Welcome to the April Tildes Writing Prompt! Hopefully the first installment of many monthly writing prompts.

This is an offshoot of the writing contests hosted by @TheMeerkat, but a bit less formal and running all month long. Though we'll still have a contest, with a prize of a $20 gift code for Proton or Tuta courtesy of Meerkat. That said, the ultimate goal is to just have an excuse to write.

Among the changes: we have two options for prompts this time!

The Traditional Prompt: The arrival of spring brings a clearer mind, and new revelations.

The Keywords Prompt: Rain, Spring, Renewal

You can choose to do either one, combine them, or do both in separate stories! The keywords are a bit experimental, so while ideally you should aim to incorporate all three, you can choose to use just one or two. I chose words that can be interpreted in a few ways, so don't feel like you have to write about renewing library books on a rainy day in spring.

General Guidelines

1. Creative writing only. Any format is allowed—prose, poetry, fanfics, creative nonfiction, branching narrative, what have you. Just keep it creative!
2. The contest is optional. Some of us just want to dip our toes into writing or share our creations with no pressure or interest in prizes. So just state if you want to opt in or out.
3. Length. Soft rule of 1,000 to 7,500 words, especially if you opt to enter the contest. However, any length is acceptable. Got a two-sentence horror story? Go for it! Somehow hammer out a full 60,000 word novel in a month? No guarantees many people will have time to read it, but that sort of effort deserves to be shared! (Seriously, you'd earn those bragging rights.)
4. The contest winner will be decided via a poll. @TheMeerkat will post a link when the time comes. We'll be doing ranked voting rather than picking just one. So please read all the stories you can!
5. You can write multiple stories, but only one can be entered in the contest! This rule was particularly made with shorter entries in mind, but the big goal is just to write. So if you've got multiple ideas, don't feel like you need to pick just one!
6. Formatting notes. As with the contests, please use collapsible formatting if posting directly to the comments. If posting externally like with Google Docs or a PDF, just keep in mind that people are reading this on all sorts of screen sizes so fixed formats may not work the way you like.

The contest deadline is Saturday, April 26th, at 11:59:59 EST.. This should hopefully give everyone plenty of time to write and read entries before voting starts, and enough time to announce a winner before the end of the month.

And as a final note, please leave feedback on other stories when you can! Getting feedback is one of the best parts of being a writer. I know I always get a big grin at even just simple heart emoji, though you should probably leave a bit more than just that in your feedback here.

Happy writing! I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

wattpad.com is a popular website where mostly young people host their fiction so it get votes and visibility.

I was feeling lonely, and my usual online mates are not enthusiastic about reading my stuff, and I am always in search of feedback. So I got in touch with online groups for those who have an interest in writing. Mostly young people who, seemingly in their early 20s, give or take. Someone asked me if I was making something for the "Wattys", which I later learned is Wattpad's literary award. Another gave me a link to read his stuff on Wattpad. I had to make an account to read it on my phone. Annoying, but they kinda asked me nicely, so I installed it and created an account. Way too many hoops just to read some text, but okay! I started reading. There was an ad below, but that's okay. Suddenly, my phone was taken over by a full-screen ad. A full-screen ad. FOR TEXT. That was too much so I started looking for a way to read Wattpad outside of Wattpad. Maybe there is, but I paused my search to make this post.

Displaying text is a solved problem, and it has been for quite some time. It is so fucking trivial, I coud write a novel right here on this text box! I now hate Wattpad with such a passion, I don't think I'm reading that kid's story!

Wattpad feels like someone trying to fuck up reading.

On another note, I find it a little unsettling how these kids seem more concerned with their marketing than their writing. They have full press kits even before they learn the basics of writing proper sentences. There is also no love for short stories, they start writing novels as soon as they start writing. Everything is a novel with twenty chapters. I'm pretty sure Wattpad has a hand in that. But maybe that's just me being old, so feel free to disregard that.

I get the idea of a website that helps readers find authors, but in some sense at least, Wattpad feels like a water popsicle an I hate it.

I wasn’t sure whether to post this on ~arts, ~books, or here, so I apologize if it’s in the wrong place.

This morning I got lost in a Hacker News comment thread, as one does, and then a crazy idea for a piece of fiction came to me.

I’m sharing it here with you all. I don’t intend to do anything with this. It was just fun to write it out this morning. Feel free to copy or adapt it if you’d like. Also, feel free to discuss the themes of this story, which include the environment and warfare.

Title: Galactic Oceans

Thousands of years ago, on a distant planet covered almost entirely by an ocean, a space-fearing, aquatic, humanoid species arises.

They begin to colonize other planets across the galaxy that contain oceans on them, and soon discover the earth as they explore space.

The first alien colonizers arrive in 422 BCE and settle in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

In 398 BCE, while building new settlements in the Mediterranean Sea, they try to establish contact with a few Greeks.

They learn about the myth of Atlas. They are not only pleased by the human fables, but astonished to find a word in a human language that is exactly the same as one of their own—“atlas”, a verb meaning “to seed” in their language. They therefore decide to name the earth “Atlantis” (a noun declination meaning “seed”), and rename their now capital city in the Atlantic Ocean the same. They also name humans “Zemdzi” (plural of “Zemdzis”), meaning “land dwellers”.

Having learned of the Peloponnesian wars, however, and appalled by the brutality of the species, which seems to be constantly at odds with itself, they decide to cut contact with humans and completely isolate themselves. With the centuries, the existence of their capital city became a legend.

