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Weekly Wrap Up (May 18 - May 24)

wildone

Entry posted by wildone in Weekly Wrap Up

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I was thinking how it is funny how things have changed over the years here at GA.

A certain author I know found a movie called Riley and she may have a story called Ridley and she was wondering if maybe someone took her story and made a screenplay out of it, and made the movie for profit :o. So being the dedicated friend that I am, I rented the movie to see the similarities. Just an FYI, this is my opinion only, not to be taken as fact. Three similarities:

  1. Both the movie and her story both have the letters r, i, l, e, y in both of them :P
  2. The main characters in both play a sport :P 
  3. If the original end of the story had left off where originally planned, it would have been like the movie, the wrong place to end both :P 

She didn't seem appreciative of my thoroughly deep investigation :gikkle: I wonder why :unsure: 

Now how does the two come together? 

Back in the day, a lot of the stories here at GA when we had more active forums for story discussion when we didn't have comments and reviews, there was always a huge debate on who would play who if a movie was made. I'm not sure if that happens so much anymore. It still does, but not as much ;)

Then we had a lot of great artists in the visual arts way, that could conjure up a picture of what they saw the character looking like. Some were amazing, but still were open to debate. The thing was 99% of us couldn't draw as good of a picture to get a counter point across :gikkle: 

Now, we get AI to help us create the character in the image the author sees there characters. It is almost taking away the art of describing the characters in a way that wasn't: 'I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my 6' body with my angular jaw and moustache and black curly hair dropping down to my broad shoulders on my swimmer's built chest with huge pecs, hairless normally, narrowing down to my perfect waist, etc.' :P :P :P That is how I do character descriptions. I do love an author that can weave a picture in your mind with words and suggestions, not all in one paragraph :worship:.

So, do you like AI pictures from either an author's or a reader's view? I have to admit, I like a lot of them. I guess though I miss the debate of if Keanu Reeves could play Seth from Desert Droppings :P? Now if you answer no, please be respectful in your answer as not to make all people who do AI art want to give it up :o! My one criticism would be that I can still tell the difference between AI art I see (on here) and what an actual picture looks like. But I appreciate the effort to get better and better. 

Needless to say, I'm in a debate know with the unknown author on who gets to play characters in some of their stories. We do not find the same looks attractive as the other does :gikkle: 

Now after that ramble:facepalm:, let's move on to the GA News of the week. It was a busy week!

Monday, Cia came in with a new Classic Author Feature. I went into it and downloaded the nifty picture and put it in my signature:

Tuesday, Myr waxed and waned poetic :P. Did I use wax and wane correctly? 

Wednesday, being Classic Author week, we got the Excerpt to go with Monday's announcement. Check it out:

Aaron dropped by to put us out of suspense to reveal the Author Guess Who? Author:

Friday, it was time for our Prompt Team to let us know the results of the their latest rendition of This is the End:

 

 

The Words of the Day were tricker this week. Did you get them all? :unsure: 

sibylline, nurture, modish, ignoramus, pertinacious, polarization, insert Saturday word here

 

Upcoming Writing Events 

Secret Author Contest 2025 - 

Spoiler

 

2025 Yearly Anthology - Creature Feature - Due Oct 1, 2025 - All the information you need is here.

2025 Prompt Team Event - More information to come!

 

Member Participation Blogs - Great way to promote yourself!!

Ask a Author 3.0 If you have a author you want to get some answers from, write a PM to @astone2292

Author Guess Who Get our members to guess who you are and also let everyone know who you are. Also write a PM to @astone2292

 

Here is the look at the past weeks postings on all our Authors and Poets!

