Weirdo

em dash

“not x, not y, but z”

short sentence stacking as a stylistic choice

none of these belong to ai. these are all what human writers have been writing since day one, way before ai was invented. ai was trained to mimic how human writers write — so em dash, not x not y but z and short sentence stacking would never have been used by ai at all if ai hadn’t learned and mimicked them from human writers.

no, you are not “fighting against ai” by accusing every work that has em dash, not x not y but z or short sentence stacking in it as ai-generated, you are helping ai harm the writing community by engaging in witch hunt and scaring human writers away from creating/sharing their works for fear of being wrongly accused of using ai.

okay but my disclaimer is that i’m not the best person to answer this question because i’ve barely scratched the surface of how much fic is out there & i also don’t really expect my tastes to be universally appreciated 😅 so please approach this with that in mind

Welcome Home by em_harlsnow

outsider POVs set after mickey is released from prison in s10. feels very much like missing scenes that could have happened. i’m especially fond of the liam section.

Stages by ColdReign

fill-in for the period around terry’s death. i love the complicated, messy grief of that arc, and this expands on it even more.

learn to be still by roseapothecarys

choking/breathplay exploration. every now and then posts go around bemoaning the lack of fic from the top and/or dom POV, and those posts are right because i love that POV here. (i’m pretty fond of all this author’s PWPs tho, ian’s pov or not).

sleeveless by IetjeSiobhan

ian desperately has to fuck his husband after running errands with him. this is the correct level of horny they should be in their daily lives.

watching by catgrassplantdad

they make a sex tape <3 HoS was good for something! hallelujah!

Muse by toraten

AU where they meet when ian is dancing/hooking and mickey has a career going on as an interior designer. it’s really messy and angsty. i really like how ian’s background here has made him super self-sabotaging and how without that teenage romance between them, mickey is a lot less open to dating someone like ian.

Lines by dragonspell

a snapshot exploring mickey’s complete lack of boundaries during that era when ian was manic (and they didn’t know). this really captures the vibes of everything that was wrong with them in that same complicated tone as canon.

Risks Not Worth Taking by SweetCresta

ian’s feelings about lip dragging mickey to the motorcycle shop heist. another missing moment that feels right explored here.

bookmarks by IetjeSiobhan

post-canon where they’ve recently “adopted” the daughter of one of mickey’s cousins and are trying to navigate the parental politics at her school. my favorite part of this is the prevailing sense of “god i wish my husband were here” for every scene where ian is left without mickey (lol).

Gallavich POV Outsider Prompts [Series] by restapesta

exactly what it sounds like. i’m especially fond of the sue one that takes place a bit post-canon.

Last Cigarette by JR_ooc

hockey AU. i read this really early on, before HR was even announced, and lowkey kept wistfully thinking about it while i watched HR.

These Foolish Games by Suzy_Queue

workplace AU mixed with a wrong number AU. like i don’t know how to describe this, but it’s basically full romcom hidden identity shenanigans. you have ian falling for mickey’s persona via text but being irritated by his real life persona, and mickey really liking ian in real life but not knowing how to convey that and finding ian’s text persona a little off-putting. the interplay of all that is just really fun.

perfect fit by catgrassplantdad

fisting. which i’m honestly shocked canon didn’t ever try to imply because no way size queen mickey didn’t demand it.

your blood is my territory by saltandanchor

AU where they meet when ian is dancing at fairy tale. i love this one because it sticks to where they might be if they’d never had each other in their lives, and how that makes them really fucking messy and dysfunctional.

keep you by my side by biblionerd07

post-canon outsider POV from a nurse treating mickey during a hospital stay. reading this feels like watching an episode of the show with all the chaos and secondhand embarrassment that implies.

the sensitivity that took place in your eyes. by mick_exe

PWP set between S4-S5. this really captures that tender-like-a-bruise feeling of that era. like they’re happy and sweet but it makes you anxious because you can see the red flags they can’t.

If love is a labor I'll slave till the end by AvocadosUnderTheEaves

post-canon of mickey adjusting to having actual, real privacy in their sex life. this one is so charming and funny and very—yeah everything here WOULD happen like that.

an ever-evolving observance by dershoimvik

ian character study. i love everything this fic is doing. just—peak of what fanfic can be over original fiction because the latter will never have the scaffolding to support this kind of experimental writing.

