Why does Lit keep rejecting my story?

[gunhilltrain]

It's not a perfect analogy, but Waymo is testing self-driving taxis in New York. Obviously, there are a lot of complaints about it, especially from existing drivers. "It's going to be dangerous in a city like New York." I don't know what will happen, but it could be that in ten years that it will be the standard for taxis (maybe in all cities around the world).

AI is a new technology too. All of us are adults, and we remember the times before it existed. "AI will destroy creativity, especially in writing." Yes, it may do just that. But kids who are now ten will grow up with it. It sounds like a Brave New World dystopia to me, but maybe in the future when we are gone, the new generations may take AI for granted.

 

[MsPeachPit]

You don't have to remove a story before submitting the new version. Of course, the way Lit works, it's best to have a "final cut" file of a story so you have something to work on. Maybe you'll never need it, but it should be in a file titled, say, "submitted" in case it's ever needed. If the changes are really big, you can just submit a new version which will replace the old one. Do you (@MsPeachPit) get what I'm talking about?

Thank you. I've just discovered that today and it's very useful to know

 

[SkyBubble]

Nowadays you have to consider that a large part of the readership only read on their phones. They don't want endless walls of text to scroll through - they'll be more likely to just skip ahead.

True, but there should still be some variation. I don't think Millie was suggesting long, rambling paragraphs, but if you have too many sentences or paragraphs of similar length in a row, the AI detectors call it low "burstiness" and that's considered one of the ways AI writes. Varying sentence and paragraph length results in higher burstiness, thus a lower AI probability score.

Even if it's a single line followed by three or four lines, or a three-word sentence followed by a more complex one, that helps reduce the likelihood of a false flag.

 

[SkyBubble]

One piece of advice I think is bad to follow is the suggestion that you need to add errors to avoid rejection. For one thing, while LLMs don't usually make spelling errors, they are still prone to other kinds of mistake, such as confusing homonyms despite clear context clues. Including grammatical constructions that would be considered incorrect (or at least inappropriate) in business or academic writing is probably a good idea, though.

"Stupid" little "errors" like "accidentally" double-spacing a few sentences her and there if the rest of the story has only one space, won't have a major effect, can help reduce AI probability slightly.

Also, seemingly odd metaphors and similes -- the kind AI wouldn't come up with on its own -- help.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Aww, but the grass is greener over there!

And no, I'm not saying we have to make our writing worse. Personally, I think shorter paragraphs make writing better. Longer paragraphs can quickly become an indulgence of the writer, adding too much information that the reader will probably skip anyway. Back in the day of paperbacks I'd often come across paragraphs that covered a whole page or more. And that's fine with a physical book, with pages that you turn.

But nowadays, the fact is that most people read online, and a huge proportion do it on their phone. If you make your paragraphs too long, you risk the reader zoning out, skipping ahead or just clicking back.

It's a fact of life, and it requires a different approach. Like I mentioned above, I think it works very well to keep the story moving forward, and when you reach the point where you know your reader is engaged you can use longer paragraphs to describe deeper emotions and experiences.

I write on my phone using Word. I don't really worry about folks using their phones to read. When I type, I use print view, my paragraphs aren't that big, but depending on the site, and if it has a mobile site, even the smallest paragraphs look gigantic when things are realigned and the fonts bigger. Folks need to remember they can turn their phone sideways.