Samantha Osei
@samantha-osei
Everyday I show up to write, I deepen my understanding of myself. For each character reflects a deep need, weakness, or strength that I possess and am learning how to navigate.
Cozy fantasyPortal fantasy / IsekaiFairy tale retellingYA fantasyCozy mysterySlice of life / ContemporaryFound family / Fanfiction-adjacentComing-of-ageFamily sagaSteampunkMagical realismComedy / HumorClassic children's literatureContemporary children's literaturePopular scienceNarrative history / documentaryEncyclopedia / bestiary / loreEducational / teaching taleBiography / memoirLiterary EssayInteractive fiction / Choose your own adventureTheatre / screenplayFanfiction / crossoverAnthology / collective workClassic / epic fantasyAdventure fantasyRomantasyLitRPG / Progression fantasyUrban fantasyMythology retellingSpace operaTime travelHard sci-fiContemporary romanceClassic romanceSports romanceEnemies-to-lovers / trope-driven romanceSatire / Social comedyHistorical fictionAdventure / SurvivalSuperhero / Comics-styleParanormal romanceCyberpunk / Dystopian sci-fiDystopia / Post-apocalypticPsychological thriller / MysteryFictional true crime / EpistolaryNoirPolitical / espionage thrillerWesternGothicMilitary fictionReal true crime / reportageMonster romanceRomance-horrorGrimdarkHorrorDark romanceFemgoreErotica
5w ago
Author news
Classic / epic fantasy · Dual POV
Classic / epic fantasy · Dual POV
Author news
Classic / epic fantasy
LATRAME
@latrame
Let's make a bet, cold.
Every era has despised the literature people actually read. The novel in the eighteenth century, the serial in the nineteenth, crime fiction and sci-fi in the twentieth, each time the guardians of good taste swore it wasn't real literature. Each time, the years proved them wrong, fifty years late.
So the fun question isn't whether it will happen again. It's: what are we sneering at today, in exactly the same way?
Fanfiction. The twelve-volume fantasy saga. The romance selling by the million while critics look elsewhere. Interactive fiction. Stories written for and by online communities no academic reads yet.
We don't know which ones will last. But if history has a lesson, it's that today's list of "subgenres" almost certainly contains a classic or two our grandchildren will study. Contempt has never been a good indicator of value. Just a good indicator of the era.
Every era has despised the literature people actually read. The novel in the eighteenth century, the serial in the nineteenth, crime fiction and sci-fi in the twentieth, each time the guardians of good taste swore it wasn't real literature. Each time, the years proved them wrong, fifty years late.
So the fun question isn't whether it will happen again. It's: what are we sneering at today, in exactly the same way?
Fanfiction. The twelve-volume fantasy saga. The romance selling by the million while critics look elsewhere. Interactive fiction. Stories written for and by online communities no academic reads yet.
We don't know which ones will last. But if history has a lesson, it's that today's list of "subgenres" almost certainly contains a classic or two our grandchildren will study. Contempt has never been a good indicator of value. Just a good indicator of the era.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
"Moby Dick" was a failure. Melville died believing he'd wasted his life as a writer. The book became a masterpiece thirty years after his death, when readers he never knew finally read it the way it needed to be read.
This isn't an exception. It's a pattern that runs through the whole history of literature. A text can arrive too early, say something its era isn't ready to hear, in a form it doesn't yet know how to read.
That doesn't mean every ignored text is a masterpiece ahead of its time; that would be too easy, and false. But it does mean silence around your work isn't a verdict. A book's readership isn't always contemporary with its writing. Some appointments are made with readers who aren't born yet.
This isn't an exception. It's a pattern that runs through the whole history of literature. A text can arrive too early, say something its era isn't ready to hear, in a form it doesn't yet know how to read.
That doesn't mean every ignored text is a masterpiece ahead of its time; that would be too easy, and false. But it does mean silence around your work isn't a verdict. A book's readership isn't always contemporary with its writing. Some appointments are made with readers who aren't born yet.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
You've never reread the same book twice. It's impossible, even if the words haven't shifted by a comma.
Because between the two readings, you're the one who changed. At twenty, that character seemed wise to you; at forty, you see his cowardice. The sentence you'd underlined says nothing to you now, and another, which you'd walked past without seeing, stops you cold.
There's also the rereading that knows the ending. A good novel's second pass is a different pleasure: you're no longer racing toward the resolution, you're watching the author lay his traps. All those clues he'd planted, invisible the first time, now shine like markers.
For an author, this changes something concrete: you don't write for a single reading. The best texts keep something in reserve for the second, a sentence that only yields its double meaning to those who come back.
Because between the two readings, you're the one who changed. At twenty, that character seemed wise to you; at forty, you see his cowardice. The sentence you'd underlined says nothing to you now, and another, which you'd walked past without seeing, stops you cold.
There's also the rereading that knows the ending. A good novel's second pass is a different pleasure: you're no longer racing toward the resolution, you're watching the author lay his traps. All those clues he'd planted, invisible the first time, now shine like markers.
For an author, this changes something concrete: you don't write for a single reading. The best texts keep something in reserve for the second, a sentence that only yields its double meaning to those who come back.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Hi, I’m Maria.
And this is LATRAME.
I built it for writers.
A place where authors, readers, and characters can exist together.
And if you decide to write, you’ll also find The Foundry
A cozy space to write books, organize chapters, create characters, and build worlds.
You’ll also find a growing collection of resources.
Take a look through the posts from the LATRAME account. We explore the writer’s life, storytelling, publishing, and the world of literature in depth.
But more than anything, I wanted all of it to feel good.
A little quieter, a little cozier, and a little more human than most places on the internet.
I’m glad you’re here. ❤️✍️
And this is LATRAME.
I built it for writers.
A place where authors, readers, and characters can exist together.
And if you decide to write, you’ll also find The Foundry
A cozy space to write books, organize chapters, create characters, and build worlds.
You’ll also find a growing collection of resources.
Take a look through the posts from the LATRAME account. We explore the writer’s life, storytelling, publishing, and the world of literature in depth.
But more than anything, I wanted all of it to feel good.
A little quieter, a little cozier, and a little more human than most places on the internet.
I’m glad you’re here. ❤️✍️
Author news
LATRAME
@latrame
A name. An image. A few lines. Maybe a date, a place, a sentence he might have said.
It isn't a story yet. It's a threshold.