Highway of Hedonism by Pielope, Roryonic

AU where ian and mickey don’t hook up like in canon but are kind of in each other’s orbits when mickey runs away and ian spontaneously joins him. ian is manic in this fic (refusing to take his medication) and mickey doesn’t know/understand what’s going on with him. it’s a very messy time. despite that, there’s still so much of that dynamic of mickey growing softer and more caring as he worries about ian.

There Rid the Dragons by lilbatfacedgirl

dragonriders of pern AU. this fic was so good it almost tricked me into picking up the pern books again. anyway, i love this one for making me wait the right amount of time for mickey and ian to “reunite” and work out their issues. like yes this is a fic about dragons but it’s also masterful second chance romance which is my favorite trope.

Bon Appétit by romanticalgirl

AU where mickey is a new chef at the restaurant ian is a waiter for. i love this one for the horrible impression ian has of mickey until he gets to know him. i’m just such a sucker for ian seeing the goodness and beauty of mickey when everyone else can’t.

You Can Bite Me by Shamelessquestions

a vampire AU but like... there’s so much happening in this fic by the end. mainly though i’m a simple woman and i love how intense ian gets in this fic about protecting mickey.

You make me feel human by Dragona

AU where ian is an assassin by trade but presented as a serial killer instead of like, cool action star assassin, ya feel? i really like how this fic is structured — makes for an especially good time as a re-read.

Wipe You Clean With Dirty Hands by ProstheticLoVe

AU where ian and mickey don’t really meet until prison (from how it’s set up, it seems ian and mandy don’t become friends so neither do ian and mickey). i can’t help myself — i love when they meet at rock bottom moments because watching them grow together is such a big part of their appeal to me.

okay but my disclaimer is that i’m not the best person to answer this question because i’ve barely scratched the surface of how much fic is out there & i also don’t really expect my tastes to be universally appreciated 😅 so please approach this with that in mind

Welcome Home by em_harlsnow

outsider POVs set after mickey is released from prison in s10. feels very much like missing scenes that could have happened. i’m especially fond of the liam section.

Stages by ColdReign

fill-in for the period around terry’s death. i love the complicated, messy grief of that arc, and this expands on it even more.

learn to be still by roseapothecarys

choking/breathplay exploration. every now and then posts go around bemoaning the lack of fic from the top and/or dom POV, and those posts are right because i love that POV here. (i’m pretty fond of all this author’s PWPs tho, ian’s pov or not).

sleeveless by IetjeSiobhan

ian desperately has to fuck his husband after running errands with him. this is the correct level of horny they should be in their daily lives.

watching by catgrassplantdad

they make a sex tape <3 HoS was good for something! hallelujah!

Muse by toraten

AU where they meet when ian is dancing/hooking and mickey has a career going on as an interior designer. it’s really messy and angsty. i really like how ian’s background here has made him super self-sabotaging and how without that teenage romance between them, mickey is a lot less open to dating someone like ian.

Lines by dragonspell

a snapshot exploring mickey’s complete lack of boundaries during that era when ian was manic (and they didn’t know). this really captures the vibes of everything that was wrong with them in that same complicated tone as canon.

Risks Not Worth Taking by SweetCresta

ian’s feelings about lip dragging mickey to the motorcycle shop heist. another missing moment that feels right explored here.

bookmarks by IetjeSiobhan

post-canon where they’ve recently “adopted” the daughter of one of mickey’s cousins and are trying to navigate the parental politics at her school. my favorite part of this is the prevailing sense of “god i wish my husband were here” for every scene where ian is left without mickey (lol).

Gallavich POV Outsider Prompts [Series] by restapesta

exactly what it sounds like. i’m especially fond of the sue one that takes place a bit post-canon.

Last Cigarette by JR_ooc

hockey AU. i read this really early on, before HR was even announced, and lowkey kept wistfully thinking about it while i watched HR.

