fall in love (again and again)

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Generative AI does not belong in fanfic/fandom/creative spaces, full stop!! I don't and won't use it for any part of the creative writing process. (That literally defeats the whole point!!) A bunch of my work was scraped off AO3, which is why my stuff now requires a log-in, and I can't lie, that was a dark time mentally for me. Like I almost left. It just felt so violating to know that what I had put out there for fellow fans like me had been used like that.

I actually don't see much (if any?) AI generated work around fandom, which I take as a sign that I've curated my spaces very well. And maybe this is aloof of me, but I don't perceive AI generated writing as good enough to warrant feeling frustrated or discouraged by it existing out there. Like I know there's AI slop out there on Amazon, etc., but it's just junk, you know? It's not copyrightable, it's not good, it feels very scammy, people widely reject it. Frustration over it is natural, but it's not worth feeling discouraged over!

What I am much more discouraged and tired over is how people trust it too much, especially in professional settings. Thankfully I'm in a profession where there's been more guardrails around its use, so most of the people I interact with approach generative AI with a healthy amount of skepticism. But I still see a fair amount of work produced by generative AI, and it is almost always at least half, if not more than half, plain wrong. It's genuinely so tiring to have to spend so much time correcting it and then explaining to people why the AI was wrong and the human isn't. I had a genuine jump scare recently when someone in a group setting was talking about how they were too busy to do their online class and so they were having ChatGPT do all their work for them, and I was gobsmacked. It's wrong all the time!! It hallucinates all the time!! I've messed around with it before to see my own thoughts on it, and I got so annoyed so fast at how much I had to correct it and coach it just to try to get what I wanted — yet people are out here raw dogging ChatGPT like it's God in their computer. It's insane!! I feel like I'm going insane.

Honestly all of your stories are my favorites. In fact one of the first Jily stories I read was the first ES (I believe it only had a few chapters and was being updated at the time) and it was because of ES that I was propelled into the Jily fandom and got into reading even more fics from other authors.

So thank you for that!

Also I’m not even usually one for post-breakup second chances Jily but Beneath the Beech trees has proven me wrong.

Ahh thank you so much!! 🥰🥹 This is so sweet!! And omg Stolen mention!! 😭 I'm starting my day in such a great mood seeing this!! It always floors me when readers have been around since the beginning of my writing/posting — thank you for sticking around!! 💓

Hoping you’re having a great summer and we will see some more of your beautiful writing 💕

Ahh thank you so much for this!! 🥰 I agree it feels a lot healthier this time around!! In the first iteration I think I was writing a lot of angst for angst's sake, like smushing all the Jily tropes together into this one fic idea I had. But now that I've fleshed out the world and the prequel more and don't have that same frantic "I have to fit everything in one fic" mindset, it's been much easier (and more fun!) to think about what does and doesn't make sense for this Jily. And it really all comes back to your point about growing trust! That's the fundamental thing they're doing in this first part of the story — they wouldn't be able to get together otherwise! Even as the romantic side of things develops, they're also developing their trust and friendship right alongside it. So when it comes to making decisions about what to keep vs repurpose vs cut, something I've been trying to come back to is that weighing of, is this drama for drama's sake or does this advance their bond? And writing them advancing their bond is always more enjoyable for me too!!

Also, your point about the equal power dynamic makes me so happy! That's something I've tried really hard to maintain. I don't particularly like "waiting around" James (and I don't think that works with his character either). I think he's too headstrong for that! There's a line between not rushing her and not letting her string him along, and that's what James is navigating.

the scorched throne duology by sara hashem

HAHAHA omg I hope not 💀 Idk if I would have that in me 🤣

The only meaningful changes in Chapter 1 ended up being in the James/Dahlia talking scene (below the cut). I expected to run into more but the rest of Chapter 1 flew by and I never had the inclination to jump in and write. So who knows how much editing I'll end up doing as I go.

But something else I have started thinking about is abandoning the "book" structure I had been loosely planning around before and either (i) leaving it all as one, or (ii) breaking it up into smaller chunks, like maybe by month, for size purposes. So instead of the original "Book 1," the first work could just be August/September chapters (~200k words), and then the October chapters would start fresh? Idk. It really is one long continuous story, so I'm not sure the "Book" structure fits or if I was kind of forcing it, and then I'm also typesetting it rn and thinking about file size, etc., so my mind's a little all over the place. But I welcome feedback if anyone has opinions/suggestions/preferences!

Sorry if this is too much of a spoilery ask, was just thinking about it reading that scene…

Bye the way: Also really like the way you write and integrate Dorcas, like the way she is hyping Lily up in the prefect’s bath, telling her how hot she is and being just as invested in Jily as the others! Such a girl’ girl! It’s cool to see that you don’t only focus on the Gryffindors as friends but show the other connections as well 🫶🏻

Thank you so much!! 🥰 Gahh I'm so proud of that Ch 11 scene ☺️ I had had pieces of it written for AGES just waiting to be used, so I'm so happy you loved it!

I can't really answer your jealousy question…in part because I have kind of a menu of options for scenes/conflicts that could occur, depending on how things feel when I get to that part. Writing this fic has already strayed so much from the initial outline, so I'm trying to keep an open mind with where the characters lead!