By copycatting, I’m talking about you copying someone’s style, plagiarizing their description, stealing a story concept, or using AI. The creative world is anti-AI, in case you hadn’t noticed, and regardless of what those using it are saying, readers do want to know if a human or machine wrote it. Readers are not ignorant creatures who only want a good story regardless where it comes from. To think so is being insulting and naive.

What copying says about the writer

-you do not respect the reader
-you do not respect yourself
-you feel you don’t have enough talent
-you are not beyond cheating to make a buck

The second that many readers hear that you used AI is when you lose face. Readers assume you don’t have the skills to do it from scratch. Readers see you as a thief and a con and lacking talent.

You can argue that you learn from what AI does for you. No, you don’t, because you didn’t use that part of your brain to learn it. You let something else find an answer and you just copied it. You didn’t learn it.

We can only pray that one day originality will be compensated and respected as more valuable than bot-think.