This blog post is free to read for everyone.
Phases
Substack is going through a phase again. The feed is filled with notes and posts about writing with AI, writing without AI, partially using AI, checking other people's writings to see if they’re AI, checking one’s own writings to see if they’re AI and… I think that’s it.
Sprinkle in a couple of engagement-bait notes (“I’m new here…”, “Where are the fiction writers…” - wrote my fair share of those) and the airport notes (“I’m taking a break from Substack”, “I’m leaving for a bit” - been there, done that) and you’ve got yourself a fairly normal week on this weird little platform.
Off the top of my head, and, mind you, without judgment, I recall the following phases or crises:
there’s nazis here that bring in $$$ for the platform?
why do they focus on Video?
there are no mods! people are racists, homophobic, mysoginous
THEY CHANGED THE BUTTON FROM “POST” TO “ARTICLE”!
smaller drama that seemed to involve everyone but actually only involved a few, frankly, very particular people, not going into detail, made a promise to myself
Thankfully, I’ve apparently had enough of a break to feel inspired to write a blog post again, after lurking for a couple of weeks. So thank you, I guess?
Moments turned months
Here’s the thing. I set out to write a short story that turned into a serial that turned into… - sigh - … that I’d love to turn into my debut novella, novelette, short story… call it what you want. It’s called Would You Like Some More Help.
This was back in September. I was having a really hard time at work, I wanted to use my creative energy and intellect for something. I’ve written about it a couple of times, if you’ve been here since day one, you know. (thanks, by the way)
I opened up a word document and started writing the story that had been growing in my head. Little did I know that both the hard times and the story would continue until April of the following year. My almost burnout and my final chapter 45 happened pretty much in the same week. And yes: work was pushing me over the edge, but I didn’t do myself any favors by taking on (read: self inflicting) a Substack schedule that, at its “height”, meant 5 posts a week, including a podcast.
I disappeared for a while. Didn’t feel inspired to write anymore. Didn’t see the point in writing blog posts, promoting fiction through the House of Chapters publication (my baby) or even editing my own serial. In short: I lost track of why I started doing this in the first place.
At the same time, as I’ve said, I almost burnt out and was doing pretty much a full time content creator things here on Substack on top of my regular and demanding job.
So what’s the point?
Did you notice the two things marked in red? Those are the two things I googled. I then ignored gemini and scrolled further down to not be helped by AI, even though the answer was the same. But I promised something in the title.
When I started my serial Would You Like Some More Help, I also started using ChatGPT at work. ChatGPT and Gemini soon replaced googling for me. Instead of looking up “plural of crisis”, I’d ask ChatGPT. If I wasn’t sure about my grammar, I’d paste my sentence in there and it would usually tell me it sounded fine but make four or five different suggestions (“more poetic”, “more scientific”…) which I’d ignore, thinking I want to write this myself!
When a word, expression or idiom came to me in Italian, French or German, I’d have ChatGPT translate it for me and pick the best fit for what I was trying to convey.
The flow state I was in, on Tuesday mornings, the flow state I’m in right now… now THAT’S what I seek when I pick up my MacBook, move aside the cat who’s trying to walk over the keyboard and click on that (damn) New Article button.
I personally cannot imagine the point in feeding my idea into artificial intelligence and having it write for me.
What’s the point in asking ChatGPT to name your characters? Don’t you relate to them? Didn’t you create them? What are you afraid of?
I have no clue why someone would ask AI for an idea for a plot, with all the ideas one can have, all the inspiration we can draw from, all the wonderful prompts and writing challenges and communities there are, right here!
But you do you.
Then again, I was never in it for fast cash or fame. I’ll take the money, sure, but it’s not the point. There is almost no money to be made from publishing books. I knew it before, but it has become crystal clear during the last year on Substack. Hmm, I might write another post about this sometime.
I sat down around 8pm local time, here in Europe, to write this. I started writing it while singing and humming for my sons. There was a quick phone call twenty minutes ago. I enjoyed the hell out of writing this.
I will publish this blog post because I wrote it and it felt good and I think some people will relate to it. It might not get any views, it might perform badly. I’m sure my dashboard will be happy to tell me.
But I wrote this. And that’s the point.
Disclaimer
At no point did I criticize anyone for their use of AI.
Not here to fight, but do let me know your thoughts in the comments.
What I’m usually up to
Fiction: I’m turning my serial into a book I’m hoping to indie publish
Blog: I write blog posts on the topics of Fiction on Substack, community & mental health, but also anything I feel like writing
Writing is fun because we're using our imagination to make shit up! Why else do it.
welcome back Ian!! Was so happy to see your name. I'm conflicted about the AI use because I use it to brainstorm ideas. I cannot however imagine ever asking it to write a plot, create something for me or allow it to take over my writing. when using it's mostly about, does this make sense, did I repeat myself. Some people see it as 'cheating' I guess but I feel it makes my own writing better.