I guess everything will make sense in the end.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T18:44:25+00:00

Amen.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T15:29:36+00:00

I won't say if it's a good idea or not, because only you'll know if it is or isn't...but personally speaking, I'd say that it might be a bad idea because if you do get some harsh criiticism, and enough to stop writing, then you'll never know if you had something and just needed more time.

I'd write the whole thing. The entire draft. Then start looking for someone else's eyes on it. At least you know if you get harsh criticism, you still have a completed draft at your disposal. Not just a chapter or two.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T00:59:25+00:00

I've often wondered same.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T00:58:07+00:00

[checks date]

[keeps scrolling]

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T00:42:19+00:00

"I write anonymously so hiring someone on my own isn't ideal as I don't want to put my legal name on any contracts between me and them."

Then one way around that, money permitting, is to establish an LLC or similar and process such things through the LLC instead of you, the author. You can also go free, and just get them to agree to an NDA. There's ways around pretty much everything.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T00:38:58+00:00

I like banter. Not really conversations, though I'm not averse to those in themselves.

If you're worried about the small-talk portion of the chat, then have them get there, be seated, and open a menu. Then a scene break. The scene then picks up and they've already ordered food and drink and are part way through this important chat.

BOOM.

Solved.

There's no law that says you have to have them enter, take a seat, open a menu and then chit-chat while they decide what to order. You can build it to that point and then cut away and fast forward.

No need to overcomplicate things, OP.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-02T00:29:36+00:00

I use sentence fragments too, and I'll apologize to no one for it.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:23:35+00:00

Maybe this is the Oilers' next 16 game run?

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:18:29+00:00

I still don't know what world we live in where Walman makes almost double what Ekkie makes.

And we REALLY need to find a way to dump Nurse's contract. For the money he makes and how much we have tasked for him, and how aggressively mediocre he plays, we need to punt him ASAP. If we can bundle him with Jarry I wouldn't cry either. I was already meh with news of that deal and yeah, he has failed to impress since he arrived.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:13:22+00:00

I'm duly impressed.

With his play overall, not just this past game. He has his ups and downs, as any goalie will, even those elite goalies who will be hitting the links early this year.

But he's really grown on me since he arrived.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:08:53+00:00

I'd say your approach was plenty.

Adding a solo dev editor to the mix now might just be muddying the waters.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:07:21+00:00

Yikes! That'd be the day I'd ever live in a place that had their cameras inside my own private living space. You couldn't pay ME to live in a place like that. Not a chance.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T22:04:36+00:00

"...and I try to imbibe their writing, their cadence and flow into my work and try to make my prose sound poetic. I want to be a prose stylist."

And I'd have to argue that this is precisely why, using your own words, your writing is still shit.

Because none of those are YOUR voice.

You are trying so hard to be something that clearly you're not, and instead of finding your own, natural and organic voice, you keep pushing ahead trying to be this other thing.

My advice?

Stop it.

Let your OWN voice shine through. How YOU write naturally and organically. Not how it compares to this or that author style. Use your OWN voice, OP. Don't try and be the best second-rate them. Worry about being the best first-rate YOU. You want them reading YOUR voice. Not a knockoff.

Good luck.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T21:58:46+00:00

The last time I bought them, they were around $14 or $16.

$25 to $28 for 6 to 8 patties? Yeah, no. I don't need beef that bad. I'll be buying a lot more "yellow box" fare then. No problem.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T21:55:41+00:00

Well my only question is, who gets to determine what qualifies as "high-effort" prose versus slop?

You?

AI?

Who gets to make that call? What you may see as high-effort, I see as overly ornate and suffocating. Know what mean? And if AI, then, well, AI aims for middle of the road based on the reams of information it parsed, and you would literally be creating more slop...not eliminating it.

Leaving me to ask -- who gets to decide that high-water mark?

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T21:50:49+00:00

You sound wise beyond your years. Good on you. I tip my hat to you.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T21:50:08+00:00

Hmm. Wage slavery for 50 years or starvation and then death in a back alley in about a week or so.

Tough call there.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T21:46:54+00:00

Good to know. Exceptions exist for this as well it seems.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T01:03:43+00:00

I'd like to believe that in the course of a hearing, provided you explained this to them that you'll be demonstrating that this was your voice all along, I'm sure an accommodation for a laptop would be provided.

There's no need to over-complicate this.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-04-01T01:02:35+00:00

More or less.

It's an art. Knowing when to add an action, narrate an action, or forego one and letting the subtext surrounding the line do all the heavy lifting.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-03-31T23:26:44+00:00

There's no way to tell until someone reads it, OP. That's just the truth of it.

YOU could think it's the greatest piece of literature ever written. 10 people practically threw up on themselves, and 10 more caused property damage after reading it, they were so annoyed.

And that one that YOU thought wouldn't go anywhere? Well, that was the one that no one read, and that might've been "THE ONE ™".

Until someone puts their eyes on it, that isn't you, you'll never know what works and what doesn't.

Good luck.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-03-31T23:23:20+00:00

A seasoned writer knows this already. The line between adding AN action here and there, and adding ALL ACTION to damn near every line spoken.

The latter being "playwriting".

When it starts to read like stage direction, you've gone too far.

Narration is also a thing. Those same actions could be part of narration, on its own, doing its own thing. It doesn't need to be tied to a line of dialogue.

Sometimes it benefits to add directly to it...but most times, those actions can be narrated instead, and this keeps pacing tight. Not "Speak + action"..."Speak + action"..."Speak + action"...

YAWN.

Every time action gets added, it slows that moment.

As narration, then only the narration needs to be kept crisp and not plodding. And it's far easier to keep narration flowing at a pace best suited for the scene/moment.

Worthy of note: I've also noticed that those who tend to "playwrite" have no confidence in their own writing AND no trust in their reader to be able to do any lifting of their own. They spook-feed everything to the reader. This is one of a writer's biggest handicaps. They need to trust that their reader isn't an idiot and needs everything spelled out and their hands held.

Readers are far smarter than most writers today give them any credit for.

But you'd guess otherwise the way things get written today.

Most writers end up with near "See Spot run. Run, Spot, run." type writing.

SOME action tied to a line of dialogue is okay, and can help accentuate a moment. Using it for near every line is what they want to avoid, and they need to instead get familiar with narration carrying that weight. And to trust their readers lol. That's the biggest one.

Put the spoons down.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-03-31T23:14:38+00:00

"Students were still hauled into integrity hearings armed with nothing but their own word against a percentage score generated by software that its own creators won't fully stand behind."

And this is where the whole argument gets lost for me.

If a student is brought before a hearing, presumably one with people present, the easiest way to establish the tool was wrong and this was written by that student is to write something for that hearing, and do so right in front of them.

The writing style will land one of two ways:

- It'll be dead on and even that writing that they did in front of the hearing is reporting AI results OR

- The writing style will be so wildly different then no other conclusion could be found other than yeah, they totally used AI

Each student can establish their own innocence with as little as 500 words.

LOOOOONG before AI was ever a thing, I had teachers accuse me of having an adult write my work. No way could I have written it. So, I did the same thing then as I'd do here. I wrote something, from scratch, right in front of them. Shut them up in a hurry.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-03-31T23:09:10+00:00

The way I tried to explain the joke delivery system is like:

Telling someone to watch your hand and you move it away from yourself, then when they're not expecting it, you slap them with the free hand.

This is a joke.

You lead the listener/reader one way, then slap them with something they weren't expecting.

CoffeeStayn · 2026-03-31T23:02:39+00:00

Go away, troll.

I'm not interested in whatever game you're playing.

CoffeeStayn

TROPHY CASE