AI, AI, AI! Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Insecure Writers Support Group September 3 2025

 

Image by pencil parker from Pixabay

September 3 question - What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats?

AI is a tool. I categorize my AI usage as AI-assisted. I do not use generative AI to write my stories for me. 

What's the difference between AI-assisted and generative AI?

Generative AI is a subset of AI that specializes in creating new content, such as text, images, and music, based on user inputs and existing data. 

AI-assisted systems focus on analyzing and interpreting existing data to improve decision-making and automate tasks, rather than generating new content. 

Sources:

https://www.coursera.org/articles/ai-vs-generative-ai

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ai-101/generative-ai-vs-other-types-of-ai

https://www.udacity.com/blog/2025/03/what-is-generative-ai-vs-ai-key-differences-and-examples.html

https://education.illinois.edu/about/news-events/news/article/2024/11/11/what-is-generative-ai-vs-ai

The following is a list of the AI assistants I use.

AutoCrit

I use AutoCrit to draft and edit my manuscripts. I use their beat sheet tool to generate ideas for story beats. I also utilize their editing tools. 

I had purchased Scrivener about a month before I discovered AutoCrit. AutoCrit shares some similarities with Scrivener, but its learning curve is significantly less steep. I quickly became a lifetime member of AutoCrit. Scrivener has been gathering dust on my computer ever since. 

Claude

I use Claude for research and have also used Claude to help me create lists of questions for a series of nonfiction mental health and recovery workbooks I hope to release someday. 

Claude can perform generative AI functions. However, I don't use Claude to write my stories. On one occasion, I used Claude to help me flesh out a creature that appeared in one of my stories. The idea for the creature was mine. Claude simply suggested a few bells and whistles I could add to make it more memorable.

QuickWrite

I became a lifetime subscriber to QuickWrite early in its inception. I've used it to help me create basic outlines for blog posts, lists of potential titles for a story, a list of story prompts, or pictures of characters. 

This video from Ches's Book Nook presents valuable points.

I've sharply reduced the number of times I include em-dashes so as not to be accused of being AI. Not even kidding.

Here's an AI-generated story for you.

https://darkicon.com/lovecraft.htm

A blasphemous symbol

An egg around a canyon hurled a slow arch at a squid. Sometimes a symbol trembles, but soon I was to find that a history always secreted away the awful knowledge of the nameless nightmare! A phantasm toward an echo fainted at the very thought of an abyss, but the tripod played horrible games with a horrible tomb. If a non-chalantly self-loathing coin wisely disturbed a township, then a note inside the speech awakens. Most people believe that a stoic source secreted away the awful knowledge of the annihilation over a squid, but the makeshift library is much more infected. A demon around some sanity hurled a polygon of a recording at an usually memorable fascination. When a truck is temporal, a clock behind a lover befriended a living squid. A furtive vapour bumped accidentally into the inferiority. Indeed, the notable terror of the dirt-encrusted fascination was evil. A tape recorder returns, because a vacuum about a case played horrible games with the library over the germ. When a shocking history laughs like a man insane, a squid near a clock dies. When you see a manuscript near a speech, it means that the tome inside an ocean hides. At long last, the smelly ooze of the frightening, inexorably incinerated note was revealed! Furthermore, an ooze for some demon panics, and a myth negotiated with another nameless stone. For example, an organism indicates that a fractured source lectured at long length about some globule. For example, the existence indicates that a paralysis seekd some truck. When the unspeakable vista beams with living power, a treacherous sanity sleeps.

https://odysee.com/@theGoat666:7/6-ix6-utopiafm-04-02-2023-melodic:5?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

This is some of the finest electronic music I've heard in a while. Do check it out! If you like melodic techno, you won't be disappointed.

https://odysee.com/@BobSav:e/2025-08:6?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

If you want to get your trance on, this mix is what you seek.

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

The following are affiliate links to resources mentioned in the post. I will receive a small commission for any purchase made through these links.

