I keep seeing articles about writers avoiding the em dash or even adding typos to seem less like an AI. But those are things an AI can do.

What AI cannot imitate is metacognition - your awareness of your own thought process. You can show that by creating stories that interact with themselves.

Details like thematic unity, interconnected and parallel subplots, and literary foils all show that you are able to think about what you’re writing in a way an AI can’t. The more of your thought process you put on the page, the more human you will sound.

I usually don’t like to nitpick, but a word that I’m guilty of using a lot and that weakens writing, and that I don’t see many people mention is “could,” or “can.”

He could feel his heart pound in his chest. 

He felt his heart pounded in his chest. 

use scene banks.

and by scene banks, i mean little sections at the bottom of your manuscript, or in a separate little section, where you put random thoughts or blurbs or scenes you have no use of— yet.

i use these often; i used to use my phone notes, but with this, it’s really efficient and easy if i’m looking to use a scene, i can just scroll down.

writers block? search up a couple prompts or sentence starters, and write a couple scenes in your scene bank for future scenes.

when you’re ready or when you need a scene, click the scene bank, and you’ll either have ideas for a plot point, or a starting point/spark.

these come especially helpful when doing nanowrimo (Godspeed to those of you who are, we’ve got this) or simply writing in any format.

She entered the clearing, a dozen heads turned her way.

it’s not terrible, by any means. but it’s boring. so i changed it up in the hope that something would click.

A dozen heads turned her way as she entered the clearing. 

so much better already! the meaning and purpose of the sentence stays, but it sounds more dramatic! more fun! 

If you've ever written a horror story, you might have run into the problem of cell phones. Why can't your characters just call for help and get rescued? Here are some ideas:

The killer stalks his victims by tracking their phones' locations. Once this is discovered, the characters dump their phones.

The danger in the movie is so strange that no one believes the characters when they call for help. For example, the characters call 911 and tell the operator that Civil War soldiers are returning from the dead and murdering "Yankees". The operator assumes it's a prank or some kind of "internet meme thing" and hangs up on them.

The killer works for (or hacked) the 911 call center and blocks all his would-be victims' numbers so their calls can't get through.

The danger strikes before people can call for help, like a sniper, a super-fast monster, a ghost that suddenly appears, etc.

The monster can turn invisible. Call for help all you want. It will just disappear until your rescuers are gone.

The monster is a shape shifter. If you call for help, it will just turn into one of your rescuers so you never know if they are here to save you or kill you.

The monster is a demon that possesses anyone it touches. If you call for help, you're just giving it another body to kill you with.

The killer is the ghost of a serial killer who died in the 1980s. When he stalks his victims, their clothes, weapons, and technology all revert to pre-cell phone era versions.

The would-be victims are all wanted fugitives. They can't call for help because they would just get arrested.

The danger is an AI that can control your cell phone. If you call for help, the AI takes over the call. The AI speaks in your voice, and the person you called for help never finds out you're in danger.

The amnesia trope is one of the most hated plot devices in fiction. Learn what makes it so annoying, and how to do it right.