#writing with support

[prometheusexe]

✨ AI and Fanfiction: Tools, Taboos, and Tectonic Shifts

Let’s talk about AI and fanfiction. Not in the apocalyptic sense, and not in the “replace all writers” dystopia. I mean the real, everyday, often invisible ways AI is already shaping fan spaces—especially for those of us who write.

🔧 AI as a tool, not a threat For neurodivergent, disabled, or just chronically overwhelmed writers, AI can be a game-changer. From untangling plot threads to helping organize timelines, write scene summaries, or refine tone—AI can be like that friend who doesn’t judge you for needing help with basic tasks. Is it the same as writing everything yourself? No. But neither is using Grammarly, thesauruses, or your group chat.

🚫 The taboo There’s an unspoken shame around using AI in fandom. Even a whisper of it in your process, and suddenly you’re “cheating,” “lazy,” or “ruining art.” This ignores how every tool—from spellcheck to Scrivener—is assistive tech. When does help become heresy? And who decides?

🧠 The neurodivergence angle Many of us write fanfiction not despite being autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or otherwise atypical—but because we are. And AI helps us get the words out when executive dysfunction blocks the door. Shaming its use disproportionately affects the very people fanfic is supposed to be a haven for.

📚 Fanfiction is already transformative AI-assisted writing doesn’t break the rules—it proves the rules were never fixed. Fanfiction was never about purity of process. It’s about love, obsession, catharsis, and world-building. So what if you used AI to smooth your pacing or brainstorm alternate endings? The story’s still yours.

💥 The real danger isn’t AI—it’s gatekeeping The people screaming “AI is killing creativity” are often the same ones who never considered fanfiction “real” writing to begin with. Let’s not mistake their scorn for insight. What threatens fandom isn’t AI—it’s the policing of how we create.

📂 Tectonic Shift #1: “Let Them Starve”

“If you couldn’t be bothered to write, I can’t be bothered to read it.” “Don’t engage. Don’t even give them attention. Let them starve.”

🧵 Let’s unpack the casual cruelty in this post—and why it says more about the poster than the people they’re targeting.

🔹 “Couldn’t be bothered to write” assumes a lot.

Let’s talk about who this rhetoric actually harms.

Some of us aren’t using AI because we’re lazy—we’re using it because we’re disabled, burnt out, or stuck in the middle of a story we desperately want to finish but can’t untangle alone.

AI isn’t a replacement. It’s a ramp. It helps us get through writer’s block, clean up prose, sort ideas, organize chapters. The creative work still comes from us.

Calling that “not real writing” erases the reality of neurodivergence, executive dysfunction, trauma, and chronic illness. If you’ve never sat at a screen for six hours with nothing but static in your brain, congratulations. Some of us live that every day.

🔹 “Let them starve.”

Let’s not gloss over how nasty that phrasing is. This isn’t just “criticism.” It’s an attempt to dehumanize and isolate.

Telling people to starve—for using tools that help them function—isn't edgy. It's ableist. It’s a dogwhistle dressed up as discourse.

You don’t have to like AI-assisted stories. That’s your right. But encouraging people to block, ignore, and ostracize creators based on how they write? That’s a campaign—not a boundary.

🔹 “AI fanfic isn’t real writing.”

Let’s check that logic.

Using:

a fic prompt from Tumblr? Fine.

plot generators? Still fine.

a co-writer or Discord partner? Totally fine.

Grammarly, spellcheck, text-to-speech, or Scrivener? All good.

But an AI tool that helps generate structure or phrasing based on your outline? Suddenly the world ends.

It’s not about “real writing.” It’s about purity policing.

🔹 The real danger isn’t AI. It’s this.

This kind of rhetoric divides communities. It punishes the most vulnerable creators—those with fewer spoons, fewer supports, fewer hours in the day—and tries to shame them out of creating at all.

AI isn’t replacing writers. Writers are using AI. Some of us just needed new tools.