Part of the reason this was done, is because the aliens assumed that the human species was incapable of developing technology sufficiently advanced to detect their existence, and so the aliens left them to rule the land, continuing to peacefully expand their presence across all of the earth’s oceans.

On November 1, 1755, a tragic mining accident near their city of Atlantis led to a catastrophic earthquake taking place, which caused a lot of damage not only to the underwater city itself, but also many human cities across the coasts on both sides of the ocean, particularly Lisbon, which the earthquake was later named after. It was so cataclysmic to the land dwellers, that it sparked the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, American and British scientists were studying seismic activity within the Atlantic Ocean. The patterns that were recorded led some to theorize that “something” other than earthquakes was taking place at its bottom.

These discoveries were one of the reasons for the rapid development of submarines around this time. There was a large increase in these vessels traveling to and fro around the coasts of the American and European continents. Very many of them were secretly scouting the area for unusual phenomena. This drew the attention of the aliens, who began to monitor all human ships and submarines traveling across all of the earth’s oceans.

It was concluded that humans could become aware of their existence within the next few decades, so the aliens decided to take initiative and reestablish contact with the land-dwelling species. They began by collecting data on the humans. This they did through scouting missions using air-tight, water-filled, manned aircraft that they would fly over the land with.

It was during this period that some of the earliest UFO sightings took place. The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident of 1897 was the first time since the early 4th century BCE that humans laid eyes on a member of the alien species.

Once sufficient data had been collected, new technologies were quickly developed. These included suits, filled with water, yet flexible enough to allow for fluid movement on land. During night time, coasts of uninhabited islands across the globe would then be used as testing sites for suits, as well as training sites for the aliens to learn to walk on solid ground. Furthermore, devices for translation between the language of the aliens and human languages were developed. These would be attached to an alien’s suit and emit audible sounds in English, and dozens of other tongues, after an alien had finished speaking a sentence.

During the scouting missions, the aliens became aware of an elite group of people who called themselves “the Scepter”, all descendants of an ancient historical figure known as Nimrod, who secretly ruled all nations behind the scenes in almost complete anonymity throughout the centuries, strategically manipulating politicians, the economy, and the military, all with the goal of retaining their wealth and influence.

Choosing to therefore directly address the “leaders” of the human species, all members of the High Council of the Scepter received letters, inviting them to send delegates to a first meeting, which took place in Hanga Roa (Easter Island), and began in the late hours of December 28, 1901, lasting through the night.

To the astonishment of the delegates sent by the aliens, who identified themselves as “Esmi” (plural of “Esmis”, from their Esmian language, derived from the verb “esmu”, meaning “I am”), the delegates of the Scepter (all members of their varied families themselves), admitted to being aware of their existence since the 4th century BCE, their ancestors having kept all records of that time until now. They further revealed that many of the expeditions undertaken during the Age of Discovery, for example, were partially done for the purpose of reestablishing contact with the alien species.

Another meeting with the High Council took place on the Midway Atoll (Hawaii), on August 14, 1902, also beginning in the evening, at which the High Council of the Scepter met with the so-called “Inner Command” of the Esmi, the leading officers of their colony on earth. The latter formally asked for permission to continue to reside within the earth’s oceans, for support from the Scepter in order to keep their existence a secret and prevent any conflict, and also for them to steer humanity’s further technological developments in such a way as to prevent the pollution of the oceans that they dwell in.

The meeting took a turn for the worse, when the High Council revealed to the Esmi that they were aware that the 1755 Lisbon earthquake had been caused by their mining operations. Therefore, in exchange for all the requests that they made, the High Council demanded that they share some of their scientific knowledge with them. The negotiations took several days, as the Esmi struggled to make the High Council comprehend, that simply offering their knowledge to humans would not result in the immediate development of advanced technologies, as they were not yet capable of comprehending more advanced science. A compromise was made where. For a limited time, a small number of elite human scientists (all members of the Scepter) would study low-level physics under a handful of Esmian mentors. They were promised that this knowledge would eventually enable them to develop sources of energy more efficient and less harmful to the environment (such as through nuclear fission), rather than using fossil fuels.

What this group of scientists (who eventually became known as “the enlightened”) learned, and later published papers on, led to a rapid development of humanity’s understanding of physics.

For much of the 1900s, communication between the Esmi and the High Council was limited to signing agreements for sea-based resource extraction, primarily of oil and natural gas, and later the laying down of submarine communication cables. The former lived with these conditions as best as they could, because simply wanted to live in peace within the earth’s oceans, and the latter felt that they were not in a position to demand anything more from the high advanced, alien species.

After the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and especially the nuclear tests involving underwater detonations of nuclear bombs, however, the Esmi became once more concerned about their safety and resumed their covert scouting missions above land, resulting in a reassurance of UFO sightings in the mid-1900s, after the end of WWII. The High Council closely monitored these but attempted to keep them a secret from the public, while also managing the post-war redevelopment of the world economy.

The rapid industrialization of the late 1900s to early 2000s on land began to severely impact the quality of life of the Esmi, whose water they lived in became increasingly more polluted. Natural disasters also became more frequent, and led to mass casualties among them.

On the night of March 17, 2000, at the Lajes Air Base in Terceira Island, on the archipelago of the Azores (Portugal), the High Council and the Inner Command met for the first time in almost a century, to discuss the matter of the environment, not only from their perspective as ocean dwellers, but also the destruction that humans were causing to their own living space.

