DreamForge Magazine AI Fiction Policy

At DreamForge Magazine, we are committed to paying a basic professional rate (currently $0.08/word) for speculative fiction written in demonstration of natural talent and imagination.

A significant part of our mission is our DreamCasters writing group, where we focus on helping authors of all ages and backgrounds discover their natural talents and hone their skills in story structure, plotting, dialog, characterization, and other aspects of modern storytelling.

In addition, DreamForge Magazine is primarily crowd-funded by supporters on Kickstarter, Patreon, GoFundMe and other platforms— funded in our opinion by people who share our desire to nurture and encourage human talent in fiction writing.

For those reasons, when it comes to story submissions, we strongly prefer to see work you have developed without the aid of intelligent writing systems like, but not limited to ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI models.

For the record, we are not going to scan every entry through an AI detector, nor are we going to ban anyone from submitting stories if we find you have used AI. We believe there is currently a “moral panic” in that regard that is doing more harm than good.

Here’s how our submissions process goes with regard to AI. Every story we receive is evaluated for publication. If your story reaches the 2% of submissions that are so good we’re seriously considering publication, then part of the final evaluation process will be an AI scan. We know that AI detectors are only partly accurate, but that said, should we detect a significant level of AI usage in final evaluation, your story will undergo an extra editorial pass. While your story will never be rejected out-of-hand for AI usage, it is unlikely an AI-enhanced story will be chosen over tales that demonstrate raw human talent.

For authors interested in using AI as a force-multiplier in creating publishable and enjoyable works, you should note that accomplishing those goals takes training, experience, and using the right tools.  A good source for this training and learning about new writing communities that use AI in developing fiction is The Nerdy Novelist at https://www.youtube.com/@TheNerdyNovelist

While DreamForge Magazine is not interested in AI written work, our publishing company, DreamForge Press, LLC, does not exclude the potential for a future label leveraging AI for the benefit of human authors.

No matter how you write, we wish you the best, because writing is an amazing activity that helps bring meaning and beauty to your own life and to the world.  Here at DreamForge, we’d love your support and look forward to meeting you in our community and learning more about good story telling together.

Scot Noel

DreamForge