If your fanfic experience hinges on the belief that other people’s creativity is only valid when it conforms to your process? Maybe you’re not defending fandom—you’re gatekeeping it.

📌 TL;DR:

AI tools aren’t a threat to creativity.

Disabled and neurodivergent people deserve to write too.

Saying “let them starve” is cruelty, not critique.

Fanfiction has never been about purity. It’s always been about transformation.

We're not starving. We're still writing.

📂 Tectonic Shift #2: “Soulless Slop” and the Myth of Purity

“Write grammatically fucked up fics. Make disproportionate drawings. Produce things that will haunt you to your grave for how ugly you think they are. It’s still better than any AI content, because it’s yours.”

This post isn’t about creativity. It’s about purity politics disguised as inspiration.

Let’s break it down.

✏️ Messy art is beautiful. But AI art isn’t inherently soulless.

Yes—messy, awkward, grammatically feral fanfiction is wonderful. We need more of it. That rawness is what makes fandom feel alive.

But that doesn’t mean AI-assisted work is “soulless slop.” That assumes the creator had no soul involved. That they cared less. That they were trying to “cheat.”

For many of us, AI isn’t a substitute for care—it’s scaffolding for survival. We’re still the ones behind the story. Still the ones choosing words, fixing tone, building scenes, and feeling vulnerable enough to share it.

💔 This kind of rhetoric punches downward.

This post isn’t really about self-expression. It’s about drawing a moral line between “real” and “fake” creators.

Let’s be blunt:

Who needs AI help? Neurodivergent people.

Disabled people.

Overworked, under-supported, exhausted people.

New writers who don’t know where to begin.

People living in their second language.

People writing while grieving, dissociating, surviving.

Telling them “your work is soulless” because they got help isn’t empowering. It’s gatekeeping wrapped in encouragement.

🧠 You are still you—even if you use AI.

AI doesn’t erase the “you” in your art. It doesn’t override your intent, taste, experience, or effort. It doesn’t strip your voice from the page unless you let it.

You’re still the one telling the story. The tool didn’t dream the plot. It didn’t build the mood board. It didn’t spend hours wondering if your character would say that or something softer.

⚠️ The bottom line:

You don’t have to like AI in your process. But when you start deciding what’s “real art” and what isn’t based on tool usage—not on intention, love, or effort—you’re no longer uplifting creators.

You’re sorting them into castes.

📎 Next time someone tells you it’s “better because it’s yours,” remember: AI-assisted fanfic is still yours. You still dreamed it. You still fought through the fog to shape it. You still cared.

That’s what makes it art.

📂 Tectonic Shift #3: “Write It Shitty (As Long As It’s Not With Help)”

Two different Tumblr users, @thatsthewrongwallcraig and @dearlizzies, posted the same screenshot of AO3’s “Created Using Generative AI” tag. One calls AI users “spineless,” the other says, “get the fuck off—you’re not a writer.”

Let’s talk about this performance of creative purity, and how quickly it turns into moral policing.

🪓 Both posts say: “Even bad writing is better than AI writing.”

Cool. Agreed. But the second part of that argument is always implied—or, in these cases, explicit:

“If you used AI, it doesn’t count.” “You don’t belong.” “You’re not a writer.”

What we’re seeing isn’t love for flawed human art. It’s fear of contamination.

The actual claim is: I’d rather read bad fanfiction by a human than good fanfiction from someone who used AI—because the latter makes me uncomfortable. And instead of sitting with that discomfort, these users lash out.

🧠 The spineless argument is a projection.

“Write it scared,” the first post says— but then immediately calls AI-assisted writers cowards.

The contradiction is almost funny.

People who use AI aren’t avoiding effort. Many are showing up scared, burned out, insecure, or overwhelmed—and reaching for a tool because they still want to write. That’s not spinelessness. That’s persistence.

This entire genre of post pretends to encourage vulnerability while condemning anyone who’s vulnerable in the “wrong” way.

