AI

Advances in Tech Have Been Good To Writers – Until AI

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

Using AI to help you write is not a road we should go down

Image by Christopher White from Pixabay

Up until recently technological advances in writing have been to my benefit as a writer. For example, without the internet we would not have self-publishing in the way we do now, print-on-demand, indie presses or even Amazon itself. Without the internet and everything it has brought us, it would have been much harder for me to realise my dream of becoming a published author.

Without the internet I would be unable to effectively market my books and build an author platform. I would not have my blog, my author accounts on social media, or good old Canva to help me make cool graphics.

In many ways, the internet offered a level playing field to writers. It didn’t matter so much who you were or where you came from, how wealthy or poor you were, or how educated or uneducated. There were no more gatekeepers — not if you were happy to take the independent route anyway.

Of course, being able to self-publish didn’t mean you would automatically sell a lot or gain any kind of following or respect, but hey, it was a start. At least our books were out there.

Up until now, technology has been a friend to me on my creative journey. I’d much rather type on my laptop than my old vintage typewriter, for example! The spelling and grammar check on Word is handy, and is there if I need it. So is Google — helping me research various topics without even have to leave my desk.

All of these things have helped me, so of course I am grateful for them. Have they made me a better writer though?

No. Experience has made me a better writer. Getting older has made me a better writer. Regular reading has made me a better writer. And my editor has made me a better writer. Funny how those things are all human…

Which is why I am unequivocally not in favour of writers using AI as a tool to help them write. To me, it’s cheating. There, I’ve said it. Now let me explain why, and let me explain why I do not advise new writers to go down that road.

Let’s put aside for now the many ethical issues with AI. The fact it is terrible for the environment and the fact it was trained by stealing from the published works of creative people without their permission. By the way, those two facts alone are enough for me to steer clear of it. Not that steering clear of it is easy! That’s another whole issue too. How exactly are we to avoid it?

Let’s stick with writing. What writing is, what it means to be a writer. I often think there are two kinds of writer if you want to be really basic about it. There is the writer who is born a writer: they’ve had a head full of ideas for as long as they can remember; they’re probably a maladaptive daydreamer; they frequently drift off into their own little worlds and they write all the time, every day, no matter what. Not because they want to but because they have to. They would still write even if the internet vanished. They would still write even if they never made a penny from it. They would still write even if no one ever read a word of it. They have to write.

The second kind come to writing a little later maybe. They have that one good idea they can’t let go of, and eventually they drum up the courage to do something about it. They then get the bug and realise they have a whole lot more to say. They may, for this reason, be a little more motivated by money, reads and respect. If the money dried up, for instance, they might not bother again.

I have the privilege of working with young writers. My job is supporting and encouraging them on their own writing journeys by offering prompts, challenges, activities and feedback. I run various clubs online and in person for children aged between 7 and 18. I love my job.

Nearly all of these children fall into the first category of writers I mentioned. Making money and future careers are not on their mind at all. They simply love writing. They were writing before they joined my clubs, and I have every faith they will still write after they leave.

Imagine my distress then when one of my young writers told me that they often use AI to help with their writing. In their own words, ‘to help them get better.’ Imagine my frustration when another, even younger writer, told me their school teacher had shown them how to use AI to write whole stories. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t a fan of this. I wanted to remind them that there would be no job left for me if this trend continued. If they use AI to ‘get better’ at writing or if they use AI to write a story for them, what do they need me for?

So, that’s one concern. The other is that they are simply selling themselves short and taking the quick route to finishing a story or a project.

I didn’t say it to them, but my honest opinion is that using AI to help you write is cheating. I am not talking about using a spell check or grammar check — that is not the same thing.

I am talking about writing a paragraph and then asking AI to make it ‘better’ for you. I am talking about having ideas for a story and then asking AI to write it for you. I am talking about using AI to craft your emails or to regurgitate articles and essays here on Medium. I am talking about handing over your own beautiful creative human soul to AI.

It makes me want to cry!

The way I feel is this: writing should be hard. Crafting the perfect email should be something you take time over. Constructing a poem to reveal your inner feelings, should take a long time. Novels should be written draft after agonising draft. Blood, sweat and tears should go into writing because writing is important! Goddamn it, writing is what makes us human. Telling stories has been part of our lives since the very start. Telling stories, reading books, listening to music, dancing, acting, sewing, knitting, all of these creative and imaginative pursuits are what make us human.