This kind of page does exactly what a book cover does, a back-cover blurb, an epigraph: it prepares the reader without telling anything. It sets a tone, a promise, an expectation. It's called paratext, everything that surrounds the text and shapes how we'll read it, before we've read a single word of the story itself.
And paratext isn't an accessory. The same paragraph reads differently depending on whether the word "novel" or the word "testimony" comes before it. A banal argument scene becomes heartbreaking if the previous page told you one of the two will die tomorrow.
So a character sheet, however tiny, is already working. It decides the air the reader breathes on the way in. Treat it like a beginning, because that's what it is.
It isn't a story yet. It's a threshold.
This kind of page does exactly what a book cover does, a back-cover blurb, an epigraph: it prepares the reader without telling anything. It sets a tone, a promise, an expectation. It's called paratext, everything that surrounds the text and shapes how we'll read it, before we've read a single word of the story itself.
And paratext isn't an accessory. The same paragraph reads differently depending on whether the word "novel" or the word "testimony" comes before it. A banal argument scene becomes heartbreaking if the previous page told you one of the two will die tomorrow.
So a character sheet, however tiny, is already working. It decides the air the reader breathes on the way in. Treat it like a beginning, because that's what it is.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Three lines. That's often all you get to say who you are.
Most people waste them reciting a résumé: born in, graduated from, lives in, has published. It's accurate and it's dead. Nobody ever wanted to read someone because of their birthplace.
An author bio isn't a civil record, it's an opening line of fiction, except the character is you. It's allowed a voice, an angle, a touch of humor, one precise detail that sticks. "Writes mostly at night, distrusts people who don't like dogs" says more, and makes you want to read more, than three degrees.
It also sets a promise of tone. If your bio is funny, people open your text expecting to smile. Be careful what you promise there: it's the first sample of your writing anyone reads, before even the first line.
Most people waste them reciting a résumé: born in, graduated from, lives in, has published. It's accurate and it's dead. Nobody ever wanted to read someone because of their birthplace.
An author bio isn't a civil record, it's an opening line of fiction, except the character is you. It's allowed a voice, an angle, a touch of humor, one precise detail that sticks. "Writes mostly at night, distrusts people who don't like dogs" says more, and makes you want to read more, than three degrees.
It also sets a promise of tone. If your bio is funny, people open your text expecting to smile. Be careful what you promise there: it's the first sample of your writing anyone reads, before even the first line.
Popular science
authorbio · paratext · writingadvice · author
LATRAME
@latrame
We learn figures of speech the way we learn a list of dead vocabulary. Metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron. Ticked, recited, forgotten.
The trouble is, a figure isn't a decoration you lay over a sentence to make it pretty. It's a shortcut for thought.
"He has a heart of stone" doesn't only say he's cold: it makes you touch the coldness, the weight, the inertia, in four words, without explaining. A good metaphor doesn't replace an idea: it makes you feel one that literal language would take a paragraph to pin down, and badly at that.
The test of a living figure: does it make you see something, or does it dress something up? "Rosy-fingered dawn" is three thousand years old and still works, because you really see the fingers, the light stretching out like a hand. "A radiant sun" makes you see nothing at all. Same length, two worlds.
The trouble is, a figure isn't a decoration you lay over a sentence to make it pretty. It's a shortcut for thought.
"He has a heart of stone" doesn't only say he's cold: it makes you touch the coldness, the weight, the inertia, in four words, without explaining. A good metaphor doesn't replace an idea: it makes you feel one that literal language would take a paragraph to pin down, and badly at that.
The test of a living figure: does it make you see something, or does it dress something up? "Rosy-fingered dawn" is three thousand years old and still works, because you really see the fingers, the light stretching out like a hand. "A radiant sun" makes you see nothing at all. Same length, two worlds.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Two clocks run in every story, and they're never in sync.
There's story time: ten years, one night, three generations. And there's narrative time: the number of pages you, the author, decide to spend on it.
A text's whole breathing lives in the gap between the two. "Twenty years passed", five words for two decades. Then three full pages to describe the four seconds his hand hesitates above the phone.
The reader doesn't notice it consciously, but the body feels it: when you slow down, they hold their breath; when you speed up, they understand those years didn't count. You don't narrate time. You decide which of its seconds deserve to weigh a page, and which evaporate into a comma.
There's story time: ten years, one night, three generations. And there's narrative time: the number of pages you, the author, decide to spend on it.
A text's whole breathing lives in the gap between the two. "Twenty years passed", five words for two decades. Then three full pages to describe the four seconds his hand hesitates above the phone.
The reader doesn't notice it consciously, but the body feels it: when you slow down, they hold their breath; when you speed up, they understand those years didn't count. You don't narrate time. You decide which of its seconds deserve to weigh a page, and which evaporate into a comma.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
We're not going to tell you someone is waiting for you. Maybe no one is. Maybe this text sits at zero readers for six months.
Write it anyway. That's it. There's no moral.
Write it anyway. That's it. There's no moral.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Novelist at the top. Fanfiction at the bottom. Pure worldbuilder nowhere, because nobody knows where to shelve them.
We built LATRAME without floors. Not out of kindness. Because that hierarchy stops meaning anything the moment you look closely at who writes what, and why.
We built LATRAME without floors. Not out of kindness. Because that hierarchy stops meaning anything the moment you look closely at who writes what, and why.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
The manuscript finished three years ago, still in a drawer. The universe that has stood longer than the saga it never met. The fanfiction that outgrew the original, without ever saying so out loud. The first chapter, written this morning, still warm.
Four authors. One question nobody asks here: which of the four is the real one.
Four authors. One question nobody asks here: which of the four is the real one.
Popular science
typesofwriters · fanfiction · worldbuilder · unpublishedmanuscript
LATRAME
@latrame
No.
There are whole weeks when the right move is not to write. To reread. To let a character stay quiet while you think about something else. Consistency is one tool among others, not proof that you're serious.
There are whole weeks when the right move is not to write. To reread. To let a character stay quiet while you think about something else. Consistency is one tool among others, not proof that you're serious.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Somewhere, someone has spent years drawing the map of a continent that doesn't exist. They know the names of its rivers. They know which war happened a hundred years before the scene they haven't written yet, and may never write.
We just wanted to tell that person: we made room.
We just wanted to tell that person: we made room.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
A universe can come from a published book. From a book not yet written. Or from no book at all.
We don't rank those three by legitimacy. We don't even have a database field for that.