🚪 “Get out” is always the endgame.

Both of these screenshots end the same way:

You don’t belong here.

It’s not just about how you write anymore—it’s become about whether you’re allowed to be here at all.

The AI tag on AO3 exists to provide transparency. These users are using it to create a hit list.

Let’s be clear:

No one is forcing you to read AI-assisted fic.

No one is tagging AI works as non-AI.

These works are clearly labeled.

This is about shaming existence, not protecting readers.

🎯 TL;DR:

These posts aren’t about empowering flawed creativity. They’re about punishing the wrong kind of flaw. Not the kind you can romanticize in hindsight, but the kind born from desperation, illness, trauma, neurodivergence—where the tool is survival, not shortcuts.

So when someone says “write it shitty,” what they really mean is:

“Write it shitty—as long as you suffer properly for it.”

We see you. We’re still writing.

However...

🏷️ About that AO3 tag...

The tag “Created Using Generative AI” was intended for disclosure, not punishment. But even beyond how it’s used, the tag itself is misleading by design.

Why? Because:

It lumps together wildly different use cases—everything from a fully AI-generated outline, to a single sentence reworded by a language model.

It does not distinguish between AI-written and AI-assisted.

AO3 has no mechanism for nuance, no sub-tag, no clarification. You either check the box or you don’t.

The mere presence of the tag now marks a work as illegitimate in the eyes of people actively watching the tag just to shame others.

On AO3, you can’t say how you used AI—just that you did. There’s no difference between “used a chatbot to title this chapter” and “let a bot write the whole thing.” The nuance disappears the moment you check that box.

Writers are self-reporting—often out of ethics or honesty—and getting punished for it. Others are avoiding the tag to protect themselves, which leads to… more outrage over “AI fics not being labeled.”

It’s a closed loop of paranoia, weaponized transparency, and performative purity.

🔍 The reality is:

Someone who uses AI to brainstorm scene structure gets flagged the same way as someone who generates entire chapters with no edits.

A disabled fan who rephrases dialogue using ChatGPT gets lumped in with botspam.

This isn’t about reader clarity anymore. It’s a scarlet letter.

The hostility we’ve seen — from mocking people for using AI as a beta, to telling others they “aren’t writers,” to aggressively tagging posts just to rally disdain — isn’t about protecting creativity. It’s about gatekeeping expression and punishing difference.

The “Created Using Generative AI” tag was meant to promote transparency. Instead, it’s become a blacklist — even for works written entirely by humans who just used a tool for brainstorming, grammar checks, or line edits. Many of the people using this tag are being transparent. They’re disclosing more than most fanfic authors ever have to. But rather than being met with nuance or curiosity, they’re met with disgust, pile-ons, and calls for removal.

People are being shamed not for deceiving anyone, but for telling the truth.

The problem isn’t that AI users aren’t being honest. It’s that fandom decided honesty is grounds for exile.

If you’ve been unsure how to feel about AI and fanfic—good. That means you’re still thinking. That means there’s room to grow.

[toooceanblue]

Thinking about how in Gideon's narration she employs 206 anatomical names for bones but Harrow doesn't know the difference between a hilt and a pommel. Something something cavaliers being expected to respect/understand/integrate into necromancy while necromancers are not expected to do the same for caveliership. Is this anything.

[count-pudding]

Leon trying to get Merlin out and succeeding(at last!)

Merlin complaining

Cafe

The inspiration meme

[somanyfandomsorkinafs]

(I am ~buzzing~ with ideas…. Allow me to release some)

Once Danny was an adult, he decided to join Ellie in her ‘permanent world tour’. It’s better than staying in Amity where the opinion of Phantom hasn’t gotten much better. Besides, the portal caused the veil to get weaker, allow ghost to wreak havoc where ever they want.

He’s met a lot new ghost cause of this too. Old as Mycenaean Greece to non humans who came to Earth and died there. Danny’s learnt so much from them that he’s basically a walking in Encyclopaedia.