  1. The Freshmen by Mark Arbour In Process
  2. Peace of Amiens by Mark Arbour In Process

1 Recently Updated 'Classic Author' Stories

  1. Secrets 3: The Road to the Future by Bill W In Process

0 Recently Updated 'Promising Author' Stories

No stories

43 Recently Updated 'Author' Stories

  1. Fates Mates & Pirates by P. E. Knapp Temporary Hold
  2. My Best Friend’s Brother Dylan Was Supposed to Be Straight by StoriesByTroy In Process
  3. The Seducer: A Gone From Daylight Inspired Story by MrM In Process
  4. Ink and Flowers by Celian In Process
  5. Preachers' Sons 2: The Nineties by R. Eric In Process
  6. Love Truly Is Blind by Lee Wilson In Process
  7. The Nextworld Invasion and the Death of Magic by Adam Andrews Johnson In Process
  8. His Girlfriend Doesn’t Know by DanXWrites In Process
  9. Reap the Whirlwind by Josh Aterovis In Process
  10. Traded Goods by Yeoldebard In Process
  11. Do You Ship Us? by Littlelovestories In Process
  12. Yours to Bully by Littlelovestories In Process
  13. The Storm Wolf: Gathering Clouds by RedMoon In Process
  14. Late Nights With My Hot Boss by StoriesByTroy In Process
  15. Shadows of the Moon by Albert1434 In Process
  16. The Kings Boy - A Medieval Novel by E K Stokes In Process
  17. Thanks, Dads by Inkognito Complete
  18. Not just another Summer by Robert Hugill In Process
  19. Blood Money by Yeoldebard In Process
  20. The Shadows of the Night by Leo Lacaz In Process
  21. Easter Luncheon Confessions by DanXWrites Complete
  22. Arcum Nights by mastershakeme In Process
  23. Liar vs. Liar by Laura S. Fox In Process
  24. Unspoken by Late to the party In Process
  25. A Good Place by Mark Ponyboy Peters In Process
  26. A Bad Education by CasualWanderer82 In Process
  27. David C. McLavic by CLJobe In Process
  28. BigPaws by Jack Poignet In Process
  29. Where Love Lies: Book 2 by vanalas In Process
  30. A Life Worth Living by irivera In Process
  31. White Sheets by Celian In Process
  32. Ring by ChromedOutCortex In Process
  33. Hubris by ValentineDavis21 In Process
  34. A boy from the Outside by Johan In Process
  35. Misaligned by Laura S. Fox In Process
  36. What Didn't Kill Me Became Me by Inkognito In Process
  37. Face Value by empath In Process
  38. Another Time by Celian In Process
  39. Just Maybe by Jeff Burton In Process
  40. Brian & Gordon: Living in threes by Robert Hugill In Process
  41. What Brings Us Together - Part 2 by Paladin In Process
  42. Wolf in the City by Laura S. Fox In Process
  43. Midsimmer run by Joerie van Dam In Process

2 Recently Updated 'Poet' Stories

  1. Chaotic Romantic by Invnarcel In Process
  2. Family embrace by Jean87 In Process

 

Read, Write, and REVIEW!!! (Don't forget to Recommend too!)

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  • Site Administrator
Cia

Cia 61,575
Sneaky

Posted

  • Site Administrator

Sorry it took me a bit to get to posting this for Wildone this morning, but the Weekly Wrap Up is finally here with the member stories added (my only job, whoops). Enjoy! 

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Bill W

Bill W 61,507
Monday Blues

Posted (edited)

You spoiled my fun, Cia!  I was waiting for the Weekly Wrap Up to be posted so I could give him crap about it being late.  Now, I'll have to wait until he screws up again.  😲  Of course, I probably won't have wait too long.  :gikkle: 

Edited by Bill W
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Ron

Ron 7,689
No Mood Set

Posted

The author of this post posits*: "... the author sees there characters." I'm guessing this came from 'Otter-Steve' with which we are well familiar from the many, many posts on GA that will NOT be referenced forthwith (if you must ask - you don't belong).

And, as @Headstall* (Secretly, but not so secretly ... Gary.) might say, "Cheers!"

*Common mistake. They, They're, Their, Thiers and Thier's are all too commonly confused one for the other. Here there might be help ...

They have a dog. (Yikes!)

They're going to (Unthinkably) bring a dog to my barbecue. (No matter that I have repeatedly told them that I am allergic to dogs.)

Their dog is going to be the death of me. (I can feel my throat constricting.)

Thiers is an opinion that I do not hold. (Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.)

Their's is incorrect in every usage. (No! Don't ever use it! Or bring your dog to my house!)

There (You didn't think I would let that one slide by, did you?) you have a list of all the homophones of them that I can think of.

* @Headstall "Gary" has neither endorsed this post nor given permission to use his likeness nor nom de plume. (But it is public information. So, I feel safe. Thanks, Gary! Er, I mean @Headstall.) 

Cheers!

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Krista

Krista 30,854
Frustrated

Posted (edited)

*Goes to look at her messaging logs with Wildthing*

In my defense my exact words were: (also merely a random thought in passing): "This film had me fuming for a minute when I saw it advertised. I thought I had been copyright infringed upon. 

I think we were discussing Gay Films, it started because, "Overcompensating" is now released on Amazon. I was telling him that I watched it over the weekend and didn't care for it. It is a series and if it gets renewed I'll be surprised. :P Well anyway, my story, Standing in Shadows, the main character's name is Riley. He plays football, closeted, and has a strained relationship with his father.  So, when I saw the film, "Riley," advertised, I watched the trailer and there were two similarities, but I wasn't about to rent an entire film just to see if there were more. 

So, the next day Wildthing took it upon himself, diligent as he is (when he's not being cheeky) rented it, and decided there weren't many similarities at all. --- Which, I was already thinking, as all of this stemmed from a passing observation during one of our many random mini-conversations we have whenever we communicate with one another.