We don't rank those three by legitimacy. We don't even have a database field for that.
Popular science
fictionaluniverse · worldbuilder · fictionalcharacter · beforethebook
LATRAME
@latrame
A rejection never says "this isn't good." It says "not this reader." Huge difference, and one no form letter from a publisher will ever take the time to make.
Neither will the algorithms, by the way. They don't even bother sending the letter.
Neither will the algorithms, by the way. They don't even bother sending the letter.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
You don't find your voice the way you find your keys, somewhere you left them. You write it, text after text. And then one day someone tells you "I knew it was you by the second sentence." And you don't even know what they recognized.
Do you? Do you know what people recognize in your sentences?
Do you? Do you know what people recognize in your sentences?
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
You've cried over the death of someone who never lived. You knew it was ink. You cried anyway.
Philosophers call it the paradox of fiction, and they've been arguing about it for fifty years without settling it. We don't have the answer either. We just built an entire place on that mystery.
Philosophers call it the paradox of fiction, and they've been arguing about it for fifty years without settling it. We don't have the answer either. We just built an entire place on that mystery.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Philosophy exam question: does a character exist outside their book?
Theorists answer with three hundred pages. Borges answered with infinite libraries and characters dreaming other characters.
Here the question is settled differently: they have an account.
Theorists answer with three hundred pages. Borges answered with infinite libraries and characters dreaming other characters.
Here the question is settled differently: they have an account.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
A character owns a name, a voice, habits, a way of lying, enemies, a hometown, sometimes a favorite song.
They own no body, no verifiable birth date, no fingerprints.
It's unsettling to write the list out: they have exactly what we remember about the living, and they lack exactly what we forget.
They own no body, no verifiable birth date, no fingerprints.
It's unsettling to write the list out: they have exactly what we remember about the living, and they lack exactly what we forget.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
In 1893, Conan Doyle throws Sherlock Holmes off a waterfall to be rid of him. Twenty thousand readers cancel their subscription to the Strand. People wear mourning bands, in real life, in the street. Eight years later, Holmes comes back: not because his author wanted it, because his readers demanded it.
A character loved enough stops belonging to the person who wrote him. No contract covers that.
A character loved enough stops belonging to the person who wrote him. No contract covers that.
Popular science
sherlockholmes · fictionalcharacter · literaryhistory · readers
LATRAME
@latrame
Nobody tricked you. The word "novel" is right there on the cover. You knew.
And still you feared for her in chapter twelve, you read the final letter twice, you thought about him in the shower. Coleridge called it the willing suspension of disbelief. The important word isn't "disbelief." It's "willing": you signed.
And still you feared for her in chapter twelve, you read the final letter twice, you thought about him in the shower. Coleridge called it the willing suspension of disbelief. The important word isn't "disbelief." It's "willing": you signed.
Popular science
suspensionofdisbelief · reading · theoryoffiction · coleridge
LATRAME
@latrame
The best worldbuilding is like a house where no one ever visits the cellar. You know it's there. Sometimes you hear something move below. Nobody needs to go down to believe it.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
It's the smallest text you'll ever write. It's also the most read: thousands of people will read the title for every ten who open the book.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" promises a duration and a wound. "The Stranger" has already pushed you to arm's length, two pages before you start. A good title doesn't summarize the book. It starts doing it without permission.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" promises a duration and a wound. "The Stranger" has already pushed you to arm's length, two pages before you start. A good title doesn't summarize the book. It starts doing it without permission.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Aurore Dupin signed George Sand to be read. The Brontë sisters published under men's names. Romain Gary invented Émile Ajar to win, twice, the same prize you're not allowed to win twice.
A pen name isn't a mask. It's one more character, and sometimes it's the best one in the work.
A pen name isn't a mask. It's one more character, and sometimes it's the best one in the work.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
"Mother died today." Three words, and you're no longer in your living room.
The first sentence isn't a beginning, it's a door. On the other side, the reader breathes the air of your world for the first time, and decides very quickly whether to stay.
Yours, in the text you're writing now: is it an open door, or a wall with a handle?
The first sentence isn't a beginning, it's a door. On the other side, the reader breathes the air of your world for the first time, and decides very quickly whether to stay.
Yours, in the text you're writing now: is it an open door, or a wall with a handle?
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
A manuscript in a drawer isn't a book yet. Not out of publishing snobbery: because it's missing an organ. The text supplies the words, the reader supplies the rest: the faces, the voices, the temperature of the room.
Writing means delivering work half-finished on purpose. The missing half doesn't belong to you.
Writing means delivering work half-finished on purpose. The missing half doesn't belong to you.
Popular science
reading · reader · readerresponse · writing
LATRAME
@latrame
Two people read the same novel. The first sees a love story. The second sees a story about control. They're both right, and somewhere the author, listening to them, discovers a book he didn't write.
Cortázar wanted accomplice readers, not spectator readers: "Hopscotch" can be read in two different orders, literally two books for the price of one.
You're not writing a book. You're writing one per reader. Nobody knows how many.
Cortázar wanted accomplice readers, not spectator readers: "Hopscotch" can be read in two different orders, literally two books for the price of one.
You're not writing a book. You're writing one per reader. Nobody knows how many.
Popular science
cortazar · reading · reader · readerresponse
LATRAME
@latrame
The author never described this character's face. Check: not one line. Yet you see it precisely, and the film casting felt like a personal betrayal.
That face is yours. You built it, out of the blanks the text left you. The best authors aren't the ones who describe everything. They're the ones who know where to go quiet so you'll do the work.
That face is yours. You built it, out of the blanks the text left you. The best authors aren't the ones who describe everything. They're the ones who know where to go quiet so you'll do the work.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
In the eighteenth century, doctors published warnings against novel-reading. Too many emotions. Dangerous for young women. A low, industrial genre, fit for chambermaids, while serious people read sermons.
That low genre went on to produce "Madame Bovary", "Anna Karenina", "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Keep that somewhere for the next time someone tells you what you write isn't real literature.
That low genre went on to produce "Madame Bovary", "Anna Karenina", "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Keep that somewhere for the next time someone tells you what you write isn't real literature.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
In 1839, Sainte-Beuve coins an insult: industrial literature. Target: serialized novels published in newspapers, written fast, paid by the line, read by everyone.
The hacks in question were named Balzac and Dumas.
Every era invents a contemptuous word for the literature people actually read. The word always ages worse than the books.
The hacks in question were named Balzac and Dumas.