These Foolish Games by Suzy_Queue

workplace AU mixed with a wrong number AU. like i don’t know how to describe this, but it’s basically full romcom hidden identity shenanigans. you have ian falling for mickey’s persona via text but being irritated by his real life persona, and mickey really liking ian in real life but not knowing how to convey that and finding ian’s text persona a little off-putting. the interplay of all that is just really fun.

perfect fit by catgrassplantdad

fisting. which i’m honestly shocked canon didn’t ever try to imply because no way size queen mickey didn’t demand it.

your blood is my territory by saltandanchor

AU where they meet when ian is dancing at fairy tale. i love this one because it sticks to where they might be if they’d never had each other in their lives, and how that makes them really fucking messy and dysfunctional.

keep you by my side by biblionerd07

post-canon outsider POV from a nurse treating mickey during a hospital stay. reading this feels like watching an episode of the show with all the chaos and secondhand embarrassment that implies.

the sensitivity that took place in your eyes. by mick_exe

PWP set between S4-S5. this really captures that tender-like-a-bruise feeling of that era. like they’re happy and sweet but it makes you anxious because you can see the red flags they can’t.

If love is a labor I'll slave till the end by AvocadosUnderTheEaves

post-canon of mickey adjusting to having actual, real privacy in their sex life. this one is so charming and funny and very—yeah everything here WOULD happen like that.

an ever-evolving observance by dershoimvik

ian character study. i love everything this fic is doing. just—peak of what fanfic can be over original fiction because the latter will never have the scaffolding to support this kind of experimental writing.

Highway of Hedonism by Pielope, Roryonic

AU where ian and mickey don’t hook up like in canon but are kind of in each other’s orbits when mickey runs away and ian spontaneously joins him. ian is manic in this fic (refusing to take his medication) and mickey doesn’t know/understand what’s going on with him. it’s a very messy time. despite that, there’s still so much of that dynamic of mickey growing softer and more caring as he worries about ian.

There Rid the Dragons by lilbatfacedgirl

dragonriders of pern AU. this fic was so good it almost tricked me into picking up the pern books again. anyway, i love this one for making me wait the right amount of time for mickey and ian to “reunite” and work out their issues. like yes this is a fic about dragons but it’s also masterful second chance romance which is my favorite trope.

Bon Appétit by romanticalgirl

AU where mickey is a new chef at the restaurant ian is a waiter for. i love this one for the horrible impression ian has of mickey until he gets to know him. i’m just such a sucker for ian seeing the goodness and beauty of mickey when everyone else can’t.

You Can Bite Me by Shamelessquestions

a vampire AU but like... there’s so much happening in this fic by the end. mainly though i’m a simple woman and i love how intense ian gets in this fic about protecting mickey.

You make me feel human by Dragona

AU where ian is an assassin by trade but presented as a serial killer instead of like, cool action star assassin, ya feel? i really like how this fic is structured — makes for an especially good time as a re-read.

Wipe You Clean With Dirty Hands by ProstheticLoVe

AU where ian and mickey don’t really meet until prison (from how it’s set up, it seems ian and mandy don’t become friends so neither do ian and mickey). i can’t help myself — i love when they meet at rock bottom moments because watching them grow together is such a big part of their appeal to me.

I could cry just thinking about how they were so fucking young and life had already treated them so badly. It’s no wonder they both became each other’s refuge, that they were so desperately bound to one another and so desperate to love each other, each in their own process. Because truly being seen by the other person in such a fragile world was impossible—something they couldn’t cling to—and precisely that urgency born from insecurity drove them to love with their hearts on the outside.

I think about Mickey, about how even as a young kid in an abusive household, he was able to draw a line with cruelty. He wasn’t cruel; he gave the gun back to Ian because he wasn’t cruel, because it didn’t interest him. If Mickey never showed anything other than anger, it was because he had been carved into believing that family had to be protected. By extension, everything Mickey knew and eventually cared about had to be protected as well—like Ian. But that protection of his family was born out of fear (and here I’m really talking about Terry), whereas the protection he felt toward Ian came from a different place: affection, appreciation, love.

I don’t think that in the early seasons Mickey felt that need to protect Ian yet, but rather that impulse to have something that was only his. Something Terry couldn’t have. A kind of control over his life that he had always lacked. That was enough for him, creating something outside his family. Still, there are moments, like when Ian visits Mickey in jail in season one, where Mickey somehow starts to appreciate Ian. He probably isn’t even aware that Ian might like him, because I don’t think he was in the mental place to have that kind of self-awareness. In moments like that, I think Mickey was letting his brain connect the dots, because it was the first time someone told him I miss you smiled at him genuinely, showed him warmth and softness. That must have caught Mickey off guard, and that smile, to me, shows a bit of that.

Really, they were just kids smiling at each other, back when things were still a little easier, when Ian had a small, innocent crush—nothing more. They didn’t deserve anything bad.