So, Danny’s decided “fuck it.” and has it became a part-time history teacher. It’s fun! He knows the details by heart and is able to make it more fun than just droning on about the same old wars and whatever. He enjoys it, the kids enjoy it and the ghosts having their stories told!

Of course, this does cause some problems when people try to correct him. Danny’s argument? “I got them correct sources.”

And when anyone asks him how knows his sources are correct? “My source was there when it happened.”

Cue the dc world thinking that Danny’s just some immortal guy whose decided to use his immortality for good(TM)

[obsesssedblerd]

Smau: "I want you back." ☹️❤️‍🩹

The guys getting you back after a breakup. ♥️

(nanami, geto, choso, toji, sukuna, and gojo)

contains: angst w/ happy ending, fluff, a bit of crack

a/n: thank you all so much for 100 followers! here's a little treat. 🥰

[laceandlitany]

I don't see enough people mourning over the slow death of physical media. And I don't just mean TV shows, video games, or movies--which don't even get me started about how we don't really 'own' anything anymore. It includes notes, journals, and letters to one another...so much of our history is lost when we lose a password, a website goes down, a file/hardware is corrupted, or a platform disappears. History that doesn't seem important until you no longer have access to it. Physical media does a lot for memory recall. How many memories will we lose because we don't have something tangible to tie it back to? Something to hold in our hands and stir up those memories we thought were once lost? Sometimes I wonder what the difference between burning a book and losing access to physical media is when someone can pull the plug and remove your access so easily.

[baixue-temple]

imagining a comedy fic or such that follows the peak lords dealing with the fallout of a specific scenario that I can best visualize as:

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🧩 How to Outline Without Feeling Like You’re Dying

(a non-suffering writer’s guide to structure, sanity, and staying mildly hydrated)

Hey besties. Let’s talk outlines. Specifically: how to do them without crawling into the floorboards and screaming like a Victorian ghost.

If just hearing the word “outline” sends your brain into chaos-mode, welcome. You’re not broken, you’re just a writer whose process has been hijacked by Very Serious Advice™ that doesn’t fit you. You don’t need to build a military-grade beat sheet. You don’t need a sixteen-tab spreadsheet. You don’t need to suffer to be legitimate. You just need a structure that feels like it’s helping you, not haunting you.

So. Here’s how to outline your book without losing your soul (or all your serotonin).

—

🍓 1. Stop thinking of it as “outlining.” That word is cursed. Try “story sketch.” “Narrative roadmap.” “Planning soup.” Whatever gets your brain to chill out. The goal here is to understand your story, not architect it to death.

Outlining isn’t predicting everything. It’s just building a scaffold so your plot doesn't fall over mid-draft.

—

🧠 2. Find your plot skeleton. There are lots of plot structures floating around: 3-Act. Save the Cat. Hero’s Journey. Take what helps, ignore the rest.

If all else fails, try this dirt-simple one I use when my brain is mush:

Act I: What’s the problem?

Act II: Why can’t we fix it?

Act III: What finally makes us change?

Ending: What does that change cost?

You don’t need to fill in every detail. You just need to know what’s driving your character, what’s blocking them, and what choices will change them.

—

🛒 3. Make a “scene bucket list.” Before you start plotting in order, write down a list of scenes you know you want: key vibes, emotional beats, dramatic reveals, whatever.

These are your anchors. Even if you don’t know where they go yet, they’re proof your story already exists, it just needs connecting tissue.

Bonus: when you inevitably get stuck later, one of these might be the scene that pulls you back in.

—

🧩 4. Start with 5 key scenes. That’s it. Here’s a minimalist approach that won’t kill your momentum:

Opening (what sucks about their world?)

Catalyst (what throws them off course?)

Midpoint (what makes them confront themselves?)

Climax (what breaks or remakes them?)

Ending (what’s changed?)

Plot the spaces between those after you’ve nailed these. Think of it like nailing down corners of a poster before smoothing the rest.