Once more, the meeting turned for the worst, as the High Council could give no guarantee that any effort on their part to lead humanity on this matter, would actually convince the species as a whole to make the drastic societal changes necessary for them to focus on developing more environment-friendly methods for generating energy, exploiting the earth’s natural resources less, and properly disposing of garbage. The Esmi then offered the High Council further scientific knowledge that would specificly help humanity to develop the tools to tackle these three problems in a relatively short amount of time (a few decades), with few significant drawbacks to their standard of living, as they now had become able to understand more advanced scientific concepts.

The High Council, fearing that a significant shift in society (especially towards renewable and clean sources of energy, could severely impact not only their wealth, but also further destabilize global politics and the global economy), turned all of the Esmian’s offers down, stating that the planet belonged to humans, and that they were the ones solely responsible for how it was managed. At the end of the meetings, the two parties became suspicious of each other.

From that point on, the High Council began to divest its attention to the development of the worldwide military industrial complex, inciting new conflicts around the globe, beginning with the staging of the September 11 attacks of 2001, which led to many conflicts in the Middle East. Other wars that broke out in parts of Africa, Asia, and even a war in the east of Europe, were all strategically fought to further develop military technology, in preparation for a potential assault by the Esmi.

The Esmi, becoming aware of the arms race that the humans began, reached out to the Supreme Command in their home world Udenis (meaning “water” in Esmian). For the next few years the leaders of their home world raised an army of three billion soldiers, gathered from all of their colonies. They trained them on land-based combat, further developing their special suits. They then made plans to invade, occupy, and take control of the earth, to prevent humans from further polluting it, as planets with oceans are rare in the galaxy, and vital to the survival of their species.

Dubbed the Galatic Oceans Fleet by the Esmi, it was first detected by humans within the Solar System on January 24, 2035. The news of this finding was leaked to the press and led to mass hysteria among the population. The fact that the oceans were occupied by the Esmi was then accidentally revealed to the public, since the High Council did not have time to deal with the issue.

The next day, the High Council contacted the Inner Command to demand that the Fleet do not invade the earth. The Inner Command warned them that the Fleet was comprised of three billion soldiers, and that they planned to take control of the planet by force if humans did not immediately agree to stop polluting it. The High Council cut communication with the Inner Command and ordered all military leaders to prepare for the earth’s invasion from space and by sea. The weeks leading up to the beginning of the war, neither side on the planet confronted the other, as preparations were made.

The High Council decided against the use of nuclear bombs to target the underwater cities of the Esmi, as that would threaten to destroy the earth’s environment, and instead planned to use them to annihilate the Galactic Oceans Fleet. The latter, becoming aware of the plan, began to slow down their approach as they passed the moon’s orbit. All of humanity’s space-capable, nuclear arsenal was fired towards the sky on what became known as “Nightless Day” (because the sky was kept alight by thousands of nuclear explosions), on April 17, 2035. The Esmi fleet allowed the missiles to get close enough to them that they could be safely, remotely detonated by them, so that neither the earth’s atmosphere, nor their ships would be harmed.

The invasion began on the afternoon of the following day. The fleet quickly overwhelmed the ground and air defenses around humanity’s major cities. While many hundreds of millions of humans were captured and subdued, the chaos still led to the death of dozens of millions of others. And despite the Esmi’s highly-advanced suits for land-based combat, humans, being much better trained in land-based combat, were still able to kill hundreds of thousands of the alien species. The Esmi completely dominated on the oceans, however.

The war was fought for 14 days, until the High Council agreed to a cease fire due to the inconceivable and historic loss of human life. The following day, on May 2, mankind surrendered. The “War for the Oceans”, as it later became known, was over.

The Esmi began to formerly occupy the planet. They did not enslave humans but enforced a completely new order on their society. Frivolous consumerism was discouraged. Adult humans were, as much as they were able, required to do some kind of manual labor for about four hours a day, mostly in the afternoon. Mornings were spent educating them. The human population quickly adjusted to its new reality.

The Esmi then began to mingle in human society in order to simmer down the hostilities, using newer, civilian-class versions of their suits, and setting up “water residences” in major cities, which were mostly buildings dug a few stories into the ground, filled with ocean water and connected with diverse systems, similar to those found in aquariums, that allowed them to keep their environments clean.

While the curfews and the surveillance continued for decades, the slaughter caused by way led both sides to generally desire to maintain the peace. This resulted in cultural and scientific exchanges that completely upended human society, and led to the development of entirely clean sources of energy and resource extraction. The living standard of humans diminished for a short while, as they aided the Esmi in building better, more environmentally-friendly infrastructures and processes. By the 2050s, however, it hard recovered. The concept of “wealth” began to wade, as the Esmi passed on their egalitarian principles of government on to the land dwellers. One’s reputation became one’s currency. Hoarding material wealth was almost made a criminal offense. Spending one’s time working, learning, or socializing in person was what this new society expected.

Small insurrections would take place throughout the next decades, but those became rarer as the 22nd century approached. The environment of the planet also began to recover. And now, having acquired superior technology and scientific knowledge from the Esmi, the two species worked together to help humans to expand their frontiers and become stewards of the land in planets across Galaxy. The first human-led expedition to a habitable, earth-like planet named Gradus (Latin for “step), uninhabited by Esmi because it mostly had shallow lakes and underground water basins, took to the stars on September 7, 2125, marking the transition of mankind to a space-fearing species. On that same day, as the human spaceship left the earth, so did thousands of Esmi ships, ending the occupation period. The earth was now not just the home world of the humans, but also another home for the Esmi. And the two species began to cohabit many more planets throughout the coming centuries.