Writing is far too important to hand over to AI.

I have had a few discussions with young writers about using AI and they have outlined their reasons for relying on it, but they have failed to change my mind. One of the reasons someone gave was that they knew what they wanted to say but not how to say it, so they wrote the paragraph of the essay then asked AI to reword or reorganise it.

NO, I wanted to scream, that’s your job! That’s called editing. Editing, revising, rewriting are all important aspects of writing and they are how you learn to get better! You can’t tell me AI teaches you these things. You’re not going to learn that way. You’re going to learn by figuring it out for yourself.

And yes, I know, a writer rarely works alone. After many, many drafts of a novel, the writer uses beta readers, editors and proof-readers to polish up that product. Please don’t tell me that’s the same as using AI because it bloody isn’t. Firstly, do we really want to see all those people out of jobs? And second, AI cannot do what they do. It cannot replace the relationship you build with these people, it cannot relate to you and your writing in the way they can once they understand your writing voice and style. And worse than all of that, AI is trained by using other people’s work… Do you really want your writing to sound like someone else’s?

And let’s go back to writing voice and style because I think that is one of the main things at risk from using AI to ‘help’ you write. Having your own unique voice is one of the most important and beautiful and human things about writing. The fact that the same thing can be said in so many different ways simply because we have different personalities, is beautiful to me. Fascinating. Even with my youngest writers I notice their different styles. That’s a unique human thing and we cannot allow AI to replace that.

How will new and young writers ever find their writing style and voice if they use AI to help them so early on?

One of the people I discussed this with stuck to their argument, which was fine, but I told them again and again, you do not need it. You have got this far without it. This person is incredibly smart and articulate, and has their own writing style and voice. One I hugely admire. They do not need AI!

In fact, I would go as far to say that the there are only two groups of writers who do need AI, and even they shouldn’t use it. Writers who are just not very good and don’t want to learn how to get better, and people who want to make a fast buck by using AI to churn out ebooks.

From someone who spends years on each book I write, it makes me feel genuinely sick. These people are not writers and do not understand how important writing is.

AI is diluting what it means to be a creative human being. It genuinely worries me. Not only does it make me fear for my job, both as an author and as a creative writing tutor, but I fear where it will lead us. What will be the outcome of this? What will future writers sound like? What if the authors of the future can’t even string a sentence together by themselves because they never learned how? What if the writers of tomorrow never connect with other creatives because they’ve asked AI to craft all their emails and correspondence, used AI as an editor and proof-reader, and churned an ebook out that has no heart, no soul, no meaning?

I worry about how this will impact human imagination. I worry about how this will affect the whole process of what it means to be a writer. Writers who rely on AI will miss out on so much: the joy and tears of trial and error, of success after failure, or pushing through writers block to get to that finish line, of holding a book in your hands and smiling joyfully as you rightfully claim, I wrote this!

My final argument against the use of AI in writing is this. Shakespeare didn’t need it. Jane Austen didn’t need it. The Brontes didn’t need it. Stephen King didn’t need it. Countless authors who have touched our lives, inspired us, made us laugh and made us cry for hundreds of years, got this far without AI helping them — so why the hell do we need it now? We don’t.

We can and should do it ourselves.

I’m going to give the final words on this debate to one of my favourite poets and authors, Charles Bukowski. Bukowski wrote a lot of poems about writing but this is my favourite and this is exactly how I feel about writing.

“If it doesn’t come
bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.

Unless it comes unasked
out of your heart
and your mind
and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.

If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.

If you’re doing it
for money or fame,
don’t do it.

If you’re doing it because
you want women in your bed,
don’t do it.

If you have to sit there
and rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.

If it’s hard work
just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.

If you’re trying to write
like somebody else,
forget about it.

If you have to wait
for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
If it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

If you first have to read it
to your wife
or your girlfriend
or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

Don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of people
who call themselves writers.
Don’t be dull
and boring
and pretentious,
don’t be consumed with self — love.

The libraries of the world
have yawned themselves
to sleep over your kind.

