Please Hire Indigenous Sensitivity Readers

So I created an article that said, “Stop Using Slurs in Children's Stories” and one of the slurs I mentioned was the word “savage” and I used LJ Davies as an example of how many times someone can write that word in one book, let alone several books as a way to explain how this is a common slur used for a lot of writers. I also mentioned other authors, but after reading so many AI books, I decided to read LJ Davies's stand-alone book called “The Last Monster on Earth” which uses the word savage like it’s going out of style.

Everything was fine. I mentally sighed every time that word appeared, but I kept going. That was, until this word came out of nowhere and if you’re a part of the Algonquin-speaking tribes, you might already know why I stopped reading the moment it popped up...wendigo.

I shouldn’t have to explain why you shouldn’t use Wendigo’s as the “monsters” of your stories. I just want to talk about how you should really...please...for the love of all things holy, I’m on my knees, hire...indigenous...sensitivity...readers.

“The Last Monster on Earth” is a story about a human who gets turned into a “monster” (dragon) and is afraid of losing their humanity. That’s as far as I got, I don’t know what happens after chapter 3 because I stopped after the reveal of the Wendigo’s.

The trope of “turning into an animal and losing your humanity” is very old and was kind of founded on racism. People of colour were often considered monsters, animals, and barley even human. So when you create a story of turning into an animal where you’re losing your “humanity” or are afraid of losing it, it reinforces these negative stereotypes.

If you have a cool idea for a story it might be frustrating to hear someone like me to “ruin” it. But the thing is, I’m not trying to “ruin” anyone’s stories or prevent them from writing in the first place.

I want your story to be the best it can be, however, there are a lot of common writing tropes, myths, and monsters that come from Indigenous cultures and most of these tropes, myths, and monsters that you probably see today which are very common have deep-seated roots of racism.

Despite this article mentioning LJ Davies at the start, I want to make it clear I don’t think he’s a bad person just because he uses the word savage or wendigo in a story, but I do think it’s so common to see that word in media and to have wendigoes in horror stories where not a lot of people are aware of how harmful they are.

If you want to know more about them please seek out Algonquin-speaking tribes.

Is it frustrating to see these things pop up in everything? Yes, yes it is. However, I only think these things appear as often as they do because people are unaware of the harm or the history these words and monsters have.

A lot of this can be avoided by hiring one indigenous sensitivity reader, even if you don’t think you need it, there’s no harm in getting one. They can point things out to you and if you have questions they can help. Does your story need to use the word savage? Is there no other word you can think of to replace it? Does your story need to use a monster from a native culture? Can you not make up your own? What’s the significance of stealing from another’s culture and butchering it?

A post-apocalyptic story where humans have vanished and the main character gets turned into a dragon with no memory is fine. Making the main character afraid they’re no longer “human”, not so much. Using the word savage repeatedly is uncomfortable. Using a monster from a culture you’re not a part of and people from said culture have repeatedly told you not to use is problematic.

I’m 6 months in this year and only finished reading 3 books while having to put down 9 and it’s because (besides AI) the stories I’m reading (and no hate on the authors), just have a lot of problematic tropes or languages where it makes reading stories uncomfortable and I’m tired. I love reading, I love stories, I just want to read a story where I don’t have to be reminded of problematic elements and I have to do mental gymnastics to figure out if this was an accident or on purpose. Regardless it makes reading very exhausting and I feel like a lot of the problems I have could be solved if people just hire sensitivity readers.

The AI of Judith A. Barrett

Boy, oh boy, it’s my favourite time of year again, when I downloaded interesting books, but it turned out they were created using AI. So, who’s the AI writer this time?

Judith A. Barrett, the culprit, “The Librarian”.

Now, it didn’t take me long to figure out something was amiss, but I try not to compare poor writing to AI since writing is a skill and what I consider poor might be higher than others, but what tipped me off was in chapter two when I read this.

The Librarian – I answered the plumber’s knock and invited him in. He was tall and muscular and wore his wire-rimmed glasses on top of his head. His gray hair was thick and curly, and his mustache was red with gray streaks.