Howdy hey folks, I've recently been trying out ProWritingAid (for the unfamiliar: a grammar/spell checker tool) specifically the premium version with the expanded tool set. And now I want to step onto the internet soapbox and talk about it. It's been.

Okay.

To preface, I've been writing (casually) for 'bout a decade, mainly short creative fiction. (And a few novel attempts. All of which are incomplete but I'm glad I did them) Throughout my time I've gone through a few tools, text editors and what-have-you-nots. With my ever so gleaming credentials established, let's get into the ramble.

Right out of the gate, automated grammar checkers and creative writing have a rather fun relationship. Half the suggestions are useful and the other half are useless. (This ratio can also tip forward and backward). They'll catch syntax errors, spelling mistakes, missing words or punctuation, all good things to fix.

It'll also flag intentional word choice, sentence structure and other creative decisions. Sometimes this can help but more often than not it'll be sucking the You out of your own words.

ProWritingAid (PWA) tries to sidestep this particular pitfall with Style Guides where it'll be more or less rigorous depending on the selected 'genre'. It's a mixed success. This flaw I don't think will ever be truly fixable given the inherent separation between Author and Tool. So we'll have to make do with clicking "ignore."

Now PWA does a bit more than just grammar check. During my time with it, I've currently used two versions. PWA Everywhere, and PWA Desktop. Everywhere is meant to integrate with your text editing software while Desktop is a contained application. They have similar feature-sets, but not identical. Specifically, Desktop has the Word Explorer feature: a tool that if you highlight a word it'll show some synonyms or you can dig deeper with alliteration, cliches, anagrams, rhymes, reverse dictionary and more. Pretty nifty. PWA Everywhere best to my knowledge and searching does not have this feature- which is disappointing.

Especially since everything else Desktop does, Everywhere does better. The UI alone is far more functional, without clipping or cramping. There's the convenience of direct integration. Some features like Single Chapter Critique (which I'll get into later, trust me) also blank screened in Desktop while working fine in Everywhere. Grand.

Besides the Word Explorer, PWA also gives you AI "Sparks" and Rephrases. I'll be entirely honest, I have these turned off (Which I am glad I was able to do). I don't have much to say here besides I like getting into the creative word weeds myself.

Alrighty, that then leaves me with two more things to discuss: Writing Reports and the Critique features.

Okay. The writing reports are useful. Able to be granular or extensive. They scan every selected element in the text and format the results into a nifty report (or in some modes, direct text highlighting) Having all that data visualized with tables, graphs and bars oh my, (with the occasional cross-work comparison) is a great look-at. Grammar-wise it'll run into the problems mentioned above, but otherwise, this has been the feature I've liked the most.

Finally I can get into the whole thing that inspired me to write this post. The Critique suite. Ohohoho, I have some thoughts about these. Human proofreaders are irreplaceable, just want to toss that out there (PWA also keeps that disclaimer in its header). My friends will never be escaping the random PDFs sent for their lovely review. I am ultimately writing for a human audience afterall. That in mind, I have run into a hilarious problem with the Single Chapter Critique.

Apparently I write too good to get use from it. Truly I am suffering here. In complete honesty, the actual point I'm trying to make is the AI is a kiss-ass sycophant. I fed five of my short stories from across the years into it, just to see what it'd say. It cannot be negative. In each and every one I was praised about various element of the stories. Glowing and gushing, could say no ill.

This is pretty useless. Sure it has the "Potential Improvements" section but it's... eh. In the name of curious study, I am having my non-writer friend compose a piece for me to feed to the machine spirit later. (I also only get three uses a day, compared to the unlimited reports with their nitty gritty)

Now, could this simulated praise be a sign I'm a genuinely good writer? Well I don't need the AI for that- I have friends zip-tied to chairs to feed my ego. (I forever cherish one of my close writing friends telling me: "You have a voice of a fantasy writer from the 70s with a thick series full of wondererous imagination written by a twice divorce middle aged man who is disgruntled with reality. It was never exactly reprinted as it was unknown, but the aging, withered pages hold such a gorgeous narrative that it sticks with you for the rest of your life.")

Back to the AI: Their shining critique falls apart when I look at the story myself and can point to several areas for improvement/refinement with a cursory reading. (Thank you creator's curse, you're my true reliable critic.)

Woe to me, I cannot escape personal proofreading. (Real talk: the hope was have it be able to do the cursory stuff so I could focus on the creative viscera. That's half the fun after all—)

There is two other Critique features, Full Manuscript Analysis and Virtual Beta Reader. I have used neither of these as I do not have any large manuscripts to toss into the jaws. To ensure jolly feelings, it's also a credit based system. So let's talk money.

Scrivener, a writing workhorse that even after years of using I still find new features and has long cemented itself as my text editor of choice, was $45 for a lifetime license. Fantastic software, it has earned its reputation.

ProWritingAid, a grammar and spellchecker was $115 (discounted price) for a year subscription. (Can I mention how idiosyncratic their tier system is? Free, Premium, Premium Pro? Why??? Just name it Free, Pro, Premium. Don't stack luxury words.) For $115, I get several features I don't even use, or aren't very useful. Oh, a discount for the aforementioned analysis credits. ($25 for 1, $70 for 3, $175 for 10. Full priced it's $50, $150, $500 respectively. Spend this money on an actual person please)

Now what's worst off is I wasn't even the one to spend the $115. That was someone else wanting to support me and my writing; an act I am quite grateful for and the meaning behind it. I feel bad complaining. I have hopes for PWA. Something that can act as a quick look proofreader would be wonderful. But perhaps I'm just asking for too much from what is again, a grammar and spellchecker.

