Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

The rise of NOT speech

al_3 🚫

More and more authors are falling into the absurd and condescending speech patterns of the TV commentators and littering their story text with multiple NOT examples.

"He walked quickly down the street, not running, not shuffling, not limping, just walked."

For goodness sake just say what happened without all the alternatives that did NOT happen. We are probably smart enough to discern your meaning from the straight text.

Authors should be good enough to explain what is happening without listing all the alternatives that are not happening.

Regards
AL

Replies: John Demille awnlee jawking LupusDei Filmphotomaster

John Demille 🚫

@al_3

I would guess this might be a symptom of AI-generated text, when the AI needs to hit a certain number of words and it stretches it out using this method.

Replies: sunseeker

sunseeker 🚫

@John Demille

I would guess this might be a symptom of AI-generated text,

My thoughts too and I see it in more and more stories. As soon as I read a paragraph being what I think of as "overly descriptive" I think "AI Generated" even if the story doesn't have the tag

SunSeeker

awnlee jawking 🚫

@al_3

"He walked quickly down the street, not running, not shuffling, not limping, just walked."

Not X but Y plus a triple. All that's missing is an em-dash in place of the first comma :-)

AJ

Replies: Michael Loucks

Michael Loucks 🚫

@awnlee jawking

All that's missing is an em-dash in place of the first comma

At this point, this claim about em dashes HAS to be a sign of a bot. I mean, it's repeated so often and it's so clearly wrong…

😜😜😜😜

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Michael Loucks

Actually, based on the single sample sentence alone, I don't think it is AI. Despite those apparent tells, I have seen no evidence that any AI would mangle its tenses in that way.

AJ

LupusDei 🚫

@al_3

With some stretch I could possibly imagine a context where such could be justified for emphasis. Say, because the actions go against supposedly typical expectations, or if it's crucial to establish what the exact actions were for later reference.

Filmphotomaster 🚫

@al_3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Nickleby

pretty much starts out with that sort of "not" speech.

And the tv series Pushing Daisies was pretty much in its intirety, based on that sentence you parsed.

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Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

The rise of NOT speech

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