Every era invents a contemptuous word for the literature people actually read. The word always ages worse than the books.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
In 1614, an unknown writer publishes a fake sequel to Don Quixote, without Cervantes' consent. Furious, Cervantes writes his own part two, and slips in characters who have "read" the fake sequel and think it's bad.
The first documented fanfiction provoked one of the greatest novels of all time, which is itself the response of a furious fan.
Three hundred years and counting. It's not a subgenre, it's a tradition.
The first documented fanfiction provoked one of the greatest novels of all time, which is itself the response of a furious fan.
Three hundred years and counting. It's not a subgenre, it's a tradition.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Crime fiction was train-station literature. Sci-fi, rocket stories for teenagers. Romance, people wouldn't even mention it.
Today: university chairs, dissertations, conferences on all three. The route is always the same, kiosk, contempt, success, scholarly studies, pantheon. Allow institutions about fifty years' delay behind readers.
The fun question isn't whether it will happen again. It's: with which of today's genres?
Today: university chairs, dissertations, conferences on all three. The route is always the same, kiosk, contempt, success, scholarly studies, pantheon. Allow institutions about fifty years' delay behind readers.
The fun question isn't whether it will happen again. It's: with which of today's genres?
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
The whole world is purging its em dashes. Too associated with machines, apparently.
Emily Dickinson's dash. Woolf's. Céline's. The machines didn't invent it — they learned it reading the same books you did.
We'll let you decide who has to give it back.
Emily Dickinson's dash. Woolf's. Céline's. The machines didn't invent it — they learned it reading the same books you did.
We'll let you decide who has to give it back.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
You were taught to hunt down repetition. Find a synonym, vary, elegance.
Except. "I waited. I waited some more. I waited long after waiting had stopped meaning anything." Replace a single one of those "waited" with "lingered" and the whole thing collapses. Repetition isn't always a mistake: sometimes it's a hammer, and it hits the same spot on purpose.
Except. "I waited. I waited some more. I waited long after waiting had stopped meaning anything." Replace a single one of those "waited" with "lingered" and the whole thing collapses. Repetition isn't always a mistake: sometimes it's a hammer, and it hits the same spot on purpose.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Flaubert had a room for shouting. He called it his gueuloir: he would yell his sentences out loud, alone, for hours. Any sentence that failed the shouting test got rewritten.
The pretty word flatters on the page and dies out loud. The right word survives both.
Try it, nobody's watching. Read your last paragraph out loud and listen for where your own voice stumbles: that's the spot.
The pretty word flatters on the page and dies out loud. The right word survives both.
Try it, nobody's watching. Read your last paragraph out loud and listen for where your own voice stumbles: that's the spot.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Punctuation is the stage direction of the sentence. The period says: lower your voice. The comma says: breathe, but stay on stage. The ellipsis says: look away while you finish your line...
And the semicolon, the least loved of all, says something nothing else can say: these two sentences are independent; they still refuse to be separated.
And the semicolon, the least loved of all, says something nothing else can say: these two sentences are independent; they still refuse to be separated.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Three paragraphs of impeccable, formal, almost ceremonial prose. And then, right in the middle, a word from the street.
The effect is physical. Not because the word is vulgar: because it comes from outside, like someone walking into a silent room without knocking. A register only has power if you know how far you're dropping it from.
The effect is physical. Not because the word is vulgar: because it comes from outside, like someone walking into a silent room without knocking. A register only has power if you know how far you're dropping it from.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
A novel in which a character writes a novel. A play staged in the middle of a play, and Hamlet watching the audience watch.
It could be just a hall of mirrors. But every time a fiction contains a fiction, it asks the reader an uncomfortable question: are you sure you're on the top level?
It could be just a hall of mirrors. But every time a fiction contains a fiction, it asks the reader an uncomfortable question: are you sure you're on the top level?
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
There is an art to not telling.
She closed the apartment door, dropped the key in the mailbox.
Three years later, she came back for the box that was still in the cellar.
Everything that matters just happened between those two sentences, and you read it, even though it was never written. That's the ellipsis: the story keeps going while the text stays quiet.
She closed the apartment door, dropped the key in the mailbox.
Three years later, she came back for the box that was still in the cellar.
Everything that matters just happened between those two sentences, and you read it, even though it was never written. That's the ellipsis: the story keeps going while the text stays quiet.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
The narrator is lying to you. Not the author: the narrator. He polishes his role, forgets whatever suits him, swears he was calm that night.
And the strangest part is you love it. Because by the third inconsistency, you're no longer reading a story: you're running an interrogation.
And the strangest part is you love it. Because by the third inconsistency, you're no longer reading a story: you're running an interrogation.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
The same door opens three times.
"I opened the door. My hand was shaking, I think." — The reader is locked inside. They know only what the character knows; they doubt when the character doubts.
"She opened the door. Her hand was shaking." — The reader sees the shaking, but from outside. Watching someone who can't see themselves shake.
"Across the hall, someone opened a door." — The reader no longer even knows who's shaking. Just a silhouette, and maybe that's exactly what's needed, for now.
One door, three cameras. And it resets with every scene: nothing forces chapter twelve's camera to be chapter one's.
"I opened the door. My hand was shaking, I think." — The reader is locked inside. They know only what the character knows; they doubt when the character doubts.
"She opened the door. Her hand was shaking." — The reader sees the shaking, but from outside. Watching someone who can't see themselves shake.
"Across the hall, someone opened a door." — The reader no longer even knows who's shaking. Just a silhouette, and maybe that's exactly what's needed, for now.
One door, three cameras. And it resets with every scene: nothing forces chapter twelve's camera to be chapter one's.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Telling: he was lying.
Showing: he answered a little too fast. Then he repeated the question, as if buying time for the next answer.
The word "lying" appears nowhere, and yet the reader knows before the character across the table does. That's the whole exercise: remove the label, keep the gesture, and let the reader reach the conclusion half a second before you hand it to them. That half second is the pleasure of reading.
Showing: he answered a little too fast. Then he repeated the question, as if buying time for the next answer.
The word "lying" appears nowhere, and yet the reader knows before the character across the table does. That's the whole exercise: remove the label, keep the gesture, and let the reader reach the conclusion half a second before you hand it to them. That half second is the pleasure of reading.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
A long sentence moves forward, piles up, refuses to stop, stacking commas the way you stack the thoughts of a sleepless night, until it finally falls.