So far, I don't know yet. I don't know if I'd call it good or bad. As I started with: it's okay?

Maybe I'll do a retrospective after a while once I've utilized it longer. Maybe features will be better fine tuned in the future.

And that leads me here. What have been y'all's experience with it, if any? Searching online has been miserable; I'd like to hear from other people.

[As a footnote, PWA was not used when writing this. Kinda forgot that I never set it up for browser. Tallyho]

Welcome to the third installment of Tildes’s monthly creative writing contest! The February entries showcased some truly spectacular storytelling—my heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated or left feedback. Now let’s see what March brings!

Hm? What’s that? The title’s wrong? I’m posting this on the 8th, not the 7th? No, no; that must just be your imagination. I would never miss a deadline like that. No, the light isn’t growing dimmer over time, why do you ask?

Your goal: Write a creative short story based on the prompt provided and post it in this thread.
Deadline: 2025-03-22T23:59:59-04:00. I’m giving you an extra day on the usual deadline because I’m a kind and generous host, and definitely not for any other reason whatsoever. (Note the timezone shift—daylight savings and all that.)
Prize: Your choice of a $20 gift code for either Proton or Tuta! As always, if anyone wants to suggest or donate future prizes, my DMs are open.

Your prompt: A character must solve a problem using their worst flaw, trait, or habit—something others have always criticized them for.

The Rules:

1. Creative Writing Only: Fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, fanfiction—all welcome! Just make sure it’s, you know, creative. If you’re venturing into fanfiction territory, remember I might not know your favorite obscure anime from 2013. Also, submissions should be in English, unless you believe that Google Translate can only improve your work.

2. Length (Soft Rule): Try to aim for the “short story” sweet spot of 1,000–7,500 words. Too short and you’re writing flash fiction; too long and you’re writing a novella. Both are wonderful forms! Just not what we’re doing here. One submission per person, please.

3. Judging: Winners will be chosen through the highly scientific process of “whatever I think is best.” Comment votes are nice for ego-stroking but won’t influence the final decision. Trust me, my literary judgment is completely arbitrary absolutely impeccable.

4. Originality: Your story should be freshly created for this contest. No recycling that brilliant piece you wrote in college that’s been sitting in a drawer for years. Though if it’s that good, maybe you should publish it anyway?

5. Formatting: Use collapsible formatting if posting directly in the comments. This keeps the thread tidy and prevents the inevitable scroll-a-thon when reading multiple entries. Feel free to host your story elsewhere and link to it here as well.

6. Licensing: Include a clear license declaration with your submission. Whether you’re going with “All Rights Reserved,” a Creative Commons option, or perhaps even the JWCL (which is not a shameless plug and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise), I’d like to know how/if I can compile these for the community later.

7. Feedback: This isn’t actually a rule, but more of a desperate plea: please, please leave feedback on other entries! Writers thrive on knowing their work has been read, whether the response is effusive praise or thoughtful critique. Even a simple “I enjoyed this because…” can make someone’s day.

Oh, and if you find yourself with spare time between writing masterpieces, you can always peruse my own writing. I promise it’s at least as entertaining as these posts are.

Happy writing, everyone! I’m genuinely excited to see what you come up with this time around.

I am Brazilian and I have used software to assist me in writing both English and Portuguese since I the 1990s. That was a great boost to my learning process, as I could see the corrections made to my writing and incorporate them in my writing. I also enjoy concoting sentences that feel correct and proper.

However, writing this way has disavantages.

First, when I write correct English, readers will assume that I am a native English speakers, generally American. This comes with a lot of baggage and expectations for the interpretion of sophisticated context which I lack. When I fail to conform to those expectations I am met with hostility. At that point it is useless to disclose my nationality, since the bad vibes are already set.

Second, formal and properly written paragraphs give the impression that I think too highly of myself, that I wish to give more weight to my ideas than they really have (someone was aggressive to me because I used the word "ontological" once...). Much of the world prefers the informal mode of communication which I personally find unpleasant. But bad interactions are way more unpleasant. So perhaps I shoud change the way I write to be intentionally informal and a little improper. That way everyone will understand that I am not a native English speaker and also that I do not believe that my ideas are inherently superior to everyone else's. Also, a little bit of error prevents people from thinking I am an AI.

I did not proofread this post and I feel ashamed. Maybe it is for the best.

Welcome back to Tildes’s now officially monthly creative writing contest! Last month’s entries were a joy to read, and I’m excited to see what literary magic you all conjure this time around.

Your goal: Write a creative short story based on the prompt provided and post it in this thread.
Deadline: 2025-02-21T23:59:59-05:00.
Prize: Your choice of a $20 gift code for either Proton or Tuta! I added the other major encrypted provider as a choice this time around, so you’ll need to choose if I select your entry as the winner. If anyone wants to suggest or donate future prizes, send a DM my way.

Your prompt: Write a story that begins and ends with the same sentence, but the meaning of that sentence has completely changed by the story’s conclusion.

