AI Writing Style

[Andreas_Kreuz]

I gave googles bard the this prompt: write a very short emotional story about a girl sitting with a man on his couch. She displays a bold seductive outfit and daring looks inviting kisses and a night together with more:

In the warm glow of the fireplace, she sat across from him, her bold outfit a siren's call. Her eyes glistened with a combination of seduction and vulnerability, inviting him to unravel her secrets.
As the night deepened, he felt an irresistible pull towards her, her every move a subtle enticement. With a touch as delicate as a butterfly's wing, he broke the spell, and their connection ignited like a wildfire.
Their lips met in an explosion of passion, the world around them dissolving into a blur of sensations. They surrendered to the moment, their hearts beating in unison, their desire intertwined.
As dawn approached, they lay entwined, their bodies satiated, their souls entangled. He gazed into her eyes, seeing not just passion but also a yearning for connection, a yearning that had finally been answered.

What do you think of the style?

 

[Andreas_Kreuz]

And the same from ChatGpt:

In a dimly lit room, she sat on his worn-out couch, adorned in a bold outfit that screamed confidence. Her eyes, a daring invitation, sparkled with mischief as she leaned in closer. The air was charged with anticipation, and the silence spoke volumes.

Their chemistry was undeniable, and the room seemed to shrink in the intensity of their connection. The flickering candlelight danced on her audacious ensemble, revealing a spirit unafraid of breaking boundaries. She played with fire, and he couldn't help but be drawn into the flames.

As she traced her finger along the edge of her glass, a subtle smile played on her lips. The unspoken tension hung in the air, a magnetic force pulling them closer. In that moment, the world outside the room ceased to exist. It was just her, him, and the daring promise of a night that could rewrite their destinies.

Without a word, she closed the distance between them, her lips inches away, daring him to take the leap. The atmosphere crackled with desire, a palpable tension that begged to be released. And in that stolen moment, their fates intertwined, and the bold girl and the captivated man surrendered to the intoxicating dance of passion.

What do you think of this writing style?

 

[VerbalAbuse]

That's the style of at least 25% of the stories on lit.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's heavy on clichés. GPT seems to like "dance of passion" metaphors in particular; when I experimented with getting it to write sex scenes it kept on throwing in "dance" or "ballet" even when I specifically prompted it not to.

Sometimes it misuses those clichés. In the first example, Bard's "he broke the spell" doesn't make sense - he's yielding to the attraction, not overcoming it. In the second example, GPT writes "he couldn't help but be drawn into the flames", but two paragraphs later she's still trying to tempt him, suggesting he hasn't yet been "drawn into".

Possibly because you asked it for a "very short" story, but neither of the examples actually create any description for her "bold seductive outfit". Bard just echoes "bold outfit"; GPT does the same, then on the second time around switches "bold" to "audacious" and "outfit" to "ensemble". No mention of what she's wearing that's so bold.

 

[ronde]

To me, both read like someone was looking up a replacement for commonly used words in a Thesaurus. Examples are "siren's", "vulnerability", "enticement", "audacious", "palpable", and "intoxicating". None of the words are used incorrectly, but to some extent, it sounds like the narrator is talking down to the audience. Depending upon the reference, most successful modern novels are written at the fifth to 8th grade reading level. Books about technical subject range from 12th grade up depending upon the complexity of the subject and intended audience. Newspapers vary the same way with sports articles written as low as 5th grade reading level and up depending upon the subject.
Both of these read like a college level essay. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but a general audience won't like having to remember what "audacious" means or what a "siren" is while reading a steamy sex story.

 

[Britva415]

They're extremely sterile.

And there really aren't any plots. Every single one of the "things which happen" in these "stories" is disconnected from the one before. It's just a string, a list, of things which stereotypically happen, in a stereotypical order. There's absolutely nothing original in it. Even a very poor human writer who hasn't figured out how to be original and avoid clichés can muster a small measure of the narrative cohesiveness and of presence which these are lacking.

What it is is, a list of lines which could conceivably be present in a human-written story, but the human-written story will have more than just these lines. Even a human who omits all scene-and-setting information, deliberately or otherwise, still imbues their story with at least some kind of a feeling, a factor which is absent from these.

Even really bad authors still think, and you can usually tell that they were when doing the writing, even if you can't necessarily tell what they were thinking. That's missing from these.

 

[EmilyMiller]

What do you think of the style?

I think it’s really, really bad. Like self-parody bad.

Then I may be regretting ordering a second bottle of wine.

Emily

 

[MrPixel]

The style? I find it to be a tedious slog.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Turgid and overwritten, full of purple prose. Blech.

 

[Andreas_Kreuz]

Yes, "purple prose", thats exactly the word. I put "very short" into the prompt, to have a condensed example. Anyone can head to the AI engines and play with the prompt, If the stories get longer, they get worse and even less coherent.

 

[dmallord]

Why subject yourself to that exercise? It's going to infect your style, embed itself in your subconsciousness, and wind up turning you into an AI prompt writer for some future magazine. So not right!

 

[SamBomb]

That's why it's so annoying to be accused of having AI write my stories. AI is garbage at writing.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I mean... I mean impressive that this can be produced on a simple prompt, but it's boring AF. At first glance it gives the sense that its substantial, but when you actually read it it really lacks character and plot. It's nothing but a potemkin village. Really nothing there but façade.

 

[SimonDoom]

Some interesting things I noticed about the Bard sample:

All of the sentences are complex, with tons of commas, phrases, and clauses. There's not a single simple sentence in the passage.