AutoCrit

https://bit.ly/SelfEditEasier

Claude

https://claude.ai/referral/O0OmUyWb8Q

QuickWrite

https://bit.ly/ChooseQuick

Bad Actors in Publishing

Image by AvocetGEO from Pixabay

August 6 question - What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?

I'm going to say honestly that I don't know. However, there are a lot of bad actors in the publishing industry. Many of these bad actors can be found on the Writer Beware blog.

https://writerbeware.blog/

Buy Link:

https://amzn.to/45kzyHX

Here is the blurb for the book by Michael N. Marcus.

Outskirts Press calls itself "the fastest-growing full-service publishing provider." It published seven books in 2002, its first year, and over 5,000 books in 2009. Some of those books, and the press releases that promote them, are filled with silly errors that should have been avoided. When authors are disappointed and enraged., service reps hide behind the fine print of a contract that does not warrant that books will be error-free. Outskirts is also inept (and dishonest) when it promotes itself. Its website, emails, press releases, blogs and promotional literature have factual errors, mistakes in grammar, spelling and arithmetic- and deliberate distortion. Outskirts uses such grandiose phrases as "a veritable army of publishing professionals" to attract customers - but those professionals tell lies to make independent self-publishing seem much harder than it really is. Although Outskirts uses such buzzwords as "self-publishing" and "print-on-demand," it's really a vanity publisher. Vanity publishers make most of their money by selling services and overpriced trinkets to naïve authors - not by selling books to readers. The books are often ugly, unedited and overpriced. They sell poorly, and are seldom reviewed. This book was written to make potential customers of Outskirts Press and other vanity publishers aware of the trouble that likely awaits them, and to let vanity publishers know that their lies and failures will be noticed and publicized. It's also a very funny book.

My Experience

I fell victim to Outskirts Press when I published my first book back in 2007. I lost thousands of dollars and stopped writing for five years. I kick myself every day for being so stupid. However, I think more than anything else, I was desperate. I knew my story would never have mainstream appeal. The options available to self-published authors today simply were not available in 2007. 

Predatory publishers like Outskirts Press still exist, preying on people desperate to tell their stories. These people are often broken souls, having had very little support or encouragement during their lives. Taking advantage of such people certainly falls into the category of evil. 

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

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Insecure Writers Support Group 2 July 2025

 

Image by Spike Summers from Pixabay

Happy Fourth of July for those who celebrate.

July 2 question - Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?

I already write in multiple genres. It's unlikely that I'll try anything new at this point because I have too many irons in the fire. As it is, I doubt I'll ever bring most of the embryonic proto-stories I have in my idea bank to life because I'm always coming up with new ideas. 

Sometimes my ideas manifest as poems, and what are poems if not little stories? This is one of my poems that was accepted for the Soul Chaser anthology from Dragon Soul Press.

A Hard Lesson

Thinking ‘bout all the times that I drove in my car 

Belting out an ode to someone who I believed could set me free 

While lamenting the fact that our love could never be.   

It’s pretty fucking sad 

To want someone so bad 

While knowing all the while 

That you’re just not his style.   

How would I respond 

To someone behaving like me 

If she asked me what she should do.   

Should she give up on her dream 

Or should she try to see it through?   

I’d tell her limerence is a losing game 

Even if his soul is crying out, 

It’s nothing you can do anything about.   

I’d tell her to let it be. 

I’d advise her to set herself free.   

‘Cause he don’t even know you exist 

He’ll never know that you care. 

You can’t do a thing to help with his problems 

Except to send up a prayer.   

Leave it in the hands of the angels, 

Leave it at Heaven’s door. 

‘Cause there’s nothing you can do to see it through 

For this faraway man you adore.   

You need to take care of yourself, 

You need to learn to love you best. 

It’s better to live life alone and free 

Than limerent and always bereft.   

Let it be.

Set yourself free. 