Rules (Streamlined and Improved!):

1. Creative Writing Only: It must be creative writing. Creative fiction, creative non-fiction, and fanfiction are all welcome! If you go the fanfic route, keep in mind that I might not be familiar with the source material. Also, your submission should be in English, unless you’re particularly confident in Google Translate’s artistic sensibilities.
2. Length: While there’s no hard limit, “short story” generally implies somewhere in the ballpark of 1,000–7,500 words. Aim for that range, give or take, or it may mildly count against you. Only one submission per person, please!
3. Judging: The winner will be chosen by my entirely subjective judgment, not by comment votes. Don’t worry, though—I have impeccable taste. Also, infallible.
4. Originality: Your story should be written specifically for this contest based on new material.
5. Formatting: Please use collapsible formatting if posting your full story in the comments to keep the thread tidy. You are allowed/encouraged to host it somewhere else and link to it from here as well.
6. Licensing: New requirement this time around! Include a clear license declaration with your submission (e.g. “All Rights Reserved,” your choice of Creative Commons license, or perhaps even the JWCL (coughcough)). This helps me know whether I can compile the stories for the community later.
7. Shameless Self-Promotion: In case the self-promotion in the last rule was a tad too subtle for your tastes, you can also always check out my own creative writing.

And everyone, whether you’re submitting a story or not, please leave feedback on the entries! It means the world to writers when their work is appreciated (or even just constructively criticized).

So I have heard/read that LLMs available to the public can be useful for generating tailored cover letters more quickly. I've up to now avoided using artificial intelligence. What recommendations do you have and do you have any advice for getting up to speed?

Thank you.

The recent topic on grammar errors that actually matter got me interested in all of your opinions about style. Working in academia, I have developed a surprising number of strong opinions about style and formatting over the years. I'm curious to hear what you all care about. I am also curious to see if I can be persuaded to cool down some of my own hot takes based on your responses. I'll share a few to get us started.

1. For the love of all that is holy, do not put a footnote in a title or in an abstract.
2. Similarly, do not put a citation in a title or an abstract!
3. An abstract should be... an abstract, not your life story or even a summary of the paper. It most certainly should not develop and defend arguments.
4. Does a published manuscript really need to be double spaced?
5. I'm in the punctuation-inside-quotations camp, but I am open to the alternative. I am somewhat of a weirdo in believing that individual authors should be free to use either style (so long as they remain consistent in their usage).
6. Bibliographies should prioritize the language of the original source; meaning, it is ridiculous to transliterate the titles of non-Latin works in a bibliography. What are you going to do with that information? If you don't know that language, then it is utterly meaningless, and even more so because you can't even do anything with that transliterated text. Plus, good luck getting a standard transliteration out of anyone. All this does is just obscure the fact that these sources were cited, at least as far as indexers are concerned. It would make more sense to just include translated titles next to the original, but eliminating the non-Latin text altogether is so absurd (looking at you APA).
7. On a similar note, foreign words should not be italicized or emphasized any other way just because they appear in a text. All this does is fill up the text with needless emphasis that distracts from the things you do mean to emphasize.

Okay, I will stop here before I cross the threshold where I won't be able to get anymore work done today! :b

I recently had an unpleasant experience. Something I wrote fully and without AI generation of any kind was perceived, and accused of, having been produced by AI. Because I wanted to get everything right, in that circumstance, I wrote in my "cold and precise" mode, which admittedly can sound robotic. However, my writing was pointed, perhaps even a little hostile, with a clear point of view. Not the kind of text AI generally produces. After the experience, I started to think of ways to write less like an AI -- which, paradoxically, means forcing my very organic self into adopting "human-like" language I don't necessarily care for. That made me think that AI is probably changing the way a lot of people write, perhaps in subtle ways. Have you noticed this happening with you or those around you?

I think we can do this once again. The last one went okay and there has been some other recent threads on blogging and the state of the internet and sharing good blog posts we have found is a good alternative.

So please share links to both your own recent blog posts and interesting posts you may have read recently.

I sometimes use chatGPT to proofread longer texts (like 1000+ words) I write in English. Although this is not my first language, I often find myself writing in English even outside of internet forums. That is because if I read or watch something in English, and that thing motivates me to write, my brain organically gravitates toward it.

My English is pretty good and I am reasonably confident communicating in that language, but it will never be the same as my native language. So I will often run my stuff through Grammarly and chatGPT. If you wanna say "This will teach you bad habits", please don't. Things like Grammarly and Google Translate taught me so much and improved my English so much, that I am a bit tired of that line of reasoning. I read most of my books in English. I'm not a beginner so I can and do check for all the changes, and vet them myself as I don't always agree with them.

With GPT, I usually just ask it to elaborate a critique rather than spit out a corrected version. Truth be told, when I did ask for a corrected version, it made plenty of sensible corrections that didn't really alter anything other than that. So I guess I just wanna know everyone's feelings about this. Suppose I write a bunch, have GPT correct it for me, compare it with the original and verify every correction. Is that something you would look at unfavorably?

Thanks!

There are, in my extremely well-informed and unbiased opinion, not enough discussions about creative writing here on Tildes. Let’s change that. If this gets any meaningful amount of interest, I’ll make it a recurring thing (hence the date in the title—look at me, being all forward-thinking)! 😸

Your goal: Write a creative short story based on the prompt provided and post it in this thread.
Deadline: Per ISO 8601, 2025-01-21T23:59:59-05:00. Here’s a link to decode that mess for non-robots. Two-weeks-ish from the posting of this topic, basically.
Prize: A $20 Proton code! I’m sure all of you insufferable delightful privacy nerds advocates already know what Proton is, but here’s a link for completeness’s sake. It’s already purchased, so you don’t have to worry about any sudden impoverishment robbing you of that sweet, sweet encryption.