The AI doesn't pick up on repetition that a good human author would avoid: putting "intertwined" and "entwined" too close to one another.

It's consistently overwritten. Nouns and verbs are put together that don't necessarily make sense except in a breathy, "this is supposed to sound erotic" way. The combo of "outfit" and "siren's call," for example.

Despite all the descriptive words it comes across as telling not showing, such as here: "her eyes glistened with a combination of seduction and vulnerability." We know her eyes glistened. What, exactly, about the glistening, connotes seduction and vulnerability?

The resort to cliche is extreme: "siren's call," "as delicate as a butterfly's wing," "broke the spell," "ignited like a wildfire," "blur of sensations," "hearts beating in unison," etc.

There's an emphasis on the surface "prettiness" of the words at the expense of sense and meaning. For instance, at the end, how can he see in her eyes a "yearning for connection" if they've just been connected for the entire night and the yearning has been answered? At that point the yearning should be absent, because she's got what she yearned for.

 

[StillStunned]

What gets me in all these AI examples is the lack of dialogue. Without dialogue, there's no character, no individuality. There's just a description of some events. That's not a story, it's just prose. And prosey prose at that.

 

[alohadave]

What gets me in all these AI examples is the lack of dialogue. Without dialogue, there's no character, no individuality. There's just a description of some events. That's not a story, it's just prose. And prosey prose at that.

They read like a synopsis of the story. What I'd come up with as part of a story idea/outline.

 

[Djmac1031]

What do you think of the style?

 

[EmilyMiller]

It's nothing but a potemkin village.

Perfect analogy. v2.37bb of Hikaru.so is awesome.

ChatMLE (which is the title of one of my 750 worders)

 

[Djmac1031]

Their chemistry was undeniable, and the room seemed to shrink in the intensity of their connection

There's an awful lot of "telling not showing" going on here.

Who are these people? Chemistry? What chemistry? Why? How did they meet? What's their relationship? Why should we care?

None of that is answered here. Just two nameless, faceless people doing a checklist of things among a flurry of superfluous words.

 

[Djmac1031]

Despite all the descriptive words it comes across as telling not showing

Yeah same thoughts here.

 

[Britva415]

Some interesting things I noticed about the Bard sample:

All of the sentences are complex, with tons of commas, phrases, and clauses. There's not a single simple sentence in the passage.

The AI doesn't pick up on repetition that a good human author would avoid: putting "intertwined" and "entwined" too close to one another.

It's consistently overwritten. Nouns and verbs are put together that don't necessarily make sense except in a breathy, "this is supposed to sound erotic" way. The combo of "outfit" and "siren's call," for example.

Despite all the descriptive words it comes across as telling not showing, such as here: "her eyes glistened with a combination of seduction and vulnerability." We know her eyes glistened. What, exactly, about the glistening, connotes seduction and vulnerability?

The resort to cliche is extreme: "siren's call," "as delicate as a butterfly's wing," "broke the spell," "ignited like a wildfire," "blur of sensations," "hearts beating in unison," etc.

There's an emphasis on the surface "prettiness" of the words at the expense of sense and meaning. For instance, at the end, how can he see in her eyes a "yearning for connection" if they've just been connected for the entire night and the yearning has been answered? At that point the yearning should be absent, because she's got what she yearned for.

I feel like the prompt kind of asks for this. AI bots probably default to "romance-novel" style when asked to write romantic, emotional seduction stories. I wonder if there's a (effective) way to ask it to do it in some other style.

 

[alohadave]

I feel like the prompt kind of asks for this. AI bots probably default to "romance-novel" style when asked to write romantic, emotional seduction stories. I wonder if there's a (effective) way to ask it to do it in some other style.

You can specify the style you want it to output in. Even different meters if you want.

 

[XerXesXu]

Compare and contrast:

.HI

Sonya’s plan, and the man, would come together.

Alice’s short dress attracted his glance when she swung, cross-legged, in her chair, Brenda’s plunging neckline his admiration when she emptied his trashcan. If they could, she could, at the Valentine’s Day party.

She’d studied the subtext of office life from the supervisor's office as her charges moved between their work cubicles, especially the effect these interactions had on Kevin. He’d recoil and rub his crotch, until, too distracted to continue he’d call, ‘Loo break’ and wave as he left, oblivious to the effect the bulge in his trousers was having on her.

On entering the cafeteria, she’d not been recognised. Her blonde hair freed from its bun, the trouser suit replaced by a very little red dress, she poised, elegantly, on tarts- trotters. She left Alice and Brenda in her shade. She worked the room, occasionally sweeping it with her eyes to confirm Kevin’s were on her.

At ten, she saw him alone on the sofa and sat. She languorously moistened her lips; he placed both hands over his erection.

‘Kevin, I want you to work late tonight. You’ve been taking too many loo breaks; we both need to find a workaround.’

 

[Britva415]

You can specify the style you want it to output in. Even different meters if you want.

"Write a very short story that is sexy but not romantic, in the style of the New Orleans funk band, The Meters"

https://bard.google.com/chat/2c2d4e2da260feb2

It even generated a picture with the story.

 

[alohadave]

"Write a very short story that is sexy but not romantic, in the style of the New Orleans funk band, The Meters"

https://bard.google.com/chat/2c2d4e2da260feb2

It even generated a picture with the story.

That didn't link properly. Just went to the main page for Bard.