Advice appreciated on how to deal with editor's allegation of AI use

[loerics]

1. I didn't use Grammarly - I will swear this on my mother's life that the fourth part - which went through with flying colours - didn't use AI and neither did the 5th part that I am now awaiting my 6th AI Rejection on.

2. I've contacted Laurel and received no response beyond a generic direction to the FAQ's which I've already read front and back.

3. I've edited, resubmitted, put it through an AI checker and edited it again.

I have done EVERYTHING that is asked of us if we get an AI kick-back and I'm sitting here with another rejection on the horizon which would be my 14th overall rejection for this story - bearing in mind I have 4 parts published and I've spent the last 40 days trying to get the fifth one through.

You have no idea how frustrating this situation is unless you are on the receiving end of it. You can sit there and tell us everything we should be doing, but what about when we've done it? What about when we've followed the rules, made the contact, resubmitted with notes, and are still being kicked back?

You're not in my, or OP's position. You can't judge us for doing everything we possibly can to have the work that we have spent weeks developing from being published. Frankly, it's insulting.

I am sick to death of people who haven't gone through this telling us that we should be doing certain things or acting certain ways as if the thought hasn't already crossed our minds or if we haven't already done it. I've been fighting for over a month to get this one story part up and I don't need someone like you, who doesn't know the half of what this feels like, telling me that I'm doing it wrong or that I'm lying.

You are not helping.

Well said. I feel your pain.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

So I should let an AI program tell me how to write like a human being?
There are as many styles as there are authors. Some of us are getting constantly rejected based upon unspecified criteria. We can modify our style until we are blue in the face and still have no better chance of getting accepted if we don’t know why we were rejected.

Culling out and modifying the lines that get flagged as AI works to get the story up. I let my editor do that. The one time I didn't have him edit was the one time I was rejected for AI. He went through it afterward and sailed through. The site judges your work; you have to pass that judgment to have your story on the site. They look for more than AI but all were hearing about are AI rejections, not the ones for rules violation.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

And yet I've done that and here we are, 10 days pending xD

Sorry, @Portly_Penguin

 

[Deleted member 6736302]

I’ve read a sample of Penguin’s work and for the record, there’s nothing to change. It’s one of the most well crafted stories I’ve read on here.

Nothing screamed “AI” to me.

I do think there’s an element of randomness to all this.

 

[loerics]

Mine was published after I submitted the same story again, with a note explaining I wrote it myself and used Grammarly lightly and that I made a few changes. I remember I changed the description and a few details in the story, but it wasn't a significant change. The problem is that same story was rejected again when I decided to revise it.

I stopped using Grammarly on my recent stories and I thought it was working (several stories were published right away), but now my most recent work is stuck on pending. This seems random and it's mostly affecting unknown writers. I imagine if the filter flagged a familiar author, the moderation would simply dismiss the accusation.

I may not be familiar, but I have published 111 stories over the last ten years. I chose every word in my stories and spent way to much time revising and polishing them because of my technical writing background.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

So I should let an AI program tell me how to write like a human being?
There are as many styles as there are authors. Some of us are getting constantly rejected based upon unspecified criteria. We can modify our style until we are blue in the face and still have no better chance of getting accepted if we don’t know why we were rejected.

Didn't say that. I just laid out the facts. You can keep doing what you're doing and keep getting the same results, or you can change something, in this case your writing style, and hope for better. Your choice. You have zero control over the validation process on this site. All you can control is your writing. Deal with what you can control. Simple.

 

[trevrepa]

I have two stories currently pending that have both already been rejected before (one has been rejected 4 times). One was submitted on 3/5 and is still pending and the other on 3/8 is also pending, so I'm not holding my breath. What sucks is that I have 5 more chapters all ready to go.

 

[Deleted member 6736302]

Didn't say that. I just laid out the facts. You can keep doing what you're doing and keep getting the same results, or you can change something, in this case your writing style, and hope for better. Your choice. You have zero control over the validation process on this site. All you can control is your writing. Deal with what you can control. Simple.

Nah, sorry, I can’t buy that. I looked at Penguin’s work. Objectively it’s exceptional and very obviously not AI generated. It’s the work of someone who has put the time and effort in and worked bloody hard at it.

