Hello #WritingCommunity
Apparently #Google has changed their privacy policy and now says that they'll scrape everything you post online to train their AI tools.
I even post my #Fiction online on #Substack & my #Wordpress blog and now wonder if this is a bad idea.
They say paywalls could deter the scraping.
What do you think writers can do to protect their content? Or should we just roll over and accept that this is the way things will be from now on?
I drummed my fingers on the table beside her open grimoires. Not facing the bully, I turned my eyes toward the blonde, taking in her arrogant smile. She'd gotten me to do what she wanted. She held her wand steady, and the tip glowed like hot iron. "And that's all I need to do? I can't believe you're helping me like this after all we've been through..."
The bucket-full of water and me being hit by said bucket falling off the shelf above the door. The vanishing ink pen I used on a test. The worms in my box lunch. Other things. But I was also a T.A. Some responsibilities where inescapable.
I did volunteer to help Jill.
I wanted to laugh at the "we" in that last sentence, but sighed instead. She was predictable. Very predictable. "The mnemonic, the equations, the visualization. Spot on. It balances and your wand indicates that."
"So all I have to do is say what I want to conjure?"
Predictable. I didn't grin. Instead I switched to French, hopeful. "/Tu m'emmerdes avec tes questions!/"†
She blinked. "Merde? Isn't that French for—"
With magic you really need to be specific about where to target a spell affect and what you're asking for. She'd been specific about neither.
Where your wand is pointing is the default. Her's pointed above her head.
The spell understood what she wanted enough that the closest source proved to be the horse stables. I could see it out the dorm room window. The spell mucked every stall.
A load of small round spheres crashed down around her, bouncing off her head and bounding around the room. I squealed reflexively and jumped away.
I doubled over leaning against the door, laughing despite the smell. For her part, the bully sat stunned. Her expression wanted to be a smile. She had succeeded, after all. She also knew she'd been made the fool.
Exiting out the door was the better part of valor. I grabbed the nob.
"/Amélie/," came a growl.
=-=-=-=-=
† "You're so annoying with your questions!" Literally: "You're shitting on me with your questions."
#WritersCoffeeClub Jan 1: What are your writing related New Year Resolutions?
I don't really do resolutions, but let's try this: I'll actually send my work out more this year. Get serious and make a list of agents, and just go through the list.
In celebration of the 50th birthday of Stephen King's first novel, "Carrie," NPR polled its readers on their favorite King books. Here's what they chose. Which is your top pick? Tell us in the comments if there's a gem that didn't make the cut.
Got down to #author stuff, now that I'm retired and can devote time to the #business of #writing#fiction. First order of business: catalog the unsold novels from after the burn out that need revision and rewrites.
Turns out that disconnecting my Mac from my work VPN messed up my folders. I had somehow mapped (don't know the Mac term) my work Windows computer folders to the Mac, and when I look in documents it tries to find it on the network and fails. If I reboot, so long as I go directly from my user's directory to documents directory, I'm good. If I click on Documents in Finder, it redirects and I'm screwed.
First thing I did was copy all my writing folders to the desktop. At least I've lost none of my old novels and short work.
I thought there were 7 completed books, and I said so online. There are actually 9, three that form a trilogy and one novel with a sequel in the mix. There are two incomplete novels.
Some works are older than others. Pages refuses to open one novel from 1996, a fun space opera that possibly has the highest chance of early sales. I haven't tried the others. Now I gotta install Word, of which I am not a fan, and investigate programs that'll open the really old files. If anyone wants to chime in with suggestions, please do! (I can always find someone with a Windows machine if need be.) Putting Google on TODO. I actually have original copies of chapters from my Apple ] days, but thankfully I updated those to the Mac and to a new millennium version of Word in what were my PowerPC days.
Incidentally, there really are three novellas in good shape.What surprises me though? There looks like about 15 short stories, many complete because I see multiple submissions in the various folders. I completely forgot about these, and was sure I never wrote short-form.