“Maggie, your mother is sure proud of you. Whenever I come to fix her cantankerous dishwasher or whatever’s broken, she points at your high school picture with your green eyes and blond curls. Did you know your real name’s No-Sensatall?” I loved his laugh. My favourite guffaw.”

That just felt so... unnatural that I had to pause and look to see if the author uses AI and it turns out, she does.

A quick Twitter search will show that she follows both Midjourney and Authors AI.

Not to mention her own image in the about the author section of her webpage was created using AI (most likely by Midjourney) So yeah, it’s pretty safe to assume Judith uses AI to write stories.

Before I delete this book from my records, I might as well have some fun with it.

The main character has a mother who appears throughout the story, the mother’s name is Isolde...that doesn’t get revealed until you’re 82% of the way through the story. Even after this revolution, the story continues to still not call Isolde by her name and instead as just "Mother". In fact, I have now referred to the mother character as Isolde MORE TIMES THAN THE BOOK!

We also got weird sentences such as this - “I like your attitude, girl. You just stick with me. We’ll tell ’em I got the big boxes and you got the little ones.” I loved her booming laugh. - The Librarian, Judith. A Barrett

Where’s the booming laugh?

Also, the story just sounds very AI, there’s no personality, and it’s all very robotic sounding and flat. The words don’t flow and there are weird sentences. You can feel there’s no love put into this story. Again, I try not to go with the argument, that poor writing means it was created by AI because even with poor writing you can feel the soul in a story. You can hear the author's voice, this was done by AI and it’s very easy to see if you just read the first two chapters.

You can’t copyright AI text

You shouldn’t be able to at least.

This entire post is gonna be a response to this article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/author-granted-copyright-over-book-with-ai-generated-text-with-a-twist/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2V8UhBqIhPZOItkutVWV5dbrdzcfv1temluvDLoqq2mH_VYhQ8XQmJWeg_aem_AVdhQregse5E_2iNn2sfJWW_g2qbp6kMQe1224x8sroZY6JNpxAl20foXPq5_FhwZm3VnVmoyXoNWXK8mFpY7JmR

So if you would like full context, go take a quick read then come back to me, I’ll wait.

Now with that out of the way, let’s begin.

The article talks about how Elisa Shupe was able to get her book copyrighted despite using AI text in her novel and in a weird turn of events no one mentioned her book or where to find it, so I did the work and discovered it’s called “AI Machinations: Tangled Webs and Typed Words” under the pen name Ellen Rae, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/AI-Machinations-Tangled-Typed-Words-ebook/dp/B0CKWSQYVV/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Mnte1&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=138-1086470-4047013&pd_rd_wg=JsCX3&pd_rd_r=95cbab0f-fbc0-4b67-8c1f-dbdc7d81c427&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

I was only able to find this thanks to the United States Copyright search engine here: https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&SAB1=Elisa%20Shupe&BOOL1=all%20of%20these&FLD1=Keyword%20Anywhere%20%28GKEY%29&GRP1=OR%20with%20next%20set&SAB2=Ellen%20Rae&BOOL2=as%20a%20phrase&FLD2=Keyword%20Anywhere%20%28GKEY%29&CNT=25&PID=KsAg2GziUD-KWXZ2p16doyefGFC9I_&SEQ=20240423225121&SID=8

The copyright office doesn’t seem to acknowledge Elisa as the owner of her “completed work” but merely in the “arrangement” in which those AI texts are placed. “This means no one can copy the book without permission, but the actual sentences and paragraphs themselves are not copyrighted and could theoretically be rearranged and republished as a different book.” - KATE KNIBBS, WIRED.COM – 4/18/2024 11:24PM

Now I don’t need to know and I don’t care why Elisa created a book with AI text, all I want to focus on is what this means for the future of storytelling and copyright?

For starters, since the book is free thanks to Kindle Unlimited, I can download it, and rip the text straight from the book but as long as I rearrange the words, I’m safe. First of all...how much of it needs to be rearranged for it to no longer count as stealing? Can I simply move words around or do I need to add in my own input? How much of my own input is needed?

I took a chapter from the book and rearranged it, here’s my version of the text which I got from said book which according to the copyright office, is legal.