Don’t add to that.
Don’t do it.

Unless it comes out of your soul
like a rocket,
unless being still
would drive you to madness
or suicide
or murder,
don’t do it.

Unless the sun inside you
is burning your gut,
don’t do it.

When it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by itself
and it will keep on doing it
until you die
or it dies in you.

There is no other way.
And there never was.”

Charles Bukowski

For Writers, Risk and Courage Come Hand In Hand

~ ChanAtkins ~ 6 Comments

It’s never been tougher than it is right now…

Image by Public Co from Pixabay

Being a creative person and sharing what you create is risky. While creating art, writing, dancing or acting are all very human things, all part of our desire to tell stories and express what is inside of us, sharing them with the world is something else. What starts as pure pleasure can easily morph into something that induces fear, self-doubt and regret, even horror.

Undoubtedly, when you put time, effort and money into creating something that might not be appreciated or even noticed, there is a high level of risk attached. You might regret what you’ve shared. You might hate it. You might feel embarrassed of your attempts. You might receive negative feedback that hurts so much you never want to write again. You might become swamped with imposter syndrome. In short, you might fail.

But time and again writers do it anyway and perhaps they are especially brave for this or perhaps they just don’t have a choice in the matter. I’m inclined to think compulsion and obsession have more to do with it than courage. But we can’t deny it’s both brave and risky to share a little piece of your soul with the world.

There is also courage in the act itself — in putting pen to paper. There is risk around every corner. Risk staring right back at you from the horror and the challenge of the empty page or blank screen. There is a world of words and ideas in your head but the courage it takes to attempt to put them into some sort of order, to allow yourself to open up and let them pour out of you, is something else.

It hurts, to make art, to write, to allow yourself to be open, raw and vulnerable. It’s uncomfortable at times, to be that in tune with your feelings and emotions. Writing involves looking inwards as much as looking outwards. Writing is scary because it has the potential to go so horribly wrong. Writing is risky because transferring it to page or screen can feel utterly impossible, yet we do it, again and again. Writing is like magic, like witchcraft. Writing is the one thing that can allow us to truly know ourselves and explore the entire world and all of history and space at the same time. Writing is the thing that makes us feel free. Writing is the thing that makes us human. (Or at least it used to be until AI came along.)

It’s not easy to write a story, a poem, a novel. It takes real guts to dig your own claws into your own weak skin in order to reveal what’s underneath. It’s having the audacity to believe little old nobody you actually has something to say. It’s feeling the never-ending itch to unleash ideas and characters and made-up worlds from inside of you. And for what reason? What purpose? A lot of the time, we don’t even know.

There is so much fear involved in writing that some writers never even put pen to paper. There is so much risk involved in writing that some writers never ever finish the book they’ve been working on. So much courage is needed that many writers give up entirely, often before they’ve ever really started.

And who can blame them?

It’s a tough world out there. Despite relying heavily on every area of the arts to survive this life, humans have never been particularly good at appreciating or valuing creative pursuits.

The arts are generally underfunded and undervalued and this often means adults and educators actively discourage young people from trying to make a living from the arts. Sometimes it feels like everything is stacked up against you from the very start. Actually, screw that. The truth is everything is stacked up against you from the very start.

I remember my friends, relatives and teachers applauding my stories when I was a kid. But that congratulations and encouragement only went so far. The arts were, after all, a hobby, something to do for fun, to pass the time and to entertain yourself. Not something to make a living out of. It took me a long time to claw my way back from that but these days I’m happy to say I earn my living from the arts and I encourage kids to as well.

You might even argue that we live in a society that actively discourages people from being creative. And hey, now we have AI taking over art, do we even really need creative people anymore?

That’s a depressing thought but it’s one that leads me back to courage and risk, because these days being creative and sharing it with the world is increasingly risky, and therefore increasingly brave. Creative people are going to have to fight even harder to be seen and heard thanks to AI.

Are publishing companies going to be even more reluctant to sign up new writers when they have AI at their disposal? Are we going to see an upwards trend in big companies replacing all kinds of writers with AI because of the amount of money it will save them? Is AI going to get so good that soon readers will be unable to tell the difference between it and human told stories? Will readers even care?