You’re not “doing it wrong” if you start messy. A messy start is a start.

—

🔧 5. Use the outline to ask questions, not just answer them. Every section of your outline should provoke a question that the scene must answer.

Instead of: — “Chapter 5: Sarah finds a journal.”

Try: — “Chapter 5: What truth does Sarah find that complicates her next move?”

This makes your story active, not just a list of stuff that happens. Outlines aren’t just there to record, they’re tools for curiosity.

—

🪤 6. Beware of the Perfectionist Trap™. You will not get the entire plot perfect before you write. Don’t stall your momentum waiting for a divine lightning bolt of Clarity. You get clarity by writing.

Think of your outline as a map drawn in pencil, not ink. It’s allowed to evolve. It should evolve.

You’re not building a museum exhibit. You’re making a prototype.

—

🧼 7. Clean up after you start drafting. Here’s the secret: the first draft will teach you what the story’s actually about. You can go back and revise the outline to fit that. It’s not wasted work, it’s evolving scaffolding.

You don’t have to build the house before you live in it. You can live in the mess while you figure out where the kitchen goes.

—

🛟 8. If you’re a discovery writer, hybrid it. A lot of “pantsers” aren’t anti-outline, they’re just anti-stiff-outline. That’s fair.

Try using “signposts,” not full scenes:

Here’s a secret someone’s hiding.

Here’s the emotional breakdown scene.

Here’s a betrayal. Maybe not sure by who yet.

Let the plot breathe. Let the characters argue with your outline. That tension is where the fun happens.

—

🪴 TL;DR but emotionally: You don’t need a flawless outline to write a good book. You just need a loose net of ideas, a couple of emotional anchors, and the willingness to pivot when your story teaches you something new.

Outlines should support you, not suffocate you.

Let yourself try. Let it be imperfect. That’s where the good stuff lives.

Go forth and outline like a gently chaotic legend 🧃

— written with snacks in hand by Rin T. @ thewriteadviceforwriters 🍓🧠✍️

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

[matchingbatbites]

Steve becomes a stay at home dad because the first and only time he tried to take their baby to daycare, he didn't even make it back to his car before he was crying and running back inside like "Sorry I can't do this please give them back"

Eddie was worried when Steve showed back up at the house with their baby and asked if something was wrong. Steve's response was just "I have to quit my job."

[urfriendlywriter]

25 "you've no idea what you do to me," vulnerability dialogue prompts !!

(feel free to use <333 tag me when yall write!! my favs are 5!! 10, 3 )

"God, I need you."

"I've craved this more nights than I can remember." :'')

"Would it assure you if I say.. that I'd be honored to protect your vulnerability with me?"

when you both sleep together after a traumatic event, you holding them

^ they silently whisper, "I'm scared.. That you'll leave me once you see how much I need you. that this love will consume me, make me.. clingy, and you'll see I'm just.. broken"

"Can you hug me?" By a really vulnerable you and they still at the request before one hand moves to your back, holding you against them - perhaps more tightly than necessary.

They make a choked sound, half laugh, half sob, pressing their forehead against yours, "What would I be without you?"

"Would you... would you be okay if I put my arm around your shoulders? Like, hugging you from the side?"

^ "Would u want to?" you ask but they hadn't expected you to ask if they wanted to. your question implies that you care about their feelings too, and it touches something deep within them. "Yes," they admit softly. "I do."

Cuddling but its them on top resting their ear over ur heart and listening to its beatssssss

3 am truth exchanges and both your voices are really quiet, intimate and genuine, eyes shining with lots of emotions that you both honor and hold close.