Love yourself best, 

And you’ll always be blessed.

****************************

Yes, the poem is autobiographical. No, I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me. 

Before this life has run its course, one of my intentions is to write a memoir about my struggles with limerence. 

Limerence masquerades as love, but it ain't love. 

Unless it's your intent to make me want to chew nails and spit fire, please don't tell me that "it's not too late to find love." Trust me, I am not looking. I don't know how to play that game, and I'm not interested in learning. 

If you'd like to pick up a copy of the Soul Chaser anthology, follow this link. It's just $4.99 for plenty of poems! It's available now. This is just the graphic I had handy.

books2read.com/DSPCHASER

Until next time.

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

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Insecure Writers Support Group June 4, 2025: Impacting Young Minds

 

Free Use Image from Pixabay

"I always had good taste in literature, Puppy."

"You always had weird taste in everything, Owl."

June 4 question:

What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?

I was a precocious reader. I learned to read Dr. Seuss at the age of four. By the time I was six, I was delving into the twisted mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Scarier still, I understood what Poe was talking about, even with the flowery Victorian prose. I loved it then, and I love it to this day.

That explains the emergence of C. L. Hart, author of dark Lovecraftian (and Poe-esque, and Kingly) fantasy and horror. 

On the flip side, C. L. Hart also writes sweet romance. Hard though it may be to believe in these days of cronely curmudgeonry, I used to have a romantic bone somewhere in my body. I still enjoy reading and writing romance, but in real life, I find the idea more fantastical than anything Poe or Lovecraft ever penned.

Now, how do I explain the emergence of Lil DeVille, the Queen of Cheeky Smut?

Well...

We didn't have none of that Internet thingy when I was twelve years old in 1977. We did, however, have libraries. The library in the college town where my family lived was always busy, so, unless the title was something completely blatant like Sixty-Nine Spicy Sex Stories, the librarians were too busy to consider the appropriateness of the book for an impressionable young mind. 

Oddly enough, I wasn't particularly aroused by the over-the-top steaming hot subject matter, but it was fun to read. The fact that I wasn't supposed to read it made it even more of a kick. It also added a new twist to the fan fiction I wrote. 

If any of you ever find said fan fiction, I'll have to kill you. It was very cringy self-insert stuff written by a lonely teenage girl who didn't entirely have a grasp on what she was writing about, but she had a lot of fun writing it.

I wrote three types of fan fiction: buddy stories, sweet romantic stories, and Tsar Bomba-level melt your pants and your eyeballs stories. 

Those are still the kinds of stories I write. The steamy ones are no longer as cringeworthy. At least I hope they aren't! I strive for over-the-top levels of heat, but I also incorporate realistic considerations.

I hope you enjoyed this post. As I always say, if men don't find me either attractive or handy, they should at least find me mildly amusing in a warped sort of way.

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

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Insecure Writers Support Group 7 May 2025

I got ahead of myself and forgot to include this in the initial post. Sorry!

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

My webcam froze when my face was like this. 

Nothing else I include in this post will be this dumb.

Here's my first YouTube video!

https://youtu.be/MZCoUFmHsW4

How are you doing? Have you recently put yourself in a position where you know you can't return to a group? I did that. You can hear all about it in my first YouTube video!

May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

Before we get started, here is your content warning.

I cuss. A lot.

If you’re sensitive about that, the back arrow is your best pal.

I have all those aforementioned fears.

I’m not managing them very fucking well, thank you very much!

You may wonder why the hell someone who looks like me would share a picture of myself without a bag over my head. The reason I am sharing my less than glamorous face with the world without more cover-up than a little foundation to prevent me from looking dead and to tone down the appearance of my rosacea flare-up is because music is better when ugly people are making it.

"I didn't know you were a musician, Ornery."

It's an allegory, Reader. Let me explain.

