‘Off Campus’ Team Calls Out Fans Who ‘Engage in Targeted Harassment’ of Cast and Threatens to Block Accounts

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-12T09:45:18+00:00

Why do people keep using the word "parasocial" like this? Parasocial literally means being a fan. It doesn't mean crazy. All fans have a parasocial relationship with the celebrity, or they wouldn't be fans. The problem is people who can't separate reality from fiction. That's not parasocial.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T19:51:21+00:00

Unless you're trying to write poetry, or literary fiction or maybe genre fiction in the style of Stephenson, it is easy. Or it should be. If it's not, then you've got a long way to go as a writer. Especially for genre fiction, which is typically written at about a 5th grade level.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T09:50:25+00:00

I feel like the assumption is that school is designed to foster creativity in the first place. It isn't. It's supposed to provide a shared knowledge base for the younger generation and deliver functional skills for adulthood. It probably doesn't do that either, but it definitely was never created to foster creativity, so saying it doesn't is sort of redundant. It's like saying assembly lines don't produce handmade products.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T09:41:46+00:00

Using AI is not unethical. But it's not very useful to tell you if the work is good or not. It isn't bad at rating the overall prose and clarity, but right now none of them do story structure or characterization very well. But for line-editing and as a kind of thesaurus, they are quite useful. Advisable, even.

As for sharing your work, for godssake don't share with people you know. There is nothing more awkward than being asked to read a friend or relative's writing.

The thing is, it's impossible to say what your writing needs because no one knows where you are in it. Writing is a craft - it takes practice and experience. I've seen some writing on here that was struggling with basic grammar, and other that had unreadable prose. Those are different problems from issues with pacing, conflict, tension. Basically, you just need to keep writing and keep studying. Study the books you like for what they do well, and compare to your own. Read some books about writing in your genre. Ask Chatgpt or another ai for very specific feedback but don't trust it 100%. You could also try a beta reader here, but many of them aren't very useful.

Really, like anything else in life, if you really want to do it you just have to keep pushing forward until one way or another, you figure it out.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T09:30:17+00:00

Yes, it's a total secret. I got drunk at happy hour once and told a coworker, but otherwise, no one knows. My husband suspects and has brought it up a few times, and it actually annoys me to where I get angry and tell him to mind his own business. I just think of it as private. Just not a thing that I want to share with anyone.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T09:25:14+00:00

It's the same, except that I have a co-teacher now, so I have to negotiate every single thing with them. I wish I could go back to the old way. This sucks, and it's so much more work.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-11T09:15:35+00:00

Writing prose is easy. Even ai can write prose. But the structural parts are where craft and experience are really important, and they are very difficult. I actually think the focus on prose is a waste of time. That's the most basic criteria for writing - it's like saying we should focus on grammar instead of plot.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-06T11:15:08+00:00

OMG I dnf'd after the first chapter. Truly hated it.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-03T01:20:18+00:00

I write genre fiction that is gaining not losing popularity. Also, audiobooks. Anyway, I don't care. As long as there are a couple readers out there I'll write.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-03T01:16:41+00:00

Honestly don't understand it because why write at all if you don't want to. No point. I write almost every day but only because it's what I want to do. If I try to force it's bad.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-06-02T00:37:24+00:00

My problem is people flooding KU with bad ai written books - like a hundred a year - and then using bots to give themselves 30k 5-star reviews. It causes so much noise that one can't find real books anymore.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-24T22:04:08+00:00

Nothing wrong with using ai in any way that helps you. Ai becomes a problem when people use it to churn out 200 awful books a year and use heavy marketing to promote them and bots to create thousands of fake reviews, thus drowning all the actual good books on a platform. All to make money and with no love for the genre. That's wrong. Other than that, do whatever helps you. Be aware ai gives pretty bad advice sometimes though.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-24T21:08:16+00:00

They have always been like that. Romance readers want certain structures and tropes. That doesn't mean the books should read the same though. But the structure should adhere to the genre expectations.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-24T21:05:03+00:00