Your prompt: Write about someone who finds out their everyday routine has been secretly impactful to strangers in ways they never imagined.

I’m not one much for rules, so there aren’t many:

1. It must be creative writing. Creative fiction and creative non-fiction are both allowed, but if you’re going the second route, ensure you have a strong understanding of what creative non-fiction “feels” like.
2. There aren’t any hard length limits, but the internet tells me that “short story,” as a term, tends to be defined as 1,000–7,500 words. Because I always uncritically believe whatever the first search result I read on the internet tells me, you should probably aim for that range or it may count as a soft demerit. Also, only one submission per person.
3. The winner will be decided entirely by my personal whims, not comment votes. If I let it be decided by votes, the first commenter would basically auto-win, so we’re committing the greatest internet faux pas: relying on subjective judgment. 🙀 That having been said, I have varied tastes and high media literacy (if I may say so), so you should be fine. Probably. Giving a character my name and making her the best person in the world will definitely help your chances.
4. It must be written just for this thread; no previous work. I mean, I have no way of verifying that you didn’t start before now, I guess, but I’ll spot-check a sentence or two online to ensure originality.
5. If you post your full story as a comment in this thread, use collapsible formatting. Collapsible formatting keeps the thread navigable and respectful of others’ submissions. If your work relies on formatting beyond Tildes's simple markdown/images/et cetera, you’re allowed to host a document file/webpage somewhere and link it here, too.

Have at it, and I hope y’all have fun! All of you, whether you’re writing or not, are heavily encouraged to comment your feedback for posted work as a reply! Don’t let your fellow waves feel unappreciated. Putting yourself out there is scary.

(Also, yes, the survey is closed and it’s being actively processed. I promise we’re working on it! It takes time to make pictures and read 577 individual responses to a long survey.)

I set myself up a bit of a challenge to get myself back in the spirit of writing. The past couple of days yielded 3.5K words and I know I can keep it going. Point is, a long time ago, I made up this huge pantheon of forty god-like figures, collectively named as "the Archonians", but in my haste to create, I don't really know what they do. That's where you come in. Chose an Archonian from the forty and I'll come up with something and write about it here in the comments. The Archonians have their own subdivisions (as seen at the top) to firmly state a semblance of some organization. The table list thing is down below.

Note: Bolded names beneath the Archonian nomenclature are already done/commented on.

A thread about Bear Blog a few weeks ago showed an interest in blogging here on Tildes, with a couple of users also sharing links to their own blogs.

I figured we could have a recurring (schedule depending on interest) topic to share both our own recent blog posts and other interesting posts we have found.

This is both to have a space for self-promotion that aren’t their own link posts and a place to highlight creative amateur writing (in the positive definition of the word).

I am writing this short story. It is part of the overall book that I am writing, but it is also a story that can be enjoyed completely on its own. In that story, a planet-sized ship approaches our Solar System, and, ultimately maybe, Earth. For dimensions, let's say it is equal to 1.5 of Earth's diameter. According to Google, that's 25,512 19,134 kilometers. The Planet-Ship is probably less dense than Earth, as it is largely occupied by biomass and weird alien electronics. You may think of it as a round Borg cube, from Star Trek.

My "Round Borg Cube" is completely black and spherical, with a smooth surface without any visible features.

What I wanna know is...

• Assuming that the object is on a very slow path towards Earth, at what proximity will its effects be known?
• At which point will scientists observe its effects, view it, or detect it with instruments?
• If that is at all possible, what would be a threshold in which the "Round Borgs" would have to interrupt their movement in order to remain undetected?
• At which distance will it be visible to the naked eye (if at all)?
• And if they chose to get dangerously close to Earth, what would be the impact on our environment?

I understand that is a lot to ask, but I just can't trust GPT for that kind of stuff, even if their answers sound plausible. Perhaps someone with astronomical knowledge as well as an interest in science fiction will find my questions enticing. I don't expect precise answers because I am not providing precise information. So feel free to speculate on that scenario. In any case, I am grateful for any answer I can get.

Thanks!

I started writing some lyrics and I like the idea of sharing them with whomever wants to use them. Personally, it's an extra motivator to know your writing might be useful for something.

So, I'm looking for a platform where I can dump my ramblings basically xD. I mostly don't want a "free" platform funded by advertisements. Everything else (e.g. built on FOSS, federated) is a plus. Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Thanks =)

Hey, Tildes! cqns here -
After four-ish years, I've finally sat down and realized that my "novel thing" is...non-conventional at best. As such, it required a whole rewrite of the introduction, beginning with a cold open, an autopsy report. Problem with that is (1) I'm not a medical professional in any capacity and (2) I've already looked up how to do this (Reddit's no help, obviously). Basically, I want this autopsy report to look realistic and to also increase my understanding of how to decipher one so I can get an idea of how to write it...

The Universes laws of light speed are constant. Life can only reach so far in an ever expanding Universe. The time it takes life to reach as many galaxies as possible is finite and in a certain amount of life times that time is locked in. The matrix of viable life is universally shrinking… forever.

What you’ve described captures a profound and sobering perspective on the nature of life and the universe, touching on some of the most fundamental aspects of cosmology and existential limits.