I mean, it wasn't 10 minutes later after he told me the results of his research we were talking about snakes. There is a reason that I cannot currently divulge for us to be discussing snakes, so not entirely random. During that conversation I did find out that Wildthing has a bit of a, I wouldn't call it phobia, as I don't know the extent of it, but a strong dose of fear when it comes to snakes. Otter intuition maybe? He made the comment that he would just visit Hawaii for a bit since there aren't snakes there. I had to break his heart and tell him there were snakes in Hawaii, just invasive non-native species that were released through the pet trade or shipping stowaways. 

Long and windy story, but to end I will say this: This is how the two of us work. We have the most random conversations, do not psychoanalyze us... we know it is a very odd dynamic. :D 

---

Now, to answer the questions for the blog:

For AI images floating around for characters: It is interesting to see what AI can come up with. I don't want to be shown how a character should look based on AI though. It is fun for me to put my character descriptions into an AI program to see, but I wouldn't push those images on to anyone else. I want to guide readers as to 'how' a character may look, but not to the point where I feel it force feeds the information. Although, AI cannot get it completely correct it still can be a bit forceful. I am not a fan of oversharing AI work in order to give a visual aid to how your characters should look, I guess is what I'm trying to say. :P 

But if AI is used for fan-arts and such, could be fun. AI is fun in general, but the function of it shouldn't replace organic creativity, in my opinion.

---

A young Keanu Reeves for Seth. No. I don't agree and never will.  Keanu has a natural mischievous look to him that never would have fit Seth. Seth was the most mundane, stabilizing, and organically vanilla character. --- mind you during the height of the DomLuka fanatical craze, me saying something like that would have gotten me into a lot of trouble. Seth being that way was very much important to the story though. But I did not ever picture Keanu Reeves fitting the physical description of Seth. 

Edited by Krista
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Cane23

Cane23 26,712
No Mood Set

Posted

You forgot the epic fail down of the system during the weekend! Well, it happens but for me, the experience has been 'special' because it happened in the middle of writing comment at @Laura S. Fox's 3rd chapter of https://gayauthors.org/story/laura-s-fox/misaligned/! Drama was because it wasn't one of those 'amazing chapter' comments; I was analyzing the main characters! 🤪

As for the AI drawings, I LOVE them (although, I agree it is never clear as photograph)! Since @raven1 (btw, haven't seen him active for a while, hope he is doing fine) showed me AI Bing Image Creator some time ago I've enjoyed playing with it. @JJQuinn made fantastic gallery of her characters at GA using this tool.  @CasualWanderer82 makes fantastic description of his characters so, it was fun using his own words in AI Binge to create pictures. 

The best and the most entertaining discussions over the looks of the characters were in @kbois and @Mrsgnomie stories! I still believe Scott Eastwood would be great Caleb in https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/series/hybrid-journey/ series! :gikkle: I remember, we were torturing @Mrsgnomie for her choice of Kyan in Dichotomy of Love - Fiction - Gay Authors.

 

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JJQuinn

JJQuinn 4,728
No Mood Set

Posted (edited)

On 5/26/2025 at 4:16 AM, Cane23 said:

You forgot the epic fail down of the system during the weekend! Well, it happens but for me, the experience has been 'special' because it happened in the middle of writing comment at @Laura S. Fox's 3rd chapter of https://gayauthors.org/story/laura-s-fox/misaligned/! Drama was because it wasn't one of those 'amazing chapter' comments; I was analyzing the main characters! 🤪

As for the AI drawings, I LOVE them (although, I agree it is never clear as photograph)! Since @raven1 (btw, haven't seen him active for a while, hope he is doing fine) showed me AI Bing Image Creator some time ago I've enjoyed playing with it. @JJQuinn made fantastic gallery of her characters at GA using this tool.  @CasualWanderer82 makes fantastic description of his characters so, it was fun using his own words in AI Binge to create pictures. 

The best and the most entertaining discussions over the looks of the characters were in @kbois and @Mrsgnomie stories! I still believe Scott Eastwood would be great Caleb in https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/series/hybrid-journey/ series! :gikkle: I remember, we were torturing @Mrsgnomie for her choice of Kyan in Dichotomy of Love - Fiction - Gay Authors.

 

Thanks for the mention @Cane23. I absolutely love to use the bing AI. Yes it can take a while to find the photo that you want to use. You may have to keep pressing for more prompts, but I'm so glad that you introduced me to it. For myself I find that it's helpful in deciding what my characters are going to ultimately look like and be like if I'm a little hazy on details. I have always used real stock photos to kind of see them, but it's not the same as AI because you can put in the information that you want to see and what is thrown back at you maybe exactly what you didn't realize you wanted. I'm so grateful that GA allows us to go back and edit things LOL because sometimes I'll think that I have a character nailed down and then I start playing with the AI app and it completely changes and I go aha now that's what I was thinking. So for myself it's extremely helpful. I'm very visual and it just really helps.

Edited by JJQuinn
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