AI - again (sigh)

[Always_on_my_mind]

So I have been trying to get a story published here for about a month. I have NOT used AI, not Grammarly or any program of the kind. I have worked with an editor and only used Word for spelling and grammar. I haven't run it through an AI checker, because I wrote it myself, so I don't see the point. I think that I have now been blacklisted by the AI checker, because my editor and I made changes to my story and it still got rejected. Has anyone got advice on how to fix this and where else I can publish because I am kinda over it at this point.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

What does the rejection notice actually say? You can just copy and paste it here.

 

[Always_on_my_mind]

I presume everyone gets the same one?
I notice that they put something in about Microsoft Word grammar check this time - I don't think that was in the first rejection notice that I got

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.

• Are you using Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Quillbot or similar software, or allowing Microsoft Word grammar check to change your words? Many modern writing packages incorporate AI. Literotica is a storytelling community centered on the sharing of human fantasies. While we do not have a policy against using tools to help with the writing process (i.e. sp, grammar check, etc.), we do ask that all work published on Literotica be created primarily by a human. If you are using a grammar check program to review your work so that you can make changes (as a spellcheck, to flag punctuation, review grammar, and/or occasionally as a thesaurus), that should be fine. If you are allowing a grammar check program to “rewrite” your words or rephrase your text, that may cross the line into AI generated text/stories (since substantial parts of the final draft may not be written by you). Please see this FAQ for more information: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-ai NOTE: the sentence at the end of this response [[Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions.]] does not apply to stories rejected for content or AI issues. Volunteer Editors can help only with grammar, punctuation, and story mechanics issues and are not equipped to deal with AI issues. You may resubmit after you’ve made revisions.

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.

Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.

Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

That does look like the "We suspect AI" warning. The grammar checker could be responsible, or it could just be a false positive.

 

[Always_on_my_mind]

Thank you. Does anyone know if people get blacklisted by AI? Like if I put in the raw version, without any grammar check, will it still reject me?

 

[Rob_Royale]

This site does not blacklist anyone for a rejected work. The rejections are likely automated based on the findings of an automated AI checker. (Flawed as it may be.)

 

[Davidbeer1]

So I have been trying to get a story published here for about a month. I have NOT used AI, not Grammarly or any program of the kind. I have worked with an editor and only used Word for spelling and grammar. I haven't run it through an AI checker, because I wrote it myself, so I don't see the point. I think that I have now been blacklisted by the AI checker, because my editor and I made changes to my story and it still got rejected. Has anyone got advice on how to fix this and where else I can publish because I am kinda over it at this point.

Being falsely accused of using AI is one of the main concerns expressed here by authors. May I be so bold as to suggest a workflow that has enabled me to publish dozens of stories without encountering this problem?

Write the story in Word. I expect that other full-featured wordprocessors do the same job, but all my experience is with Word.

When it's finished, proofread it and then use the spelling and grammar checker, but don't automatically accept its suggestions. There's no need to make deliberate mistakes, but if your use of commas, semi-colons etc. is a bit eccentric, don't feel the need to conform. Make sure you get the quotation marks as accurate and American as you can.

Don't expose the file to any other software. If you feel the need to use an editor, copy his/her suggestions- if you want to adopt them- manually into your clean copy. Don't copy and paste. Preferably, do all the work yourself. Many of those who've been accused of using AI have used editors.

When you submit, never paste the story into the textbox on the form. Upload the file.

(For the severely afflicted, I would suggest not using the spelling and grammar checker, but doing an extra proofreading. Alternatively use the checker on a copy, and transfer the suggestions manually onto your clean version. I have never had to go that far!)

 

[RO33RT]

So I have been trying to get a story published here for about a month. I have NOT used AI, not Grammarly or any program of the kind. I have worked with an editor and only used Word for spelling and grammar. I haven't run it through an AI checker, because I wrote it myself, so I don't see the point. I think that I have now been blacklisted by the AI checker, because my editor and I made changes to my story and it still got rejected. Has anyone got advice on how to fix this and where else I can publish because I am kinda over it at this point.

Give it some time. We think we are "training" LLMs. But actually the machines are training US. Soon all humans will write like Chat-GPT and no one will recognize the difference or care. Actual human-created literature will sound like King James English from the Bible

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Being falsely accused of using AI is one of the main concerns expressed here by authors. May I be so bold as to suggest a workflow that has enabled me to publish dozens of stories without encountering this problem?

Write the story in Word. I expect that other full-featured wordprocessors do the same job, but all my experience is with Word.

When it's finished, proofread it and then use the spelling and grammar checker, but don't automatically accept its suggestions. There's no need to make deliberate mistakes, but if your use of commas, semi-colons etc. is a bit eccentric, don't feel the need to conform. Make sure you get the quotation marks as accurate and American as you can.

