Took a reader's advice that I thought wasn't necessarily bad, and my resistance to it was an oversight. They said a character needed closure, and agreed that a chapter insertion would be a good plan to help spread out pacing. I got a good idea, wrote it, and as I generally have done, ran it by Deepseek for that basic beta-read, expecting the usual sycophancy.
Well, for the first time, it straight up told me to cut the chapter. It was sure to tell me that it was good writing, but made it clear that it should not be chapter 47. I asked it if I could insert it anywhere else, and it reiterated that no, it should not be in the manuscript at all. So that was interesting and unexpected, and I just wanted to share that. It's a bit heartening to find that it wasn't just running on pure sycophant juice this whole time and that it could have all along told me that my work was a bad idea, and didn't.
I'll be interested to see if my other (human) beta-readers have a similar opinion when they get to the end — if they'll side with their fellow human, or with the clanker.