The system doesn’t work, and making work arounds for it, as I am doing for my work, is indeed a solution but it’s not a good one.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Technical writing is vastly different than writing fiction. Having everything perfect isn't what you do in fiction. You use emotion over logic and methods to speed up and slow down the story. It isn't put part A into slot B. 'T'isn't about how to fix something or the best way to follow a schematic.

I may not be familiar, but I have published 111 stories over the last ten years. I chose every word in my stories and spent way to much time revising and polishing them because of my technical writing background.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I reread the story I posted yesterday and found a couple of things that read pretty clunky. I made those changes, and ran it all through an AI detector and changed a couple of flagged lines. So, I resubmitted a few minutes ago and went to the back of the line. Oh, well.

 

[toughfire]

I may not be familiar, but I have published 111 stories over the last ten years. I chose every word in my stories and spent way to much time revising and polishing them because of my technical writing background.

This is why this is so unfair. There are many talented authors being flagged and rejected because of a flawed AI filter. In my case, my writing is not that intricate, but I spend a lot of time writing and editing my stuff because English is my second language and I'm always trying to improve.

 

[trevrepa]

Me too!

 

[DrPope]

So I should let an AI program tell me how to write like a human being?
There are as many styles as there are authors. Some of us are getting constantly rejected based upon unspecified criteria. We can modify our style until we are blue in the face and still have no better chance of getting accepted if we don’t know why we were rejected.

Nobody should change ONE SINGLE WORD of a story they have written to appease some bullshit robot undocumented AI detector.... If your so worried about AI why are you letting a bullshit AI detector ruin your site?

Just yesterday AGAIN I heard from ok I will say it ...The best author (and one of the most admired) in E&V in the past 20 years who has had recent stories rejected for AI .... he's a busy guy ...he's not going to jump through hoops he's just going to go elsewhere ... this is now 2 of the top 5 authors in E&V in the past week affected ...both of whom have been writing for YEARS in the same style ....

If people don't believe this is destroying the site ...then I don't know what they think would be really damaging

 

[loerics]

Technical writing is vastly different than writing fiction. Having everything perfect isn't what you do in fiction. You use emotion over logic and methods to speed up and slow down the story. It isn't put part A into slot B. 'T'isn't about how to fix something or the best way to follow a schematic.

I agree. The difference between technical writing and fiction is like night and day.
When I began writing fiction, I made a serious effort to learn how to a good story. I’ve probably read more about writing techniques than 98% of the authors on Literotica, and I’ve always been a heavy reader of fiction. My stories are full of emotion and vary in pacing.
My point was that my style is the result of over forty years of writing. I cannot change my style to meet some UNKNOWN criteria and hope for a different result.

 

[Britva415]

Has anyone gotten one pushed through just by confirming that they didn’t use Grammarly or a similar tool?

A number of instances like this have been reported.

 

[NuclearGorilla]

We will never take 2-5 day pending intervals for granted ever again. This is an opportunity for reflection, but I cannot wait until the glitches are ironed out.

 

[NuclearGorilla]

I just hate how this rejection is being dragged out so much. It's painful

I feel for you, and I admire your tenacity. If other folks had not been documenting the struggle I would have given up weeks ago.

Not to blow smoke, but you have a great talent for this, as evidenced by your absurdly high ratings and quick launch into five-figure readership. I hope you get more green lights in the near future, as throwing in the towel, while understandable, would be a detriment to this community.

 

[storyteller92]

This is why this is so unfair. There are many talented authors being flagged and rejected because of a flawed AI filter. In my case, my writing is not that intricate, but I spend a lot of time writing and editing my stuff because English is my second language and I'm always trying to improve.

For me...you have NO idea how upset that one got me. I wrote a story offline, only hit the F7 button. I ran it through multiple AI detectors. The hardest detector claimed it had 6.67% AI. The others were in the 2-4% range, and still it got kicked back to me.