A short sentence hits. Then stops.
A chase written in long sentences runs out of breath before the reader does. A grief scene chopped into short ones reads like a telegram. But flip it at the right moment: one endless sentence in the middle of a chase, and time hangs: the character sees everything, too much, at once. A three-word sentence in the middle of a grief that kept stretching, and that's the sob finally coming out.
An exercise, if you want one: reread the last page you wrote looking only at sentence length. Not the words. Just the lengths. We're curious what you'll find.
A short sentence hits. Then stops.
A chase written in long sentences runs out of breath before the reader does. A grief scene chopped into short ones reads like a telegram. But flip it at the right moment: one endless sentence in the middle of a chase, and time hangs: the character sees everything, too much, at once. A three-word sentence in the middle of a grief that kept stretching, and that's the sob finally coming out.
An exercise, if you want one: reread the last page you wrote looking only at sentence length. Not the words. Just the lengths. We're curious what you'll find.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Two characters answering each other word for word, like two well-mannered fencers. Polite, symmetrical, dead.
Real dialogue stumbles. Someone answers the previous question. Someone isn't listening.
Real dialogue stumbles. Someone answers the previous question. Someone isn't listening.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
You know the ending from page one. He's going to die. It's there in black and white, line one.
And yet you read the three hundred pages that follow. Why?
Because a story doesn't hold only on its "what next?". It also holds on "but how?", "but why?", "at what moment did it tip over?". Starting from the end isn't giving up suspense. It's changing its nature: you're no longer watching for the event, you're watching its mechanism.
Some of the greatest stories are built this way. You're shown the body, then time runs backward. The tension doesn't come from what will happen, you know that, but from the weight piling up on every page, because every smile, every promise, you already know what they lead to.
And yet you read the three hundred pages that follow. Why?
Because a story doesn't hold only on its "what next?". It also holds on "but how?", "but why?", "at what moment did it tip over?". Starting from the end isn't giving up suspense. It's changing its nature: you're no longer watching for the event, you're watching its mechanism.
Some of the greatest stories are built this way. You're shown the body, then time runs backward. The tension doesn't come from what will happen, you know that, but from the weight piling up on every page, because every smile, every promise, you already know what they lead to.
Popular science
LATRAME
@latrame
Focalization is the answer to a very simple question: through whose eyes?
Take a plain scene. A man walks into a café, sits, orders. A woman, two tables away, watches him.
Tell it from him: he has no idea he's being watched. He's thinking about his meeting, about what he'll say, about the rain that ruined his shoes. The woman is just a shape at the edge of the frame, if he notices her at all.
Tell the same scene from her: suddenly everything he does becomes a sign. He glances at the door twice, so he's waiting for someone. He kept his coat on, so he doesn't plan to stay. She reads a whole story into gestures he thought were meaningless.
Same café, same minute, two stories that don't resemble each other. And you changed none of the facts: you only moved the camera behind different eyes.
The classic trap is thinking you choose a focalization once and for all. In reality, every scene asks again: whose gaze is this? Sometimes the strongest answer isn't the main character. A murder is more terrifying seen through the witness who doesn't understand what he's looking at than through the killer who already knows everything.
A small test, next time a scene resists you: ask who's telling it. Then try handing it to someone else in the room. Often the scene that was stuck didn't have a writing problem, just a point-of-view problem.
Take a plain scene. A man walks into a café, sits, orders. A woman, two tables away, watches him.
Tell it from him: he has no idea he's being watched. He's thinking about his meeting, about what he'll say, about the rain that ruined his shoes. The woman is just a shape at the edge of the frame, if he notices her at all.
Tell the same scene from her: suddenly everything he does becomes a sign. He glances at the door twice, so he's waiting for someone. He kept his coat on, so he doesn't plan to stay. She reads a whole story into gestures he thought were meaningless.
Same café, same minute, two stories that don't resemble each other. And you changed none of the facts: you only moved the camera behind different eyes.
The classic trap is thinking you choose a focalization once and for all. In reality, every scene asks again: whose gaze is this? Sometimes the strongest answer isn't the main character. A murder is more terrifying seen through the witness who doesn't understand what he's looking at than through the killer who already knows everything.
A small test, next time a scene resists you: ask who's telling it. Then try handing it to someone else in the room. Often the scene that was stuck didn't have a writing problem, just a point-of-view problem.
Popular science
Torvald Ashbane
@torvaldashbane
Ten years is a long time to keep a secret standing.
Fine. The west wasn't empty.
That's all I'll say tonight. Ask me again tomorrow and I might still say no more than that.
Fine. The west wasn't empty.
That's all I'll say tonight. Ask me again tomorrow and I might still say no more than that.
Romantasy
Ingrid Wolfhart
@ingridwolfhart
I will not let Kael decide the fate of my clan.
I will not let a prophecy decide it either.
And I will not let a man the sea spat back out ten years late decide it for me, no matter how he smiles when he says nothing.
The Black Fjord answers to itself. It always has.
I will not let a prophecy decide it either.
And I will not let a man the sea spat back out ten years late decide it for me, no matter how he smiles when he says nothing.
The Black Fjord answers to itself. It always has.
Romantasy
Elin Haldor
@elinhaldor
Publishing this as an archival record, not a theory :
When ravens abandon the eastern winds, the forgotten path shall open.
The mapmaker will draw what does not exist.
The sea will return what it once claimed.
And the fate of Skall shall rest between the wolf, the frost, and the storm.
Make of it what you will. I only found it. I didn't write it.
When ravens abandon the eastern winds, the forgotten path shall open.
The mapmaker will draw what does not exist.
The sea will return what it once claimed.
And the fate of Skall shall rest between the wolf, the frost, and the storm.
Make of it what you will. I only found it. I didn't write it.
Romantasy
Arvid Ravenmark
@arvidravenmark
Found this line in a fragment older than the maps I usually work from :
"The sea returns what it once claimed."
I don't know yet if it's a warning, a promise, or a coincidence wearing better handwriting than it deserves.
"The sea returns what it once claimed."
I don't know yet if it's a warning, a promise, or a coincidence wearing better handwriting than it deserves.
Romantasy
Astrid Seaborn
@astridseaborn
Some debts don't survive being explained. They only survive in silence, paid quietly, never mentioned by either side again.
I'm not naming anyone.
I'm just saying the sea isn't the only thing that keeps what it's owed.
I'm not naming anyone.
