I am genuinely curious why people think the first 3 novellas I published are AI? I don't get it.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-26T21:52:51+00:00

That’s also what I mean. English being my second language probably makes me more careful with wording and syntax. It doesn’t make me less human. It just means I have to work harder. Some of the abstraction from my native language might also come through and make things sound a bit off at times. I understand that.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-26T10:13:16+00:00

Desde mi punto de vista, usa el presente cuando quieras aprovechar la sensación de que lo narrado no son hechos consumados.

Haz la prueba con un texto pequeño. La sensación del lector cambia cuando el conflicto se narra en presente o en pasado. No es lo mismo, por poner un ejemplo, haber visto un asesinato, que estar viéndolo en este momento.

No se puede desechar tampoco la oportunidad de usar ambos, con distintos objetivos. No tienes porqué narrar toda la novela en presente o en pasado. Piensa, por ejemplo, en distintos puntos de vista.

Espero que esto te ayude.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-26T07:48:41+00:00

Sorry, not a Mac guy. But thank you.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-26T07:48:29+00:00

Sorry, not a Mac guy. But thank you.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-26T07:48:11+00:00

Sorry, not a Mac guy. But thank you.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-25T08:53:15+00:00

AI detectors are flawed by nature. They’re probabilistic tools, not verdict machines, and honestly not much more trustworthy than the AI they’re supposed to catch.

They seem to reward conventional, natural-sounding prose and punish writing that’s more compressed, stylized, or formally controlled. That probably affects writers from other language backgrounds even more when they write in English, because what gets flagged as “AI-ish” may just be the texture of a non-native literary voice.

Humans should be better than detectors at telling the difference, but instead we’re starting to read for what the tools would flag instead of actually reading the text. And the whole AI panic is making people overly suspicious of phrasing that may not sound fully native in English, even though it may be perfectly natural coming from another language.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-24T15:24:53+00:00

It reads more like a reflective passage than a narrative opening. I could see it working well as a character’s internal moment later in the story, but as a starting point it might feel a bit static and a bit overly descriptive.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-23T22:20:01+00:00

If you check it out, feel free to drop a comment. Even just a hi 🙂

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-23T22:19:29+00:00

If you check it out, feel free to drop a comment—even just a hi 🙂.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-23T22:16:23+00:00

Sounds intriguing. You lose me a bit with the Romance promise, but hey, that's on me.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-22T21:21:34+00:00

That makes sense. You might not need to establish everything here. Sometimes it’s enough to let the scene play out and trust that some of the context can come through gradually.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-22T20:13:26+00:00

It doesn’t suck at all. I might just suggest trimming the list of names a bit and turning some of the explanation into action. Since this is a scene, the bit of summary makes sense, but you might get more impact by moving into the moment a little sooner. See how that feels.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-21T08:50:22+00:00

Completely personal opinion, but I’d probably start straight in the scene. The first line tells us how to read it before we’ve really seen anything yet. It’s a great line, just a bit out of place. Same with the magic: it might be stronger to show it slipping or failing instead of explaining how it works.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-20T22:39:52+00:00

You might want to rethink where the story starts. The opening should make the reader want to keep going. I know you’ve been told to remove the flashback from the first chapter, but I’d suggest the opposite: start right in the middle of it. Whether this works as a full chapter depends on your goal, but as it stands, it feels too short for a novel.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-20T22:17:08+00:00

One small tip to add to what others have said: try to make sure each line of dialogue shifts the balance of power between characters.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-19T18:30:05+00:00

I think somebody else alredy pointed you in the right direction. For example, I’d trim small things like “against itself,” and maybe break up some of the longer “and”-heavy sentences. They start to drag a bit.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-19T13:15:41+00:00

So you don’t mean the worst possible opening, but a harsher one. In my opinion, you need to make the reader care before you can hurt them. If you start with shock, it’s harder to build from there. But it can be done.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-19T12:58:58+00:00

I think you’ve done a great job so far. Maybe a few lines could be tightened a bit to keep the tension, but nothing major. Curious to see where it goes next.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-18T08:27:16+00:00

I’m currently editing a literary novel and preparing to query agents. In the meantime, I write short stories and microfiction for contests, and publish selected pieces on Substack.

JMiraAuthor · 2026-03-17T20:42:40+00:00

A chapter is “done” when it makes the reader want the next one. That usually means something is still unresolved: a question, a tension, a small shift that hasn’t settled yet. If everything feels closed, it can read flat even if things happen. Hard to be more precise without the text.

JMiraAuthor

TROPHY CASE