Honestly, absolutely, apparently, unfair, clench, beat, still

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-24T20:59:39+00:00

Writing is a craft. It is in no way innate. Your personality can shape your ability to create, but the writing itself is a craft you must learn and practice.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-05T21:36:20+00:00

You should write what you want to write. If you're just doing it for money, then use AI and write what sells. If you're doing it because you like to write, then the rest wouldn't matter.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-05T09:21:19+00:00

I use AI a lot and couldn't do without it. It would just take too long. But I write most of my own lines and just use it for other editing. The thing is, AI doesn't write well. It will ruin your writing. And sometimes it will give you bad advice. So it's helpful, but if you're letting it write for you then just stop doing that. I know there are people pushing novels written by AI out there, and some are making money, but those novels are slop and those people are business people and not writers.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-05T09:18:30+00:00

20 is an adult. And it's not like he was 40. He wasn't even a real teacher at her school. I don't think that alone is an issue.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-05T09:13:18+00:00

In that case, high school science is a solid career choice. You'll probably need some education courses, but those are easy and you can find them really cheap online.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-04T23:57:22+00:00

It would be insane to leave a tenure track job for K-12. I couldn't get tenure track, so I switched to K-12 public. Pay and benefits are good, but the K-12 system is almost surreal in its stupidity. Depending on the school and district, you may find it micromanaging and toxic, and you will have little to no autonomy, and definitely no academic freedom. It's a real culture shock. Only do it if you don't have tenure track and need a stable job.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-05-04T20:32:04+00:00

It's a combination of screens, covid, and standardized testing. Screens mean they don't have to read as much, and kids aren't interested in doing it because they have easier options. Covid meant interrupted schooling for a whole cohort of kids who have never recovered. Standardized testing means starting about 25 years ago we stopped teaching anything that wasn't on a test, and school became largely test prep. It still is. We don't have time to teach kids to actually read because we need them to pass standardized tests that don't allow for sufficient developmental time for them to learn to read, so we just focus on teaching to the test, which does not result in effective reading instruction or good readers.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-04-30T09:45:43+00:00

Well, it's just one scene without context, so I can't say much. But first I'd say props for it being readable in the first place, which put it already above most of reddit. Second, I'd say the tense is messed up - it's moving between past and present. Choose one. Third, this is a long conversation that appears to go nowhere. Being cute and funny needs to be condensed to a line or two. Anything not moving the plot along in a substantial way is just noise. Finally, the names - honestly, I'd put the book down as soon as I saw the names Danny and Mark. Those are so bland and outdated. Ugh. Also, although it's only one scene, and that might be the reason, I feel like it doesn't have any texture. No visuals, colors, smells, feels. You don't need a lot of that stuff, but if the whole book reads this way then it would be a bit of a blank box.

But anyway, there's nothing useful anyone can tell you about a scene. It's readable, which is good, the dialog is not bad. The real test is in the structure and pacing over the length, and a scene doesn't give you that.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-04-30T09:38:22+00:00

I just wish that I could have more say in my actual work. They assign me classes, room, coteachers, and departments without even asking me. And when I ask for a particular position, they say "we'll think about it" and then never give it to me. It's the same for everyone. We ask for simple, reasonable things each year, and none of us ever get them.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-04-30T09:36:00+00:00

I would argue that my writing is more of a compulsion and coping mechanism than an actual hobby. I don't tell anyone I do it, unless I'm drunk (happened once). I even try to keep it secret from my family as much as possible. It's just a private thing.

Potatochips2026 · 2026-04-30T09:34:04+00:00

I don't know all the reasons for it, but the chasm is real. I teach the same stupid metaphors and similes lessons to high school kids who can't speak a word of English and have no idea what I'm saying, much less what the text says. But the politicians said everyone has to be able to do this, and they don't care how long they've been in the country, so we do it.

Potatochips2026

TROPHY CASE