[This is for educational purposes only]

The pallid light of an October morning spilt into the Wakefield kitchen, accompanied by the gentle rustling of leaves. Lily, ever observant, set her backpack down by the breakfast bar and looked closely at her mother. "Mom," she began, concerned, "you should sit down for a bit. You look tired."

Brenna forced a smile, appreciating her daughter's concern. The pressing nature of the situation bore down on her. "You know we have plans," Lily called out, her voice irritated and affectionate.

Brenna hesitated for a few seconds, yesterday’s meeting still fresh in her mind. "Thank you, sweetie. I'll be okay. Just one of those days, you know?" Brenna leaned down, despite her pain, “Tell me about that darkness.”

“Alright,” she conceded with a smile. "Let's just say I have my ways considering how many Confederate prisoners died,” Lily's expression brightened.

Brenna snapped, “This is me trying to make things right and,” Brenna's eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”

“A forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera. Top of the line. It can detect the slightest temperature variations.”

“How did you manage to get this?" Brenna took the camera, sensing its heft in her hand. The reality of what they might discover tonight suddenly felt more tangible. "Thank you," she whispered back.

***

I would like to point out I didn’t add any of my own words, I merely rearranged Elisa's to create a new story which is different from hers. Under normal copyright laws I would consider this stealing because I literally stole Elisa’s words, rearranged them, and added none of my own input and if you agree with what I did is considered stealing, congratulations, that’s how AI text is made.

If the copyright office allows these kinds of stories to be copyrighted then we’re gonna see more and more text which are stolen from authors used in stories under the AI machine. Again, I ask, how much-stolen work will the copyright office allow to be used if we could go with the excuse “A machine made it but I changed it.”

[This is for educational purposes only]

Me - Give me two paragraphs which use text from Warriors Into The Wild, Lord of the Rings, and Wings of Fire

AI - Here's a mashup of two paragraphs using text from "Warriors: Into the Wild," "Lord of the Rings," and "Wings of Fire":

In the heart of the forest, Firepaw watched as the shadows lengthened, casting a darkening cloak over the land. The whispering wind carried tales of ancient battles and forgotten realms, stirring memories of a time when the world was young and filled with magic. As he gazed into the depths of the woods, Firepaw felt a sense of foreboding, as if unseen eyes were watching his every move, waiting for the moment to strike. He knew that danger lurked in the shadows, but he also knew that he was not alone. With the courage of a warrior, he pressed forward, determined to face whatever challenges lay ahead, for he was destined for greatness

***

AI steals from authors, I didn’t create any of the text you just read, but thanks to Elisa and the copyright office, all I’ll have to do is most likely change Firepaw’s name and I’ll be golden, despite telling AI to use stolen text.

Let me be very clear, AI doesn’t create anything new, it’s a machine which was created using stolen works and if for some reason you don’t believe me, take it from Open AI themselves. “OpenAI said it could not train large language models such as its GPT-4 model – the technology behind ChatGPT – without access to copyrighted work.” - The Guardian, 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/08/ai-tools-chatgpt-copyrighted-material-openai

If you use AI to create a story, it shouldn’t be copyrighted because the “words” you use to create a story didn't come from you. I understand creating a story is hard, and for those who suffer from a disability where it’s difficult to create a story the normal way, I can see the appeal of using AI. However, please don't use it until AI can be made where it’ll NEVER steal from others.

“I fired a nuke at the US Copyright Office this morning,” - Elisa Shupe (2024)

I can’t deny that, because I can only see this snowballing into more AI-written books trying to get copyrighted and while Elisa admitted to using AI text, not everyone will. Here’s another article by Kate where she goes into detail about how Amazon has an AI book problem so the problem is already here and it’s getting worse thanks to Elisa’s book making it through the copyright office: https://www.wired.com/story/scammy-ai-generated-books-flooding-amazon/

It’s nearly impossible to figure out who’s using AI text unless they tell us. But if someone gets caught using AI text, they can simply claim they changed enough of the AI version to justify putting their own “spin” on things.