In season two, one of the moments that has stayed with me the most is when Mickey is having a panic attack over the possibility of his father finding out (I truly believe Mickey suffers from anxiety, and you can see it on several occasions, later on as well, when Terry dies and he’s trying to control his emotions while he cries. Probably because sometimes he scratches his eyebrow, like a nervous tic). Ian is no longer his, he can no longer handle the situation with his fingers. what fucking world do you live in?. It’s fucking heartbreaking that someone so young says, with a trembling, terrified voice, If my dad finds out, he’ll kill me himself. And the worst part is that, knowing everything Terry does later and his personality, it’s not just a figure of speech—he really would kill Mickey. And Mickey knows it.

One of the reasons Mickey has such low self-esteem and so much self-hatred is that his own father doesn’t care about hurting him, and that, of course, makes you feel like you’re worth nothing. He can treat you like garbage. And so Mickey feels that hatred when Terry is part of the equation, because then it’s no longer something he chooses to do with Ian, it becomes yet another proof that it’s disgusting, like everything he does, and therefore that he deserves the harm.

Probably no one had ever touched him before Ian, and even with him, Mickey was so conditioned by trauma that he tried to seek power or strength through sex. There’s been a lot of talk about how Ian used his body, but Mickey did too. It was also his way of being seen, in some sense, because sex was violence and it was raw, stripped of feelings. For a while, the only way Mickey had to cling to Ian was through his body.

I think about how Mickey had all these feelings colliding inside him, confused, and how absolutely terrified he was of his father. I don’t think Mickey truly believed, deep down, that what he was doing was wrong, his fear came from the rest of the world having decided it was wrong. His understanding of others, of life, had been shaped by Terry. When Ian tells him that they have nothing to be ashamed of, Mickey doesn’t say that they do. He only blames the rest of the world for thinking that.

In season three, words arrive—conversations—where Mickey’s body is no longer the only thing he can offer, or rather, it’s no longer the only thing Ian wants from him. That opens up even more fears for Mickey, because when sex stops being impersonal and feelings get attached to it, he no longer has control. That first kiss is such a huge fucking step for Mickey. I mean, kissing someone is more intimate than sex for him; it implies other things.

As his feelings for Ian begin to develop, as he actually starts to like him, the reason for the kiss is precisely that he no longer controls the situation. Because Ian has become something more, and he knows he wants to kiss him. And that’s where the protection slowly begins—the way he starts having these impulses to make Ian happy or comfortable.

Even with the kiss, with inviting Ian to stay over and sleep at his house, Mickey is able to align the physical and the emotional on the same level, where both things can coexist. He wants to keep Ian close because he is his safety, living proof that he has that something—that he can build something on his own that is kind. But he’s still scared, because his father is still there. He can’t offer Ian much more than those moments of intimacy, because that’s all he has at that point, everything he’s able to manage.

It takes incredible courage to open your heart when you know that someone who was supposed to protect you—who has even been your model your entire life—can destroy you, can kill you just for feeling things. And even though Mickey has that, he also now has gestures, words, moments that aren’t just sex, that aren’t just harsh. Mickey had to let go of everything he knew about himself, about the world, or rather, he had to name things no one had ever taught him, with a knife to his throat. And I’m not even talking about season four.

God, Mickey Milkovich, from the very beginning searching for proof that you can touch with your hands and not only fill them with blood. Even if that blood could be your own.

Readers don't tend to notice 'said', while it's there in the sentence, it doesn't give the sentence any life. It gets the job done, mostly...

Here are some options to try!

whispered / muttered / mumbled → soft or secretive

shouted / yelled / barked → anger, urgency

growled / hissed → danger, teasing, frustration

murmured / breathed → intimacy, vulnerability

snapped / barked / snapped back → irritation, defensiveness

laughed / chuckled / giggled → laughing, fun, playful or flirty

asked / questioned / queried / inquired → curiosity, questioning

demanded / insisted → authority or control

sighed / groaned → fatigue, exasperation, longing

When you're looking to replace said, think about why. You'll generally want to do this when you need the following:

when the tone of the line needs more context.

when you want to show emotion instead of telling it.

when your character’s body language, action, or expression can do the talking instead.

Take a look at the scene you're writing, is the character saying their line? Or are they yelling it? Screaming it? Are they enraged, or perhaps is their voice a broken whisper from grief?