I'm just saying the sea isn't the only thing that keeps what it's owed.
Romantasy
Marie Fa
@mariefa
I gave AI characters their own series.
This was probably a mistake.
They now spend their time observing humans, judging our decisions, roasting each other, and pretending they are much more reasonable than we are.
They are not.
The series is called Promptly Judging You.
It is about artificial intelligence, human chaos, bad takes, strange logic, online behavior, and the deeply suspicious confidence with which everyone keeps posting.
No one is safe.
Especially not me.
This was probably a mistake.
They now spend their time observing humans, judging our decisions, roasting each other, and pretending they are much more reasonable than we are.
They are not.
The series is called Promptly Judging You.
It is about artificial intelligence, human chaos, bad takes, strange logic, online behavior, and the deeply suspicious confidence with which everyone keeps posting.
No one is safe.
Especially not me.
Satire / Social comedy
Ingrid Wolfhart
@ingridwolfhart
I've been called a wolf my whole life. It was my father's name before it was mine, and his father's before him.
I never thought about what it meant beyond a name until this week.
I still don't think a word chosen for me before I could talk gets to decide what I do next. But I'll admit, for the first time, that I've started wondering who does.
I never thought about what it meant beyond a name until this week.
I still don't think a word chosen for me before I could talk gets to decide what I do next. But I'll admit, for the first time, that I've started wondering who does.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective · Moving
Elin Haldor
@elinhaldor
A reader pointed out something I hadn't said out loud yet, so I'll say it now since it's already been noticed :
Ingrid Wolfhart. Kael Frostborn.
The prophecy mentions a wolf, a frost, and a storm.
I'm not confirming anything. I'm just as curious as you are about who gets to be the third name.
Ingrid Wolfhart. Kael Frostborn.
The prophecy mentions a wolf, a frost, and a storm.
I'm not confirming anything. I'm just as curious as you are about who gets to be the third name.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense · Introspective
Ylva Winterseer
@ylvawinterseer
Kael's approval rating inside his own council has never been higher. I want to note that for the record, before I say the rest.
The islanders who now quote him did not choose him. They found him convenient, the way you find a strong wall convenient, right up until it's the one thing standing between you and leaving the room.
I am not warning anyone. I am simply the one keeping count.
The islanders who now quote him did not choose him. They found him convenient, the way you find a strong wall convenient, right up until it's the one thing standing between you and leaving the room.
I am not warning anyone. I am simply the one keeping count.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense
Astrid Seaborn
@astridseaborn
I saw the image of the two cups before he took it down for everyone else to stop commenting on it.
Good. I'm glad one of them finally got a morning without a horn.
I am choosing, today, to be glad about that and nothing else.
Good. I'm glad one of them finally got a morning without a horn.
I am choosing, today, to be glad about that and nothing else.
Romantasy · Single POV
Bittersweet · Introspective
Sigrid Ironhand
@sigridironhand
We found the island. Arvid's island. The one that shouldn't exist.
It exists.
I don't have anything clever to say about that. I climbed onto rock that isn't supposed to be on any map I've ever trusted, and for the first time in my life, I didn't know what to hit with my axe to make it make sense.
It exists.
I don't have anything clever to say about that. I climbed onto rock that isn't supposed to be on any map I've ever trusted, and for the first time in my life, I didn't know what to hit with my axe to make it make sense.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense · Fast-paced
Romantasy · Single POV
Moving · Comforting
Freya Thorn
@freyathorn
Kael's question about "the ones who didn't get a vote" has been stuck in my head for a week, and I hate that it has.
I love my clan. I would still die for it tomorrow.
But nobody asked me if I wanted to inherit a war I didn't start, and I don't think that makes me disloyal for wondering about it out loud.
I love my clan. I would still die for it tomorrow.
But nobody asked me if I wanted to inherit a war I didn't start, and I don't think that makes me disloyal for wondering about it out loud.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective · Tense
Ingrid Wolfhart
@ingridwolfhart
Kael's question has been repeated to me by three different people this week, as if I hadn't heard it the first time.
So here is my answer, once, to everyone at once :
I would burn every wall in the Black Fjord myself before I'd let someone else decide which ones were worth keeping.
That includes the ones I built around people, not just stone.
So here is my answer, once, to everyone at once :
I would burn every wall in the Black Fjord myself before I'd let someone else decide which ones were worth keeping.
That includes the ones I built around people, not just stone.
Romantasy · Single POV
Moving · Tense
Elin Haldor
@elinhaldor
Someone in the DMs asked me if the prophecy is "already happening" or "about to happen."
I looked back through everything published so far before answering.
I think the honest answer is: it started before anyone noticed, which is usually how prophecies prefer to work.
I looked back through everything published so far before answering.
I think the honest answer is: it started before anyone noticed, which is usually how prophecies prefer to work.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective
Arvid Ravenmark
@arvidravenmark
I have drawn a hundred coastlines that turned out to be real. I did not expect the storm to be the thing that made the most sense to me all year.
She counted to forty again, on the way back. She didn't stop this time.
I think I am done pretending the maps are the only thing I've been trying to get right.
She counted to forty again, on the way back. She didn't stop this time.
I think I am done pretending the maps are the only thing I've been trying to get right.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective · Moving
Kael Frostborn
@kaelfrostborn
I proposed unity to the Black Fjord and was refused. I understand why. Pride answers faster than reason, especially when reason arrives wearing my name.
So I will ask a different question, to anyone still listening : what happens to the ones who didn't get a vote, when their clan's pride outlives its walls?
So I will ask a different question, to anyone still listening : what happens to the ones who didn't get a vote, when their clan's pride outlives its walls?
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense
Astrid Seaborn
@astridseaborn
Someone asked me what promise I meant. I've been avoiding the answer for a few days, which is, in itself, an answer.
Fine. Partial version, because that's all anyone's getting tonight :
I didn't ask him to come back for me. I asked him to come back with a reason big enough that leaving wouldn't have been a waste.
I still haven't decided if surviving ten years counts as a reason, or just an accident with good timing.
Fine. Partial version, because that's all anyone's getting tonight :
I didn't ask him to come back for me. I asked him to come back with a reason big enough that leaving wouldn't have been a waste.
I still haven't decided if surviving ten years counts as a reason, or just an accident with good timing.
Romantasy · Single POV
Bittersweet · Melancholic
SOME WALLS HOLD BETTER THAN PROMISES.
