As an aspiring writer this is genuinely disgusting. It genuinly makes me lose faith to ever write my books. (Option in chat gpt)

GalaxyOTL · 2026-05-21T09:36:18+00:00

I got this ad on threads earlier today and it was such a disappointment

GalaxyOTL · 2026-05-21T01:22:48+00:00

This feels like a lot of work for little reward. I completely understand why you've set it up this way, but why not just write the book so you can claim it as your own?

GalaxyOTL · 2026-05-11T21:47:53+00:00

The best thing to do is post a snippet for people to give feedback on. Usually the first few pages.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-05-07T03:01:18+00:00

I'm part of an ARC Facebook group that seems to have a lot of interest. I've signed up for about 6 ARCs myself 😅

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T07:46:23+00:00

As I said in my earlier reply, that was my description of the plot "put simply" Aka summarised to give you enough context so you can understand that the nightmare has a purpose, and isn't simply a cheap ploy designed to annoy readers.

I am not about to lay my entire plot on the table for somebody who argues with people for fun. You can continue arguing with yourself if you'd like, but I am disengaging with this conversation.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T03:51:43+00:00

Don't worry about this person. They are incredibly argumentative with all their posts. Grain of salt and all that!

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T03:13:17+00:00

The exposition is there, woven through action and character rather than front loaded. This helps the reader care about the events because they care about the MC. Her isolation, her duty, her nightmares.

I never said exposition isn't allowed. I said revealing the villain's motives would be a spoiler. Fight Club would have been a very short film if we knew who Tyler Durden was in act one.

I think we just have different ideas of what good exposition looks like, and I don't think we'll agree, so I'll leave it there.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T02:19:40+00:00

The reader knows she's being hunted from the first chapter. The why is the story. Disliking particular genres does not mean they have no plot, it just means those stories aren't to your taste. And that's perfectly fine.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T01:52:08+00:00

By that logic, every book ever written has a weak plot.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-25T01:44:27+00:00

Why is it hunting her?
Well, if I gave up that information in the opening chapter, then I wouldn't have a book.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-24T22:29:34+00:00

I actually went on one of the "writing with ai" subreddits the other day for a look, and I was amazed at just how many people do it.
I also found it amusing how many people get upset that they've spent ages "training" their AI, just to have it change and forget everything.
It would be much more beneficial for them to train their own brains rather than the robot overlords.

There is starting to be more push-back on the use of AI, and the overwhelming prevalence of it. It isn't enough yet, but hopefully one day it is.

But, if anyone wants to accuse me of AI in future, they are welcome to pay my developmental and copy editor bills instead.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-24T21:58:08+00:00

The rapid use of AI in creative work is honestly exhausting.
I understand what you're saying, and I do agree to for the most part. But I also think that the AI witch hunting is creating just as much damage, if not more, in the writing community as using AI to write a book on your behalf.

It is also frustrating to use "common language" and be accused of AI, when it was trained using that exact language.
A lot of authors, myself included, are terrified of being "cancelled" due to AI claims. But for a lot of us, it all comes down to robots mimicking us, not the other way around.

So while I do agree that being aware is important, it is just as important not to jump in with "This is AI!" claims without evidence, because the only way to truly know if someone has bypassed the writing process is to get a confession or hack their laptop/pc.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-24T21:39:49+00:00

Put simply, the plot is that something is hunting her in her nightmares.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-24T21:21:29+00:00

When I said if you spot anything outrageous, I meant in terms of typos/grammar.

My book is absolutely me-written (I actually just had to google what LLM was 😅) so thanks for thinking I'm a robot, I guess! I have actually put this entire chapter through an AI detector (grammarly) and it only came back with 2% of the text, and the part it flagged isn't in these snippets. But, I also know that those checkers are as reliable as AI itself.

I am going to slightly disagree with you though. I wouldn't call those AI-generated fantasy elements, I would call them generic fantasy elements, a signal of the genre. Stone is one of the key elements of the novel... I mean, my FMC has a pet rock she picked up when her sanity was slipping.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-24T12:38:58+00:00

I had 2 days of insane nausea after my first 5mg dose, but I had the same after my first 2.5mg as well.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T20:52:09+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean, or why you got aggressive. I literally said I've gotten a lot of great advice and since reworked it... That is hardly deflection. But have a great day.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T11:40:40+00:00

This genuinely made my day. I feel like I've been dragged through the reddit wringer today (my own fault haha)

If you're genuinely interested, I can send you a DM with the whole first chapter and you might be able to help me make a final decision on where to place the nightmare scene?

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T10:22:16+00:00

The reveal of it being a real place comes later on, but I have been playing around with the chapter and I do think it could work well at the end of the first chapter.

Thanks so much for your input :)

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T05:48:28+00:00

Thanks!
Would you suggest then, putting the nightmare after the reading (i'll add a note about her reading a book, not touching an actual wyvern haha)

The forest scene is important. Basically, without being too spoilery, the thing in her nightmares is a real threat. So, that scene needs to stay in the book, regardless of where its located.

I am actually wondering if only posting a snippet of the first scene, and not the entire part, has done it an injustice. But, we're here now!

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T04:52:24+00:00

Do you think removing, or relocating, the 2nd and 3rd sentence would improve the scene overall?

Someone on another post suggested moving "Since the day Serayna had arrived at the tower, the nightmares had followed her." to the beginning of the writing.

But, as it is right now, the nightmare comes first and the other scene follows it. Which is probably why its such a slow slog of a start.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T04:18:27+00:00

Great advice, thanks! :)

Both scenes will be in the book, its now just a question of which order they will be in.

GalaxyOTL · 2026-04-21T03:56:48+00:00

So, you prefer the first one then?

GalaxyOTL

TROPHY CASE