Well, it seems most of you would rather have dinner with Lt. Columbo than Adrian Monk. Out of the 62 people who took the poll, 85% picked Columbo, and 15% picked Monk.
So, tell me. Which fictional detective would you like to see #Columbo go up against in my next "Who would you rather have dinner with?" poll?
The one with the most votes will go head-to-head against Columbo.
Eugen Rochko recently posted a thought:
"I think it comes down to, AI has no place in the arts. Machine-generated art has the appearance of what it is emulating, but no substance. Like cake made entirely of fondant. Or cardboard."
'Aiono' replied: "Also even if it could, like why would you automate one of the most entertaining part of being a human?"
Do you reply to your last toot, or do you reply to the initial toot of the thread? Why? (Please reply to the thread.) Please boost for a bigger sample size..
Book description: A forty-ton truck hurtles out of control on a snowy country road, a teenage girl on horseback in its path. In a few terrible seconds the life of a family is shattered. And a mother's quest begins -- to save her maimed daughter and a horse driven mad by pain. It is an odyssey that will bring her to. . . The Horse Whisperer He is the stuff of legend. His voice can calm wild horses and his touch heal broken spirits. For secrets uttered softly into pricked and troubled ears, such men were once called Whisperers. Now Tom Booker, the inheritor of this ancient gift, is to meet his greatest challenge. Annie Graves has traveled across a continent with her daughter, Grace, and their wounded horse, Pilgrim, to the Booker ranch in Montana. Annie has risked everything -- her career, her marriage, her comfortable life--in her desperate belief that the Whisperer can help them. The accident has turned Pilgrim savage. He is now so demented and dangerous that everyone says he should be destroyed. But Annie won't give up on him, for she feels his fate is inextricably entwined with that of her daughter, who has retreated into a heartrending, hostile silence. Annie knows that if the horse dies, something in Grace will die too. In the weeks to come, under the massive sky of the Rocky Mountain Front, all their lives--including Tom Booker's--will be transformed forever in a way none could have foretold. At once an epic love story and a gripping adventure,The Horse Whispererweaves an extraordinary tale of healing and redemption--a magnificent emotional journey that explores our ancient bonds with earth and sky and hearts untamed. It is a stirring elegy to the power of belief and self-discovery, to hopes lost and found again.
Last time I asked for #recommendation the results were amazing so here goes another: looking for chapter books for 5-8yo kiddos!
My kid doesn’t read yet but we certainly have a good time when I read them out loud. So far we’ve read the following:
Roald Dahl: Witches, James and the Giant Peach (ongoing), and Charlie and the Choco Factory (lined up)
Harry Potter’s Year One: we have two and three but I’m leaving those for later. Probably after she turns 8 or so (she’s 5 now)
The Little Prince
Genre-wise, we’ve read #Fiction and #Fantasy but anything different would also be great. I’m up for anything that could continue to nurture interest in reading, empathy, wonder, and a good moral compass.
#WritingWonders 7.9 — What are you good at when it comes to writing?
People have complimented me on my dialogue.
Recently, I've switched from 3rd person to 1st person narrative. That's essentially the MC talking to the reader, which may explain why my writing feels so much more fluid and natural.
I read most everything I write aloud. It has to pass the speech test. Getting tongue-tied is a bad sign.
So...
My answer to this one is what I am doing now. Talking to the reader. What do you think? Does it work for you?
#QuestionOfTheDay: What's a work you would consider to be good/enjoyable "mid" and what's one you would consider to be bad mid? What makes the difference in your opinion?
The fastest way to get me to put a book or story down is to over use exclamation points! I hate it! Don't do it! If every sentence you write ends with a bang, then there is no impact there!
I'm starting to wonder if I wandered into a "new" genre of #literature or #art.
I'd sum it up as "Heirloom Fiction".
A work of art that combines some of your life experiences and lessons that you want to pass on. It can be collected and added to over the generations. Resulting art and commentary would be like a conversation through the generations.
Have you heard of or read something similar?
What do you think of it?
Want to start your own? Let's figure out what that even means!