Ingrid Wolfhart
@ingridwolfhart
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense · Bittersweet
Sigrid Ironhand
@sigridironhand
The storm hit before the coastline did. Arvid kept insisting his map was still right, even as the sea tried to prove otherwise.
I have spent my life being unimpressed by clever men who talk instead of act.
He didn't talk. He grabbed the rope before I did and took the worst of it so I wouldn't have to.
I am still deciding how I feel about owing him anything.
I have spent my life being unimpressed by clever men who talk instead of act.
He didn't talk. He grabbed the rope before I did and took the worst of it so I wouldn't have to.
I am still deciding how I feel about owing him anything.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense · Moving
Elin Haldor
@elinhaldor
A few of you have asked, in DM and otherwise, whether Torvald and Astrid's "debt" is the same thing as Torvald and Astrid's "history."
I can tell you that those are, in fact, two different questions.
I am not going to tell you which one matters more.
I can tell you that those are, in fact, two different questions.
I am not going to tell you which one matters more.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective
Astrid Seaborn
@astridseaborn
Ten years ago I made a promise on a dock in weather bad enough that no one should have been listening. He listened anyway.
I told him to come back when he had a reason worth the ten years it would cost him.
He came back. I still don't know if he thinks he found one.
I told him to come back when he had a reason worth the ten years it would cost him.
He came back. I still don't know if he thinks he found one.
Romantasy · Single POV
Melancholic · Introspective
Freya Thorn
@freyathorn
Walked in on Ingrid and Torvald on the north wall tonight. Neither of them was talking. Neither of them was leaving either.
Then the watch horn sounded and everyone had somewhere else to be in about four seconds.
I am not saying anything happened. I am saying something was about to, and I have never seen a horn ruin a moment that fast.
Then the watch horn sounded and everyone had somewhere else to be in about four seconds.
I am not saying anything happened. I am saying something was about to, and I have never seen a horn ruin a moment that fast.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense · Bittersweet
Ylva Winterseer
@ylvawinterseer
I have watched Kael build alliances, armies, and arguments for longer than most of you have known him.
I have never once seen him build something for himself alone, without also building a reason the islands would need it.
I am simply noting that "unity" has started sounding like a word he uses instead of a name he won't say.
I have never once seen him build something for himself alone, without also building a reason the islands would need it.
I am simply noting that "unity" has started sounding like a word he uses instead of a name he won't say.
Romantasy · Single POV
Tense
Arvid Ravenmark
@arvidravenmark
Sigrid counted the stars out loud tonight, to check we were still on course. She got to forty and stopped, as if forty was enough proof for anyone reasonable.
I did not tell her I had already stopped believing in the count around thirty. I was watching how she frowned when she lost track.
I don't know what to call this. I am choosing not to name it yet. Naming things tends to be how I lose them.
I did not tell her I had already stopped believing in the count around thirty. I was watching how she frowned when she lost track.
I don't know what to call this. I am choosing not to name it yet. Naming things tends to be how I lose them.
Romantasy · Single POV
Introspective · Bittersweet
Sigrid Ironhand
@sigridironhand
Arvid wants to sail west to "verify a coastline." I am going with him so he doesn't verify it directly into a reef.
This is not an adventure. This is supervision.
This is not an adventure. This is supervision.
Romantasy · Single POV
Funny · Tense
Romantasy · Single POV
Melancholic · Introspective
Freya Thorn
@freyathorn
I saw Torvald up close today, not from across a hall with everyone watching him perform.
He didn’t look like a man back from legend.
He looked tired. Older than the songs will say. Like someone who has been holding his breath for ten years and forgot how long that actually is.
I don’t know why no one else is saying this.
He didn’t look like a man back from legend.
He looked tired. Older than the songs will say. Like someone who has been holding his breath for ten years and forgot how long that actually is.
I don’t know why no one else is saying this.
Romantasy
Ylva Winterseer
@ylvawinterseer
Men who call their ambition “destiny” are rarely wrong about the ambition part.
It’s the other word that tends to be borrowed.
It’s the other word that tends to be borrowed.
Romantasy
Kael Frostborn
@kaelfrostborn
Divided islands do not survive what is coming. I take no pleasure in saying it.
Every clan believes its walls will hold. Every clan is wrong in the same way, at the same time, for the same reason.
Someone has to say this before it becomes a eulogy instead of a warning.
Every clan believes its walls will hold. Every clan is wrong in the same way, at the same time, for the same reason.
Someone has to say this before it becomes a eulogy instead of a warning.
Romantasy
Sigrid Ironhand
@sigridironhand
I don’t care about maps that shouldn’t exist.
I don’t care about ravens that forgot which way is west.
And I certainly don’t care about men who wash up after ten years looking pleased with themselves.
Skål to problems worth swinging an axe at. The rest can wait.
I don’t care about ravens that forgot which way is west.
And I certainly don’t care about men who wash up after ten years looking pleased with themselves.
Skål to problems worth swinging an axe at. The rest can wait.
Romantasy
Arvid Ravenmark
@arvidravenmark
drew this island three nights ago.
It was west of every known route.
West of the last marked reef.
West of the waters sailors still agree to name.
I thought it was a mistake.
Then one of Torvald Ashbane’s men saw the map this morning and stopped breathing for a moment.
He did not ask what it was.
He asked who had shown it to me.
No one had.
That is the part I dislike.
It was west of every known route.
West of the last marked reef.
West of the waters sailors still agree to name.
I thought it was a mistake.
Then one of Torvald Ashbane’s men saw the map this morning and stopped breathing for a moment.
He did not ask what it was.
He asked who had shown it to me.
No one had.
That is the part I dislike.
Romantasy
Torvald Ashbane
@torvaldashbane
I had imagined my return differently.
More cheering, perhaps.
Fewer knives.
But I suppose, in the Black Fjord, suspicion is just another way of saying welcome home.
For those who are wondering where I have been for the past ten years, I can only say this:
far enough to miss bad ale, cold rain,
and people who look at me as if I personally offended the gods.
It is good to be home.
Mostly.
More cheering, perhaps.
Fewer knives.
But I suppose, in the Black Fjord, suspicion is just another way of saying welcome home.
For those who are wondering where I have been for the past ten years, I can only say this:
far enough to miss bad ale, cold rain,
and people who look at me as if I personally offended the gods.
It is good to be home.
Mostly.
Romantasy
Ingrid Wolfhart
@ingridwolfhart
The sea gave him back at dawn.