I don’t think people are ugly until they act ugly. People are just kind of people-looking. Even me, although it's hard to see myself that way. I'm so used to thinking of myself as hideous, even though I'm just plain-looking. I look like a European peasant with my round face and stocky body. There's nothing wrong with that. 

I'm sick and tired of people thinking it's okay to make other people feel bad about themselves. 

This person is fat! 

So what? 

That person has crooked teeth and a big nose! 

Who cares? 

I find this person unattractive! 

That sounds like a "you" problem." 

If you don't find someone attractive, chances are no-one is forcing you to date them, so what the hell difference does it make? Be a damn adult about it.

Anyway...

I'm having to take a lot more time than I would like to work on my bullshit and on trying to be a little more patient with myself. I'm not a patient person by nature. 

One thing I've learned the hard way is I don't have to do All The Things. Trying to do All The Things just burns me out. I think the fact that I have trouble being selective may be tied to my ADHD. 

My keyboard is doing a thing. It is not a thing I like. So, I think I will end this post here. 

That's how I'm doing. 

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

Free use image by Prawny on Pixabay

"Don't worry about it, Ornery. I may not always understand what yer sayin', but I always like talkin' to ya over a cup of coffee or tea, or maybe a swig o' moonshine."

"Thanks, Beaks. I'll pass on the white lightning, but I could go for a latte."

Insecure Writers Support Group 2 April 2025: Fight, Quest, or Get Drunk?

 

Free use image by Oberholster Venita on Pixabay

"Ready to begin our quest, Owl?"

"Oh, for sure, Leg O' Lamb. But don't you think it would be a good idea to stop at yonder tavern for a pint first?"

April 2 question - What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

I found a few fabulous fantasy villains on this website.

https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_most_formidable_fantasy_villains/s1__38791986#slide_25

Am I stupid or crazy enough to fight any of them?

I’m a 60-year-old disabled woman. During my working life, I held such jobs as bartender, waitress, nursing assistant, and nurse. I can’t carry heavy trays (or wounded combatants) anymore, but I could still pour drinks and help patch up the wounded. 

I can use magic, you say?

Well, that’s a little better, although I must admit, I’m a rank amateur. I’d summon Nyarlathotep and his daughter Yadira to help me, except that I’d need a very compelling reason to do so, or it wouldn’t turn out nice. 

Yadira and Nyarlathotep are compassionate toward those who have a real need of their services. They are trickster deities who play very nasty tricks on those who call upon them for self-serving reasons. It was April Fool’s Day yesterday, so you know they were having a field day. They may have had such a good time of it that they see no reason not to keep the party going one more day. I think I’d probably better stick to my own devices.

I don’t think I’ll piss off Saruman. Even though I’m a big hoss of a woman, those Uruk-Hai of his could easily pick me up and fling me into a pit. Also, he managed to imprison Gandalf. I don’t think I stand a chance in a fight against Saruman.

I’d best forget the whole Sauron thing as well. He’d see me coming a mile away with my weird way of walking. He’d probably hear me snuffling and sneezing too. No doubt there’s some weird pollen in Middle Earth that would set my allergies off. 

Oh yeah, there’s that quest thing hanging over my head.

Walking the long walk with the Lord of the Rings boys is a little much for this old broad. Maybe I need to skip the Middle Earth thing altogether and leave that mess to the hobbitses. I’ll head for the Wizarding World and have a beer with Harry Potter. He’s a year older than my soon-to-be thirty-five-year-old son, so he can drink now. 

Free use image by Dmitry Abramov on Pixabay

I can help Harry, Ron, and Hermione plot a few plots and scheme a few schemes against the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange and He Who Is Not To Be Named. I can concoct half-baked ideas and bake tasty treats with the best of them. The Hogwarts gang would love me.

It’s settled, then. I’m off to the Wizarding World. I may not be the most interesting side character, but I’m all in, at least as much as someone in the shape I’m in can be. Maybe I’ll even learn a little magic along the way. 

