Kinga V. Szabó

A real author can talk about their story for hours. They love to elaborate every character, every twist, every detail. Because those existed in their head long before they ever made it to the paper. They were loved before they were written.

AI slop wasn't. It was just vomited into existence.

Someone who generates their story with AI will never bond with their story the way real writers do. That's why they may not know what to say when they're asked why did the character do this, or even remember the scene in the first place. It's something they read, not something they wrote. And to a writer, those are not the same.

There's a unique bond between the creator and the creation. If your writing doesn't come of you, you'll always lack that.

I keep hearing soon we won't be able to tell. And perhaps, in a superficial sense, that's true. But there is a difference. It's not em dashes or repeated words. It's whether the story was made by someone who loves it and cares about it.

If the writer's eyes light up when asked why did the character do that? and they start their very own Ted Talk about that specific scene...

then it's real.

Edit: I did NOT expect this post to get this much attention. I'm truly sorry I made some people feel I'm doubting their genuinity as writers. This was not the point of this post; actually it was the opposite. My words aren't flawless, either; sometimes they come out wrong. I despise "AI witchunts" (if you read my earlier posts about this matter, you know). I tried to say, your love for your art is what makes it yours. No matter how you show it. I believe art is a connection between souls; a machine can't replicate that. It felt nice to hear that professionals in the industry (at least this one person) still search for that in what they choose to publish, too. That's why I wanted to share.

Edit 2. Please be kind in the comments. We're artists and writers, so passionate people, but we're on the same side here. Lift each other up. ❤️

Moonlight spilled through the broken roof of the Temple of Forgotten Gods, painting the stone floor in silver. Wind whispered through shattered arches, carrying the scent of salt and storms.

Princess Selene stepped inside, her cloak dragging through dust and seawater. She had run for three days, through forests, over cliffs, across borders, because she refused to be bartered away to a man who saw her as little more than a crown with a heartbeat.

The temple was her last hope. Or her last mistake. "Goddess of Mercy," she whispered, kneeling before an altar long abandoned, "or any other forgotten deity who still bothers listening... I need sanctuary."

The sea answered. Water spilled from between the stones, spiraling toward her boots. A soft hum filled the chamber, a sound like waves against a shore, calm yet unnervingly purposeful. The water began to rise. It gathered, condensed, and shaped itself. A figure stepped forth from the shimmering tide. Tall, broad shouldered, eyes glowing like the heart of a storm, skin dark as deep-sea basalt, hair drifting weightlessly as though still submerged. His presence was ancient, a force carved from tides and temper.

Selene stumbled back, heart pounding. "You're-"

"A god," he finished, his voice rolling through the air like distant thunder. "The one this temple fears. The one mortals forgot because they wanted to forget their place." Sea spray stirred with every step he took. "I am Thamor, Sovereign of Tides."

Selene swallowed. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You intended to bargain," he corrected. "Mortals always come here to beg."

"I'm not begging," she snapped, rising to her feet. "I'm asking."

His gaze flicked over her - sharp, assessing, not unkind but certainly not gentle. "You ran from something."

"Someone," she answered. "A forced marriage. A crown I didn't want. A cage."

Thamor tilted his head, studying her as if she were a strange current he couldn't predict. "I would help you," he said, "but helping mortals comes with a cost."

"I can pay."

"You cannot afford me."

Her pulse stumbled. "What do you want?"

He stepped close, so close that she could feel the cool ripple of magic on his skin. "Truth," he murmured. "You think you found me. But I... have known you far longer."

Selene frowned. "How?"

Thamor reached out, brushing his fingers near - but not yet touching - her cheek. "You carry fire in your veins, little one," he whispered, voice like a breaking wave, "fire that was always meant to be mine."

The words were not possession. They were prophecy. The temple flickered with ancient power. Symbols she had never learned blazed to life along the walls. "No," she said breathlessly. "That's impossible."

"Your lineage was forged in pact," Thamor said, eyes glowing brighter. "A promise your ancestor made: that one day, a child born of her line, an adult with a heart strong enough to defy kings, would bind her fate with mine."

"A vow?" Selene whispered.

"A choice," he corrected softly. "One you may walk away from."

She stared at him. At the god who claimed to have waited centuries for her, and yet stood here offering her freedom. That made him far more dangerous than any tyrant. "Why me?" she breathed.

He stepped closer, not forcing, not claiming, merely waiting for her to notice that she had not stepped back. "Because you burn," he said simply. "And the sea has always hungered for flame strong enough not to drown."

Her heart throbbed against her ribs. They were enemies by nature - fire and tide, mortal and immortal, freedom and fate. She should have run. But something inside her, something old and half-remembered, leaned toward him like a spark reaching for kindling.

The doors of the temple burst open. Sounds of armed men echoed up the steps - her father's soldiers.

Selene's breath hitched.

Thamor didn't even turn. His voice dropped to a whisper meant only for her. "Choose, Selene of the burning blood. Stay mortal. Return and bend your neck." The soldiers stepped into the archway. "Or," he murmured, eyes glowing like moonlit waves, "come to me, and let the sea itself shield you."