“You don't just hit ‘generate’ and get something worthy of publishing. That may come in the future, but we're still far from it,” she says, noting that she spent upwards of 14 hours a day working on her draft … On a sentence level, she adjusted almost every line in some way, from changes in word choice to structure. One example describing a character in the novel: “Mark eyed her, a complex mix of concern and annoyance evident in his gaze” becomes “Mark studied her, his gaze reflecting both worry and irritation.” - Elisa & Kate (2024)

Anyone can claim this. Anyone who uses AI text can say they spend 14 hours a day, going over AI written text and changing it, but it still doesn’t eliminate the fact that Elisa used stolen text to help create a story. It doesn’t change the story she "created" is now copyrighted and being sold to others with protection.

I honestly don’t know why Elisa used AI text because in her own words, “firing a nuke at the US Copyright Office” is so good, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. Those words came from a person, they were created by thought, and it describe this situation so perfectly, that I have to give credit to the person who created it, Elisa Shupe.

I guess only time will tell how the United States Copyright Office will handle AI-created stuff but if they agree with one person using it, others will follow. If your argument is that you need AI to help write because of your disability, then please speak with disabled writers. I give out free writing advice all the time because I enjoy writing and I want others to enjoy it as well.

What makes writing beautiful is that it comes from a human. Humans with their own thoughts, ideas, and personalities. I could end this article by saying something profound that’ll reflect on the themes of what you just read, or...I could say something stupid but regardless of how this article ends, it ended as it began, with a human thought...pickles.

Writing Advice: Resurrection Trope

I was reading a story where the main character dies but gets brought back to life and this is such a common trope I shouldn’t be surprised when I see it but yet I still am. I’m not sure if this is a good trope, but I guess many people like it enough that it gets included in everything.

Here’s why I don’t really care for this trope if you can bring a character back to life, then death has no weight. The moment you do this, you’ll have to explain to the reader “No, seriously, they won’t come back again, trust me.” But how can we trust you after the first time?

I’m not talking about fake-out deaths where we think a character is dead but they’re just off-screen preparing to emerge from under the rubble of a fallen building. Gandalf is a great example of what I'm talking about where we only see him fall but never the body until after he comes back. The kind of resurrection trope I’m talking about is where the heart stops beating their soul is gone just for them to come back for round two a few pages later.

I understand these scenes are very emotional for the characters, but this trope is so common that if I see the main character die halfway through a book, I don’t feel anything because I know they’ll come back on the next page. Honestly, I’m more shocked to see someone not come back. I’m like, “Damn...they dead, dead...wasn’t expecting that.”

You might be asking yourself “How can I write a scene where a character dies, but later comes back to life without losing any of the emotional weight? Also when I do kill off the same character, how can I convince the reader they won’t come back?”

And honestly...that’s a pretty big question because it’ll depend on your setting, lore, and world.

In most cases, if the hero gets murdered and comes back to life, that’s to be expected. However, if the hero sacrifices themselves, then they stay dead. I’m not entirely sure why most of these death scenes are written this way but that’s typically how it plays out and if you’re creating that, you’ll need to convince the reader that a sacrificial death is different than getting murdered. Most of the time these sacrificial deaths have to deal with the hero turning into balls of light, but that also doesn’t mean they won’t come back because I’ve seen balls of light bring characters back. (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon)

You can inform your reader that a higher being said the next time the hero dies, they won’t come back, however, I’ve also seen the same higher beings go back on their word. There’s nothing you can say that’ll convince me, yup the hero won’t come back this time, because I’ve seen it so much that like I said before, I’m more shocked when the hero stays dead.

I’m not saying you can’t do this trope, but I will say it’s very hard to do right. Dragonball, God of War, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, Any superhero comic, Tangled, Warriors, Mass Effect 2, Bio Shock 2, Teen Titans, Avatar The Last Airbender.

I don’t think any of these are bad stories...for the most part, but I also don’t feel anything when a character dies just because I’ve already seen them come back to life so death no longer holds any weight.

I’m not saying you can’t write the resurrection trope, just understand having a character come back to life, might lessen the impact of when another character fully dies in the future. I would suggest, before you bring someone back, just create a version where they don’t and see how your story continues after the characters stay dead? What’s the tone after said death? Just an idea to think about if you’re thinking about bringing someone back to life.