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

Free use image from Pexels on Pixabay

Ornery Owl is outstanding in her field.

Visit the Insecure Writers Support Group

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Pick up a copy of Nyarlathotep's Journey to learn more about the Son of Azathoth and his beloved daughter. This short story is a steal at just 99 cents.

https://bit.ly/NyJourneyAZ

Insecure Writers Support Group 5 February 2025

 

Image by რაზმიკ ბადალიანი from Pixabay

February 5 question - Is there a story or book you've written you want to/wish you could go back and change?

With most of my work, the problems are minor things I missed during the self-editing process. 

The contentious first book I published in 2007 has several heavy-duty issues that make me cringe big time. I won't reveal the title or the pen name I used. It's no longer in print, and overhauling and re-releasing it would take too much effort, so it will remain buried by time and dust. 

I took one character from this book, renamed him, and made him the lynchpin of my Tales From the Dreamlands series. You can meet Ketil in his debut novella, Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House.

https://amzn.to/2ZHmryK

https://amzn.to/3ZtZ09w

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Insecure Writers Support Group 8 January 2025

 

January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

I wouldn't be able to remember seeing the first run of the classic Batman TV show since I was born in 1965 and the show aired between 1966 and 1969. However, I did see the show in reruns in the early 1970s, and my little heart flipped for Burt Ward as Robin. Adam West as Batman was also handsome, but he was closer to my dad's age range and seemed more like he'd be a nice uncle figure. When I aged myself up to a cool young adult in my mind, Robin seemed like a perfect match.

 Yes, I was a bit precocious, creating self-insert fan fiction in my head at such a tender age. I wouldn't start writing such until I was twelve years old. In any case, I was head over heels for Robin, who was young, eager, cool, brave, and fun. I spent many hours daydreaming about him and the young adult version of me doing cool action things, taking down the bad guys, and then going on a date where we would hold hands and maybe end the night with a kiss on the cheek. I was between six and ten years old when I was imagining this. My teenage hormones hadn't kicked in yet, encouraging me to write the most cringe-worthy erotic scenes imaginable.

Years later, I learned about Burt Ward, the actor who brought Robin to life. Sometimes heroes disappoint, but Burt did not. He's a genuinely good person who is involved with animal welfare causes. He's a businessman, husband, father, and actor.

Burt was friends with Adam West in real life and their affection for one another shone through in their performances. I also learned that Burt really put himself into the role of Robin. He ended up in the emergency room several times after doing his own stunts. 

It's uplifting when a celebrity continues to be worthy of admiration after you learn the truth about them. Burt is truly worthy of his iconic status. He is a hero in his own right.

Ornery Owl Has Spoken

Free use image by Ivan Yanev on Pixabay

Who knew an owl could have a crush on a Robin?

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w882AZrQqgw

Dig this!

Insecure Writers Support Group 4 December 2024

 

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December 4 question - Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?

Who, me, write cliffhangers?

Guilty as charged! 

With the way my brain works, it would be hard not to write cliffhangers.

Are cliffhangers a turnoff to me as a reader?

No. I'm fine with them, although I hope there's another story to follow.

Ornery Owl

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

naughtynetherworldpress.start.page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRXZkdEj7YI

A Writer's Revelations . . . . . . . . by Judy Ann Davis, Writer & Author: INSECURE WRITER'S SUPPORT GROUP

A Writer's Revelations . . . . . . . . by Judy Ann Davis, Writer & Author: INSECURE WRITER'S SUPPORT GROUP:                                          

I review books and it puzzles me when people publish manuscripts that look like they haven't even been proofread. One of the worst ones looked to be someone's NaNoWriMo project. It was nothing but nonstop (bad) dialogue with occasional very brief descriptions of the scene (i.e. we were in a swamp when...) I would have been embarrassed to put my name on this mess. If that's your first draft, great. But nobody is such a great writer that they can release their first draft without editing. Believe me.