Don't expose the file to any other software. If you feel the need to use an editor, copy his/her suggestions- if you want to adopt them- manually into your clean copy. Don't copy and paste. Preferably, do all the work yourself. Many of those who've been accused of using AI have used editors.

When you submit, never paste the story into the textbox on the form. Upload the file.

(For the severely afflicted, I would suggest not using the spelling and grammar checker, but doing an extra proofreading. Alternatively use the checker on a copy, and transfer the suggestions manually onto your clean version. I have never had to go that far!)

I too use MS Word for writing with spell check and grammar checking enabled. I then use Grammarly to go through the story again, after it is complete, correcting any noted grammatical errors myself instead of allowing the app to do it. I've been publishing here in this way for a dozen years without a single rejection for suspected AI.

I also have always uploaded my stories rather than pasting them into the submission field. My last 103K word story was approved for publishing in about two hours.

 

[TheLobster]

I have NOT used AI, not Grammarly or any program of the kind. I have worked with an editor and only used Word for spelling and grammar.

Put this, or something to this effect, in the Notes to Admin when you resubmit the story. If the AI checker has sprung a false positive, this should prompt a more thorough review and hopefully your story gets through.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thank you. Does anyone know if people get blacklisted by AI? Like if I put in the raw version, without any grammar check, will it still reject me?

I doubt there's a blacklist, but what you're doing is submitting copy that's triggering whatever it is the site uses to detect AI junk. So unless you change something, any other content is just as likely to trigger the next thing. The first pass of any story is probably through a variety of word bots detecting whatever patterns or word combinations they detect, and your content must contain those patterns, or it would pass through.

Put in the raw copy. Don't use Grammarly, ever, would be my advice, it's the single most common element in all of these AI rejection threads. Basic spell-check and grammar check in a freebie Word clone, is all I've ever used.

Learn grammar for yourself, learn to edit yourself, and get a dictionary if you can't spell. And look hard at your style. Because if everything else is spot on, there's not much left to consider.

Using the submission Form and previewing the submission, is as fail-safe as you're ever going to get, especially for new writers. Uploading files, to my mind, runs the risk of artefacts in those files you might know nothing about, which can trigger the bots.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

When you submit, never paste the story into the textbox on the form. Upload the file.

I have 29 published stories, none flagged as AI, all submitted by pasting into the form.

Some of them are bad, but none flagged.

Some of these suggestions seem to be guesses.

 

[Davidbeer1]

I have 29 published stories, none flagged as AI, all submitted by pasting into the form.

Some of them are bad, but none flagged.

Some of these suggestions seem to be guesses.

They are all guesses, because the admins work in mysterious ways. All we can do is read dozens of posts and look for things that they have in common, add our own experiences, and suggest what we hope is a safe route through the minefield.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When it's finished, proofread it and then use the spelling and grammar checker, but don't automatically accept its suggestions. There's no need to make deliberate mistakes, but if your use of commas, semi-colons etc. is a bit eccentric, don't feel the need to conform. Make sure you get the quotation marks as accurate and American as you can.

This is misleading. The site accepts English English punctuation and spelling. I'm an Australian writer - please don't suggest we must Americanise our content to get it published. We don't need to do that - non American English gets published just fine.

Don't expose the file to any other software. If you feel the need to use an editor, copy his/her suggestions- if you want to adopt them- manually into your clean copy. Don't copy and paste. Preferably, do all the work yourself. Many of those who've been accused of using AI have used editors.

Agree this. I'd never use text that has gone through someone else's device.

When you submit, never paste the story into the textbox on the form. Upload the file.

Strongly disagree. I've got a million and half words published here, and at least half has been through the Form, with no glitches, ever. But when I've loaded .doc .docx .rtf or .txt files in the past, they've all, eventually, glitched.

Using the Form is, I believe, fail-safe. The site refined it five or six years ago, and it's been good ever since. Others have success with uploading files, but that can be very device specific and can go wrong.

Using the submission form also gives you the Preview capability, which is useful for checking html has rendered correctly.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Does uploading a file not give you a preview? Argh. Surely a final proof-read in the Literotica typeface is essential for seeing how it will come out. (And I wish it would do page breaks - futile at-sign someone who can magically upgrade the software.)

 

[ElectricBlue]

Does uploading a file not give you a preview?

Nope. Only the Form gives you a preview, showing the text as it will appear on Lit. Very handy for making sure italics and bold have rendered correctly (they're the only html I ever use)

Argh. Surely a final proof-read in the Literotica typeface is essential for seeing how it will come out. (And I wish it would do page breaks - futile at-sign someone who can magically upgrade the software.)

That's the only thing Preview doesn't do, is show you the page breaks. It doesn't matter though, because page breaks are always at the end of a paragraph, and if you use 3750 words as your Lit page length, you can make sure you have enough words on the last page so you don't get a sentence stub. Which I've got several of, before I remembered to increment using 3750 words per page, problem solved.