I admit when it comes to knowledge of Peter Straub's work, I am lacking. I know of him thanks to his collaborations with Stephen King (The Talisman, Black House). When Straub passed away last Sept, I felt I had missed something by not enjoying his writing while he was still on this earth.
Many said at the time that Shadowland is his best work. I'm reading it now. Slow going, but good so far.
I haven’t found ChatGPT’s composition to be all that compelling or well-done. I mean, it’s impressive that the technology can do it at all, but does anyone have an example of anything like a 3k word story that is well-written and fun to read with a unique voice? Not saying this could never happen (with future models), but every time I’ve prompted a story it’s pretty weak and obviously AI-generated. What am I missing? #ChatGPT#WritingCommunity#fiction#AI#MachineLearning#LLM
Does sci-fi shape the future? Tech billionaires from Bill Gates to Elon Musk have often talked about the impact of novels they read as teens, from Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" to Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series. Big Think's Namir Khaliq spoke to authors including Andy Weir, Lois McMaster Bujold, @cstross and @pluralistic about how much impact they think science fiction has had, or can have.
#PennedPossibilities 85 — MC POV: Tell us a quick love story. The story must end badly. CW: Um, frank talk?
I thought he was dead. The only guy who'd ever had a crush on me. My lieutenant from my days in the mob. He'd been bleeding when I'd shoved him through the /Interstellar/ apparition a year ago. When I'd escaped through the same working ten minutes later, the street it was anchored to in Home City was abandoned—but for Praetorian guards too frantic to notice me because Director Rainy Days had roared through only half a minute before, in full battle mode, without any of her guards.
A year later, Rainy Days cornered me. To convince me to stay, she'd baited her trap with him. She'd made him a cadet in her Praetorian guard, and oh my—my—my, did he look good in that uniform. He stepped up to me, no longer blushing or stuttering, not able to say those words that he liked me. No, he stepped up to be, cupped my chin, and kissed me deeply.
My knees nearly gave out, despite my worst enemy standing less than a dozen standards away from me. My heart racing, I returned the kiss, warming up, and letting him put a hand behind my back.
Rainy Days said something like, "She should get a room."
I stepped back, a hand on my lieutenant's chest. I looked at her in complete shock, but I couldn't think of anything sufficiently sarcastic. I flashed her a hand-gesture instead, then grabbed his head and kissed him back until he moaned. I expected that evening would be sweet.
He fought alongside me against Rainy Days, the strongest thaumaturge to ever live. We nearly died.
That night, after lots of events too numerous to enumerate, and me agreeing to work with Rainy Days as her minion (long story), I had to deal with my roommate. She was the first person I'd acknowledged as a friend since childhood. I had used her in a sting operation to catch a crime boss and for various reasons—including that she had never ever gotten laid because of who her mom is—was bummed out.
I "gave" her my boyfriend to cheer her up.
They took me literally. Loudly, I might add. You'd think an ivory tower would have better sound insulation, but you'd be wrong. I left as soon as I could the morning after as they were still at it.
Why are works of #fiction (books, comic, animation, film) depicting #rape or #pedophilia more offensive to more people and cause more calls to boycott or censorship than fiction depicting extreme #violence or #murder, when killing someone is universally regarded as worse than raping someone (morally worse) and criminal systems everywhere punish murderers more harshly than rapists (legally worse)?
If you're on Medium, and you write essays (no politics, however) or fiction, please let me know. I'm planning to be a Medium subscriber this year to support writers.
Also if you're not there, I hope you can be - it's just an economical way for me to support you as my currency is shite :)
Thinking some more about using external plugins to aid & guide LLM output over longer generation, and had a crazy idea which might just be workable in Oobabooga;
A plugin that adjusts generation parameters based on a pre-defined list & inline commands.
It would work something like 3rd party tool calling with parameters, BUT on seeing [Tempo:+] in the output, generation is paused, generation params are adjusted, and then resume generation.
I have never read a book recreationally and I love fiction.
Which book would you recommend me as my first ever book?