Enemies, fated opposites, tangled in a prophecy, a promise, older than her kingdom.

Selene met his gaze, unchanged by threat, unflinching, and took his hand. The temple erupted in blinding silver. The soldiers never reached her.

And when the light faded, Selene stood at the edge of the sea with the god who had chosen her long before she existed - not as a possession, not as a prize, but as the flame he had waited lifetimes to match.

Enemies still, perhaps. Lovers eventually. A fate rekindled, not forced, but claimed.

Hello everyone! If you want to add some unique flora to your world-building, this article is for you. In this post, I'll go through some ways you can find the inspiration to create fictional plants. Here are some ways to get creative:

Draw ideas from real-life plants: Find unique features of the plants around you that you can adapt to create an entirely new plant. For example, you could make an orchard full of fruit trees that project sharp needles from the hanging fruit when touched.

Think outside the box: Consider what the creatures in your world need. Figure out how their unique needs could be met by the plants. What kind of food do they eat? What is poisonous to them? Where do they nest? 

Tie in significance and mythological elements: Take ideas from folklore. Give your plants deeper meaning to the people that inhabit your world. What mystical properties do your plants have? Are they used in a ritual?

Consider the environment: When making a new type of plant, consider the climate and geography of its growing area. Plants that grow in dry areas look and function differently from those that thrive in wetlands. 

It may be extremely easy to just put magic into a story you’re creating, or explain away things with the excuse of “magic.”  But if that is how magic is handled in your world, readers are going to find major plot holes in your story.  Magic needs rules and guidelines, even in stories where it’s not in the foreground.  Without rules, magic could be the solution to all, or you end overpowering a character because he has no restrictions on how he can use his magic.

But where do you start when setting ground rules for how and when magic can be used?  My goal in this post is to give you some ideas while you map out your world of magic.

Who can learn magic? Is magic a thing that all people can learn, or certain people who have a knack for it?  Is magic something that can be learned at all?  Perhaps it’s only readily available for those who are born with it, such as the wizards in Harry Potter.  Or magic is contained in things, such as charms, amulets, or unicorn horns.  People may have to learn how to access the magic contained in these items, but they are solely reliant on items in order to use magic.  Perhaps magic can only be learned by certain races.

How is magic learned?  In Harry Potter, wizards go to school for seven years to learn how to use magic.  Other books wizards have apprentices they train.    Can magic be self-taught?  How does a person access magic?  Through emotion, thoughts, something else?  Perhaps learning magic requires a large sacrifice.

Does the magic need to be channeled?  Once again, using the example of Harry Potter, wizards need wands in order to use magic.  Other common themes involve wizards using staffs in order to use magic.  But there are stories where wizards don’t need an item to channel the magic, such as the wizards in the anime/manga series Fairy Tail.  Perhaps magic does need an item to be channeled through, but it doesn’t have to be the traditional wand or staff.

How often can a person use magic? Does magic use up a person’s energy, and therefore a person’s magic is limited to how much energy they have?  Perhaps they have a different “energy”, such as mana, that restricts how much magic they can use?  Maybe you want to go the Once Upon a Time route and magic isn’t used in excess because it comes with a price.  Perhaps how magic is used is why people don’t use it so often.  Maybe magic is used very often.

Does magic need incantations?  Harry Potter uses incantations, whether is it is verbal or non-verbal.  There does not seem to be an incantations in the magic that the Witch uses in the Chronicles of Narnia.  Incantations are used quite often in the Septimus Heap series.  And there no incantations in Lord of the Rings.  Or maybe incantations are reserved for the more powerful, older spells.  Perhaps incantations make a spell more stable. 

Can magic be invoked by using items?  Potions is one of the common ways this is used.  But sometimes certain spells can only be invoked by using ingredients, like in the show Charmed or the movie Practical Magic.  Perhaps it’s only used occasionally, such as some spells performed in the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  Maybe items are used in only certain branches, such as Divination in Harry Potter.

What cannot be done by magic?  With the Genie’s magic in Disney’s Aladdin, he could not make someone come back from the dead, fall in love, or grant more wishes.  Food cannot be created out of thin air according to the rules of magic in Harry Potter.  Actual love in Harry Potter can’t be created, but enchantments that cause the victim to have an obsessive type of love does exist.  Perhaps the dead can be raised, as evidenced by stories with necromancy, but it can’t actually bring back the person completely.  Something’s missing.  Perhaps only skeletons can be brought back, or the person comes back in a zombie like state.  Perhaps you would go so far as to say that magic cannot create permanent things out of nothing.

Does magic have categories/a way it is organized? Potions, Divination, Transifiguration, Charms, etc.  Or light, dark, chaos, order,  water, fire, etc.  Or human magic, dragon magic, unicorn magic, elf magic, etc.  And it doesn’t have to have only one way of organization.  It can have several levels, just like when science organizes living organisms. 

“Death doesn’t arrive here – it waits. It’s always been here.”

And even within such a dark palette, the details make the difference – the finish on the cloak, the metallic sheen of the armor, the subtle nuances hidden in the shadows.

The Sentinels of the Misty Marshes.

You will be watched from your very first steps on these lands.