 

[Davidbeer1]

This is misleading. The site accepts English English punctuation and spelling. I'm an Australian writer - please don't suggest we must Americanise our content to get it published. We don't need to do that - non American English gets published just fine.

Agree this. I'd never use text that has gone through someone else's device.

Strongly disagree. I've got a million and half words published here, and at least half has been through the Form, with no glitches, ever. But when I've loaded .doc .docx .rtf or .txt files in the past, they've all, eventually, glitched.

Using the Form is, I believe, fail-safe. The site refined it five or six years ago, and it's been good ever since. Others have success with uploading files, but that can be very device specific and can go wrong.

Using the submission form also gives you the Preview capability, which is useful for checking html has rendered correctly.

Thanks for your comments. I know the site accepts English spellings; I didn't suggest otherwise. In my very early days I had a couple of stories returned because I used English-style quotation marks. That has nothing to do with AI, of course.

I know that many people use the text box, and Grammarly, and editors, etc. without experiencing any problems. All these methods must work for most people, most of the time. Some people fall foul of something, and we don't know what or why. All I or anyone else can do it to suggest ways of avoiding as many of the pitfalls as possible.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Strongly disagree. I've got a million and half words published here, and at least half has been through the Form, with no glitches, ever. But when I've loaded .doc .docx .rtf or .txt files in the past, they've all, eventually, glitched.

Using the Form is, I believe, fail-safe. The site refined it five or six years ago, and it's been good ever since. Others have success with uploading files, but that can be very device specific and can go wrong.

Using the submission form also gives you the Preview capability, which is useful for checking html has rendered correctly.

In my experience, the submission form is too clunky for stories as long as those that I typically publish, which is why I always upload a docx file. Previewing a 100K word story in the submission form is too tedious.

I have never had any "glitches" in uploading and the formatting (Bold/Italics/Centered, etc.) in my file has always been retained when the story is published.

Others experiences may vary.

 

[Britva415]

Has anyone got advice on how to fix this

Resubmit without changing your story, and put a statement in the Notes field to tell the publishing moderator you got dinged by a false-positive for AI, and ask for a human review.

It's not a guarantee but it works sometimes.

 

[IWroteThis]

Being falsely accused of using AI is one of the main concerns expressed here by authors. May I be so bold as to suggest a workflow that has enabled me to publish dozens of stories without encountering this problem?

Write the story in Word. I expect that other full-featured wordprocessors do the same job, but all my experience is with Word.

When it's finished, proofread it and then use the spelling and grammar checker, but don't automatically accept its suggestions. There's no need to make deliberate mistakes, but if your use of commas, semi-colons etc. is a bit eccentric, don't feel the need to conform. Make sure you get the quotation marks as accurate and American as you can.

Don't expose the file to any other software. If you feel the need to use an editor, copy his/her suggestions- if you want to adopt them- manually into your clean copy. Don't copy and paste. Preferably, do all the work yourself. Many of those who've been accused of using AI have used editors.

When you submit, never paste the story into the textbox on the form. Upload the file.

(For the severely afflicted, I would suggest not using the spelling and grammar checker, but doing an extra proofreading. Alternatively use the checker on a copy, and transfer the suggestions manually onto your clean version. I have never had to go that far!)

First, not everybody has access to MS Word.

Second, I'm not going to stop using my actual writing software and downgrade to MS Word. My software allows me to logically organize my stories as chapters and scenes, allowing me to move a scene simply by dragging it to it's new spot in line. No cut and pray that MS Word doesn't screw up the formatting yet again, even when you're not using any special formatting.

While I export to a .docx file for editing, it's not going to have the entire writing history that you're suggesting would fix the AI claims. Even if it did, sorry, but I'm not giving anybody the full proof of provenance to anything I write. If needed, I'll give enough to prove it's my work, but not enough that I can't counter somebody else using that same proof to claim it's theirs.

I only export to .docx to take advantage of the Read Aloud feature in MS Word. Sure, I run the spelling and grammar check since I'm in there anyway, but I usually reject a lot more suggestions than I take.


So, no, your suggestion is not bold. A different word comes to mind…

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

So I have been trying to get a story published here for about a month. I have NOT used AI, not Grammarly or any program of the kind. I have worked with an editor and only used Word for spelling and grammar. I haven't run it through an AI checker, because I wrote it myself, so I don't see the point. I think that I have now been blacklisted by the AI checker, because my editor and I made changes to my story and it still got rejected. Has anyone got advice on how to fix this and where else I can publish because I am kinda over it at this point.

There is a veritable plethora of information and suggestions on what you might do to get past this in the other treads on AI. I’d suggest you start there. Not deflecting, just point you to a wonderful source of the collective knowledge and wisdom from the forum that already exists.