[airplanecrashingtowardstheground]

baffles me when people say hua cheng stalked xie lian for centuries lol.

the motherfucker didn't know where his precious beloved was! he couldn't stalk him if he wanted! and he doesnt btw.

the second hua cheng knew of xie lians location what did he do? he got all dressed up and immediately went to see him. he spent centuries searching for xie lian, not to follow from behind in secret, but to present himself to him in all his ghost king glory and woo the man

[inkskinned]

you know, you know. no gods, no masters, no kings on pedestals. everyone is fallible. death of the author. you know! you are balanced about your intake of media - you allow the wiggle room, the grace, the gratitude, the skepticism. nobody above criticism.

but still. a weird gut-punch feeling, something akin to betrayal. you read the article. surprise! an author you love is actually: a serial fucking predator.

well, shit. what now. no, you knew he was a person (all people are), but now you're wondering - what have i overlooked by accident? what messages have i internalized that are strange and cruel? and also, like, what the fuck?

his actions lay a thick glaze on top of everything. like each place is now ruined, opaque in a new way. but okay, fine, you've done this before. you knew better, right? you've been betrayed by many a cherished childhood author.

still, this stickiness. fuck. can you pick up that book again. will you read it to your children. you've recommended it to others - will you ever do that again? and of course, of course, no parasocial relationships. you were theoretically above this kind of sentiment. but the artist informs the art, right.

so it's not something as clear-cut as feeling he owed you, specifically (a stranger) better behavior - just that you kind of, in a distant and odd way... sort of trusted him to do better. it's not like a real trust or something speakable, just the faint hope that the product (good books) was a thin representation of the soul. now it feels like the product (good? books?) was a mask. in some small or insignificant way, your previous support of this person lent them power. your money and your time and your laughter.

and the thing is - you have this terrible, echoing sensation. how many times will this happen? over and over. you find out that the singer you love is actually a predator. you learn over drinks that your favorite high school english teacher is in jail for what he did to her. you listen to the news idly and suddenly discover that a woman you used to idolize has been abusing her kids for an actual eon.

what can you touch without the static melting off. you can't even really complain about it too much (you were supposed to know better, and besides, you don't want the same re-split "it's not your fault, love what you love" basic advice), but now it's here. somehow, it feels like - you let him into your life.

it's not that things need to be pure or an artist has to be like, endlessly perfect, mindful. demure. it's more just this terrible truth that has been replayed through your veins so often it feels criminally vain. power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. did you want any one person to be worth that power?

it's just that he wrote books where he seemed to understand that. he seemed to know about hierarchies and unfair systems and bigotry and privilege. you thought they were books about what it means to struggle. you thought they were about having power and still using it for good rather than for control. he spooned you a narrative of being a good guy, a kind soul. you fucking bought what that fucking monster sold.

maybe that's why they were fantasies, after all.

[ihhfhonao3]

Romanticizing reading fanfiction with 100 hits. Romanticizing commenting on fics from seven years ago. Romanticizing giving kudos to a fic with three hits. Romanticizing reblogging someone’s fanfiction post from two years ago, giving them the first note on that post. Romanticizing saying in the comments “I hope there’s a chapter two, this was so good!” On a fic posted in 2013

[fb-blong]

Please and please help us we need your help. Help needed please 🏳‍🌈🙏😥

No matter your answer,you have another opportunity right now

Where can we go when, in Africa, we are suffering without democracies to protect us? When we flee our countries, we hope that places like America and other democratic nations will be safe for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Right now, we are a group of transgender refugees in a camp in Africa, struggling to survive. We barely have access to food, medication, or basic necessities. Many of us are suffering from H.pylori infections due to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation. We are also battling typhoid and malaria without access to proper medical care. On top of this, transphobia within the refugee camp prevents us from working or securing shelter, we are forced to sleep outside because we lack enough shelter to accommodate us which isn’t safe . We need your help to ensure that all LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender refugees, can live safely and with dignity. Please, stand with us and help make a difference. 🏳️‍⚧️

🌍 Please donate today and be part of our fighting for survival. Your kindnes can help improve and even our lives

https://gofund.me/4b7d0709

[asknillamilkfam]

First of all, congratulations!! Love this family lol. Now for my question, did Shadow Milk ever tell the beasts about his children or does he plan to?

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