I just hate how this rejection is being dragged out so much. It's painful

I am right there with you. I hate that my edited work is being made to languish in the pending for 2 to 3 weeks at a time after I wrote, had it proofread, edited, reread by me, and I make changes, I run it through detectors, it come back with less than 10% of a change now, and it still gets rejected for AI.

We will never take 2-5 day pending intervals for granted ever again. This is an opportunity for reflection, but I cannot wait until the glitches are ironed out.

THIS is what I am used to, and what I am used to. In the beginning, it was 10 days at the longest, before something someone got back to me.

*David Attenborough voice* And here we see the Lit author refreshing their pending screen in the hopes of movement. The author stares, almost unblinking, at the unchanging scene. A lone tear rolls down their cheek.

The wait continues.

Sadly, I do this 3 to 4 times a day. Is it the healthiest? No. But fuuuuuuuuuuuuuugg! I can't help it.

 

[toughfire]

For me...you have NO idea how upset that one got me. I wrote a story offline, only hit the F7 button. I ran it through multiple AI detectors. The hardest detector claimed it had 6.67% AI. The others were in the 2-4% range, and still it got kicked back to me.

Have you tried submitting the story as raw as possible, without a spell/grammar check? Maybe that goes through. It's not ideal, but it's acceptable for erotica.

If you've been rejected too many times I honestly suggest you find a different platform, and maybe come back when the AI panic stops.

 

[DrPope]

I’m not sure how to rework things to avoid the flag because I can’t find a pattern. I’m losing steam.

One thing I will say is do NOT change your style one little bit .... you are one of the best things to happen to E&V since DonnerBBQ himself and frankly it's DISGRACEFUL to see how quality authors are being treated.

 

[storyteller92]

Have you tried submitting the story as raw as possible, without a spell/grammar check? Maybe that goes through. It's not ideal, but it's acceptable for erotica.

If you've been rejected too many times I honestly suggest you find a different platform, and maybe come back when the AI panic stops.

Trust me, I have. My problem is Lit has the largest reach for an audience when it comes to this. Currently, my writing is more in the Novella/fantasy department and is tame compared to others. If I want to improve, this is most likely the venue to do it. I might just submit my backup stories without getting them checked. I really had not considered that, tbh

 

[EmilyMiller]

This is why this is so unfair. There are many talented authors being flagged and rejected because of a flawed AI filter. In my case, my writing is not that intricate, but I spend a lot of time writing and editing my stuff because English is my second language and I'm always trying to improve.

I know it’s frustrating. But there is no such thing as a non-flawed AI filter. And I assume (I think reasonably) that Lit are using one because they need to.

Again, PM me an excerpt and I will a) offer an opinion and b) see if I can do anything (but I can’t work magic).

I does seem that folk with English as a second language have a particularly tough time - unless they are mad Swedes that is - looking at you @Devinter

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

You can always tell when people start getting their stories posted through the system when they disappear from these threads and I become the lone soul yelling into the void on day 54 since I first submitted this part back in January

One day the void will yell back with something other than 'Sent Back'.

One day.

Emily

 

[Devinter]

I does seem that folk with English as a second language have a particularly tough time - unless they are mad Swedes that is - looking at you @Devinter

I make no attempt to refute the madness claim, but I did encounter this problem as well once last year, with a story being rejected. It was sorted out without too much hassle, but nevertheless, it did sting for a while. As a foreigner, it truly is challenging to figure out which words work as a synonym for others, and I think that sometimes WordHippo doesn't offer the best of suggestions.

Furthermore, the sentence structuring is entirely different between Swedish and English - and sometimes that means your mind plays tricks on you. Things look right to me sometimes that is all backwards to a native speaker. Some if it I manage to catch when using text-to-speech during the editing process, as I can tell it doesn't sound quite right, but my English still needs work. That being said, I do feel pride over the fact that it has improved since I started writing here in the summer. Because I believe it has. At least, I second-guess myself less now than I used to.

 

[storyteller92]

You can always tell when people start getting their stories posted through the system when they disappear from these threads and I become the lone soul yelling into the void on day 54 since I first submitted this part back in January

One day the void will yell back with something other than 'Sent Back'.

One day.

Trust me. You're not alone. I have begun to question if I was a real person or if I am an AI