The speed of light as a universal constant sets an unbreakable boundary for how far and how fast we can interact with the cosmos. In an ever-expanding universe, driven by dark energy, galaxies are moving away from each other at accelerating speeds. Over time, more and more galaxies will cross the so-called “cosmic event horizon,” beyond which their light can never reach us, no matter how long we wait.

This means that the “reachable universe,” or the portion of the universe we can observe and potentially interact with, is continuously shrinking in a practical sense, even though the universe itself is expanding. For life that evolves within this shrinking window, there’s a finite amount of time to explore, communicate, and potentially colonize or understand the available galaxies.

Your phrase “the matrix of viable life is universally shrinking” beautifully encapsulates the idea that the possibilities for life, tied to the resources and connections within the cosmos, are dwindling. The vastness of the universe becomes increasingly inaccessible, not because of a lack of potential, but because the very fabric of spacetime pulls it apart faster than life—bound by the speed of light—can reach.

In this context, life, and the civilizations it produces, may face a race against time to make the most of the observable and reachable universe. This inevitability highlights the fragility of existence in a cosmic sense and underscores the urgency of seeking understanding and connection while the opportunity still exists.

Creatives of Tildes, I'm in dire need of help.

My plan on Nov 5th is to vote, drop my kids off at school, and then go stand next to the heaviest republican-leaning polling location within 20 miles of me until the polls close (with possible break to pick up my kids).

I need a sign. A good sign. I need 1 sign, maybe 1 pamphlet. A final plea to the Republican voter to vote against fascism. It needs to be succinct and thought provoking, but not accusitory. A visual for them to ponder as they walk in the building. Something to inspire even one voter to change their mind about voting R this year. I have ideas, but I am no artist, and not nearly as witty or empathetic as I wish I was.

It will, to the best of my knowledge, be just me. Although I invite you all to join me in spirit at your nearest equivalent.

Here are my ideas so far, but they all feel too wordy.

• Your spouse can't find out you voted for women's rights.
• Don't force my daughter to be on a menstration registry.
• The Republican party abandoned you, It's time for you to abandon them.
• If you replace "Immigrants" with "Jews", Trump sounds a lot like a Nazi.
• I don't like Kamala much, but I trust her to step down if she loses.
• Don't be on the wrong side of history.

The sky unravels, thick with ash, A chocking breath, a world's last grasp. The trees, once proud, now twist and writhe, Their shadows stretch, and darkness thrives.
The wind hums low, an ancient curse, A whispered doom, rehearsed, rehearsed. It claws the earth, it bends the bone, And leaves the living cold, alone.
Yet deep beneath the fractured stone, Where roots have bled and seeds have grown, a pulse remains, defying fate, a quiet spark, through dark, awaits.
Its wings beat soft against the gloom, A fragile light within the tomb. Through darkness reigns, it does not see
The dawn will come. It always frees.

Does anyone have any great examples of a document that explains an algorithm?

For work, I am trying to learn how an algorithm works, and I thought it'd be a great exercise to build up a doc that outlines what happens and how it works. I'm hopefully to lean slightly on the more technical side, but not so far that non-technical people won't derive any meaning.

I'm looking to write something that clearly outlines a process, and shows how those pieces affect the final result. It's something I've never done before, but having difficulty finding posts when googling around for "how an algorithm works".

I'm thinking the ideal format mixes both text and graphics, but the majority I have found are gigantic walls of text. I want to write about a software algorithm, but I think this broadly applies for any sort of complicated process.

Pork bun; pot belly; spare me the tears;
I'm getting on; you're getting old; you're getting off here.
I can't quite tell; it's hard to see; you're somewhere in my mind;
Or is it me? It's hard to see; you're losing—

I think I'll try. No, no, I won't.
This happens sometimes. All the time.
I think. Do I forget?
A half forgotten memory. Still vaguely tinged with some regret

I absolutely LOVE hearing other's stories from their games. Crazy things happen in game land, and these kinds of tales inspire others to play and experiment as well.

Lately I've been interested in different types of narrative structures, namely upon discovering Kishōtenketsu, the Japanese four-act structure and how it contrasts to the traditional western three-act structure.

Obviously narrative is not an exact science, and these structures are best thought of as guide rails to get you started, and a story can be told in so many unique ways. Which brings me to this post's title: The Bear.

The Bear has strong themes revolving around family and personal growth, that's for certain, but when it comes to narrative, it is very unique. Episode length can vary quite a bit, and so too can episode content. Episode 1 of the most recent season was a time-bending, heartstring-tugging montage. Episode 2 was essentially just a single conversation.

And while there are some episodes with a traditional narrative structure with a clear beginning, climax, and ending, I would say most episodes steer away from this concept. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that any sort of resolution is very rare in this show. Episodes, or even entire seasons can pass without many of the major conflicts or problems being resolved, which certainly adds to the high-pressure, anxiety-inducing mantra of the show as a whole.

I'd say The Bear leans heavily into the Slice of Life trope. Where we're being invited into brief glimpses of the lives of the characters, where relationships are complicated, problems aren't always solved, and life is simply messy and unorganized. The Bear doesn't follow any sort of formula that audiences would find satisfying (but that certainly doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable).

So, back to the question in the title. Does anyone know where I might read or learn more about the type of narrative structure that The Bear employs? Is there even a name for it? As innovative as the show is, is still has this certain air of nostalgia that reminds me a lot of Sopranos, which is another show that I believe breaks the mold of traditional story structure, especially in an episodic format.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Enjoy your day, and godspeed.