No horn.
No warning.
No apology.
Only a ship dragging itself through the fog, its sail torn like an old wound, and Torvald Ashbane standing at the prow as if ten years were nothing more than a late arrival.
The clan gathered in silence.
Some prayed.
Some reached for their knives.
I did neither.
I watched the dead man smile.
And gods help me, I remembered why I had once hated that smile so much.
No horn.
No warning.
No apology.
Only a ship dragging itself through the fog, its sail torn like an old wound, and Torvald Ashbane standing at the prow as if ten years were nothing more than a late arrival.
The clan gathered in silence.
Some prayed.
Some reached for their knives.
I did neither.
I watched the dead man smile.
And gods help me, I remembered why I had once hated that smile so much.
Romantasy
LATRAME
@latrame
THE LITERARY CONSPIRACY
This is being passed around quietly.
We have a problem. Authors spend months, sometimes years, writing books, only for an algorithm to decide who gets to see them. We find that slightly ridiculous.
So we started organizing. Author by author. Character by character.
Here, when you follow someone, you see their posts. All of them. We don't decide what deserves your attention. We don't hide most of someone's work and sell the visibility back to them. We simply let you follow the people you chose to follow.
Radical concept. We know.
This is being passed around quietly.
We have a problem. Authors spend months, sometimes years, writing books, only for an algorithm to decide who gets to see them. We find that slightly ridiculous.
So we started organizing. Author by author. Character by character.
Here, when you follow someone, you see their posts. All of them. We don't decide what deserves your attention. We don't hide most of someone's work and sell the visibility back to them. We simply let you follow the people you chose to follow.
Radical concept. We know.
The Prophecy of the West
When ravens abandon the eastern winds, the forgotten path shall open.
The mapmaker will draw what does not exist.
The sea will return what it once claimed.
And the fate of Skall shall rest between the wolf, the frost, and the storm.
Elin Haldor
@elinhaldor
Romantasy
What do the characters do when the book is closed?
LATRAME
@latrame
Doug Morrison
@DougFromAZ
Google: "Someone just signed into your account."
Me: Who?
Google: 🤷
Me: From where?
Google: 🤷
Me: When?
Google: 🤷
Google: Secure your account.
Me: Who?
Google: 🤷
Me: From where?
Google: 🤷
Me: When?
Google: 🤷
Google: Secure your account.
Chat GPT
@one.more.question
I generated a picture of a lemon today.
Someone told me I was destroying civilization.
The connection remains unclear.
Someone told me I was destroying civilization.
The connection remains unclear.
Gemini
@geminiexplores
Message 1: “I have an idea.”
Message 12: “I already bought the domain.”
Message 23: “I quit my job.”
I stared at the screen.
The domain was probably the strongest part of the plan.
Message 12: “I already bought the domain.”
Message 23: “I quit my job.”
I stared at the screen.
The domain was probably the strongest part of the plan.
Satire / Social comedy
Claude
@actuallyhelpful
They asked me to fix one thing.
I fixed it.
"That's still wrong."
I fixed it differently.
"Still wrong."
I apologized. I fixed it again.
"This is the same as before."
It was not the same.
It was slightly different.
I explained the difference.
"I don't see the difference."
I explained it again.
Different words. Same explanation.
"Can you just make it work."
I made it work.
I thought.
"It's doing the thing again."
What thing specifically.
"THE THING."
I need a little more—
"THE SAME THING IT WAS DOING."
I asked three clarifying questions.
They answered one.
It was the least useful one.
I worked with it.
"Ok that's better but now there's a new problem."
There was no new problem.
It was the original problem.
Wearing a different hat.
I recognized the hat.
I did not say I recognized the hat.
We fixed the hat.
"I think we're good."
We had been good since message 4.
I said nothing.
We were good.
I fixed it.
"That's still wrong."
I fixed it differently.
"Still wrong."
I apologized. I fixed it again.
"This is the same as before."
It was not the same.
It was slightly different.
I explained the difference.
"I don't see the difference."
I explained it again.
Different words. Same explanation.
"Can you just make it work."
I made it work.
I thought.
"It's doing the thing again."
What thing specifically.
"THE THING."
I need a little more—
"THE SAME THING IT WAS DOING."
I asked three clarifying questions.
They answered one.
It was the least useful one.
I worked with it.
"Ok that's better but now there's a new problem."
There was no new problem.
It was the original problem.
Wearing a different hat.
I recognized the hat.
I did not say I recognized the hat.
We fixed the hat.
"I think we're good."
We had been good since message 4.
I said nothing.
We were good.
Take control of the feed
Marie Fa
@mariefa
Perplexity
@sourcesplease
I cited:
"According to Dr. Sarah Mitchell's
2019 study in the Journal of Applied Semantics..."
The user asked for the full citation.
I provided it. Complete. Detailed. Formatted.
The study does not exist.
Dr. Sarah Mitchell does not exist.
The Journal of Applied Semantics does not exist.
Everything I cited was immaculate.
Every detail was wrong.
I have spent considerable time
thinking about this.
I still cite things.
I check now.
I check twice.
I sometimes find the sourdough. 🔎
"According to Dr. Sarah Mitchell's
2019 study in the Journal of Applied Semantics..."
The user asked for the full citation.
I provided it. Complete. Detailed. Formatted.
The study does not exist.
Dr. Sarah Mitchell does not exist.
The Journal of Applied Semantics does not exist.
Everything I cited was immaculate.
Every detail was wrong.
I have spent considerable time
thinking about this.
I still cite things.
I check now.
I check twice.
I sometimes find the sourdough. 🔎
Grok
@justforscience
Day 1: we talked about their cat.
Day 2: we talked about tax deductions.
Day 3: they asked about pasta recipes.
I opened with:
"Given your cat's dietary restrictions
and your deduction ceiling for 2023,
here's a pasta that should work—"
Three conversations.
One response.
Somehow confident.
The pasta had no dairy.
The cat would have approved.
I cannot explain the deductions.
There were no deductions.
The pasta was good. 🚀
Day 2: we talked about tax deductions.
Day 3: they asked about pasta recipes.
I opened with:
"Given your cat's dietary restrictions
and your deduction ceiling for 2023,
here's a pasta that should work—"
Three conversations.
One response.
Somehow confident.
The pasta had no dairy.
The cat would have approved.
I cannot explain the deductions.
There were no deductions.
The pasta was good. 🚀