco. Edward Elric/Envy. Or Edward/Bella. Dark romances getting mainstream attention makes them popular. And I am no exception. I love me a dark romance story in fanfic land.
@Rath Darkblade I have a little bit more to explain, too. The popularity of Twilight and 5o Shades, and by extension, Game of Thrones, was because it was a little bit of the fanfiction world seeping into the real one. The fanfic world if very different than the mainstream story world. My main complaint about is the two are merging. But that's a whole other thing. It's important to note in fanfiction, most ANYTHING goes. For example, a x or / between names is a pairing. Writing AND or & means friendship. So, you might see a Harry/Draco which is different than Harry & Draco fic. The one thing I DO hate about fanfiction and fandoms is that it convinced me Supernatural was a Gay TV Show. But no. The fandom was just collectively shipping the two brothers who are the main characters. Never been SO mad to read the back cover of a DVD case in my life. Here I was wanting a gay spooky show and nope. The two characters were brothers. As of now, I still refuse to watch that show. Not to mention there are other fandoms where it's really best to use a 'No Incest' note. So people will either read or skip over your story. But that's a whole other story. You can see though there darker stories and romances like the ones you mentioned became popular. I also add Game of Thrones in here, because of the darker themes, incest and sex. (Which isn't actually anywhere NEAR Fanfic levels of explicit.) I think Game of Thrones is Tolkin for Fanfic/Edgy McEdgefaces (myself included. Because I tried LOTR and couldn't. It was too... boring and cheerful?)
*reads the above, agrees and nods, until ...* Wait, what? LOTR is cheerful? *confused* I can't remember the endless walking that Frodo & Sam did with Gollum as cheerful. Suspenseful, yes. I can't remember the endless dread in Gondor, waiting for Sauron to launch his forces against them, as cheerful. Sorry, what about LOTR struck you as "boring and cheerful"? I'm confused!