Querying agents and publishers is risky and scary and it always has been — wasting time you don’t have and knowing that the chances of ‘making it’ are very slim. It takes a huge amount of courage to send out queries only to get rejected again and again.

Independent publishing has given many talented writers a chance to go alone and bring in their own readers, but it carries its own risks. You need money to put out a professional product and you’ll often find that family and friends still don’t take you seriously because you don’t have a traditional publishing deal.

You risk everything when you decide to write and share it with the world. You risk humiliation, rejection, ridicule and dismissal. You risk losing money, losing faith, losing self-belief and determination. You risk being misunderstood and misinterpreted. You risk the door being slammed in your face. You risk bad reviews and low sales. You risk no one taking you seriously. You risk writing for no reason, for no money, no reward, no praise.

But if you are truly a writer, you do it anyway.

And you always will.

If you are a real writer, you won’t be dissuaded by any of that because who can realistically piss on your fireworks? No one. Because you know. You know how vital it is. If you truly love writing, you will do it anyway. Despite all of the above, and in spite of all of the above. If you love writing, you will do it anyway because there is never any other choice. Because to do it anyway is the biggest fuck you possible to all of the above and after all, what is it to be human, but to fall down and get back up again, again and again?

If you really mean it, you’ll do it. You’ll squash AI generated stories with your little finger. You’ll rise above it. You’ll keep doing it. You’ll listen to the voices in your head, you’ll drift off and zone out time and time again, you’ll create worlds you can disappear into whenever you like, you’ll laugh and sing and dance and write for the pure damn thrill of it. For the pure damn joy.

It won’t matter if you never get paid, never get noticed, never get seen, never get respected. It won’t matter and it won’t stop you. Because everything inside of you is exploding like fireworks and that makes you different from everyone else out there. That makes you special.

You’re a writer. It is insanely risky and unbelievably brave.

And that’s why you’ll do it anyway.

Social Media Fatigue, AI Slop and the Enshittification of the Internet

~ ChanAtkins ~ 5 Comments

I’ve Had Enough – But Where Do We Go From Here?

Image by TyliJura from Pixabay

I learnt a new word this week: enshittification.

I came across it in an article and it struck such a chord I looked it up. Wikipedia describes it as: “Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a pattern in which online products and services decline in quality. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.”

And wow, doesn’t that just sum up the late stage of capitalism we are in right now? Late stage capitalism = end of the world, if you’re feeling really gloomy.

But in all seriousness, it kind of adds up to that, doesn’t it? As the above quote explains, huge companies, the elite, the ultra rich, the CEOs and shareholders, the governments, the rulers and the polluters are paying no heed whatsoever to the plight of the world, the natural environment or human suffering. It’s as if they can see the burning end coming and are trying to hoard as much wealth and security as possible in preparation for when end days really arrive. They’ll be fine in their bunkers while everything collapses around the rest of us.

But let’s go back to my new favourite word. I’d been feeling this way about social media for some time. I even wrote a poem on Medium about it and I’ve posted it at the end just for fun. I recently read a book called The Way Home by Mark Boyle, which is about one man shunning the modern world and technology to live in a self-made cabin in the woods and survive by himself. By the time I’d devoured it I wanted to do the exact same thing myself. I soon realised I couldn’t, of course. You need money to buy land and be left alone. Plus, how could I sell my books or get paid for my writing if I gave up technology? I am trapped. We are all trapped.

That depressed me but I decided to fight back by cutting down my use of tech. I’ve started leaving my phone behind, for example. No, I don’t mean when I leave the house, I don’t have the guts for that yet, but I mean when I move from room to room. Yes, like a lot of us, that’s how glued to my phone I normally am. It’s always in my back pocket. It’s an addiction, let’s be honest.

But it’s an addiction that we all seem to hate and grumble about constantly. Twitter, now known as X, has seen a huge exodus to rival Bluesky in response to Elon Musk’s support for Trump. That includes me, by the way. Facebook has just announced they’re getting rid of the fact-checking facility. So, in the name of free speech, we’ll now be subjected to a tidal wave of lies and misinformation, not to mention hate speech and more political interference from certain wealthy quarters.

Facebook has been declining for some time too and I can see it soon going the same way as X. It is my intention to start building my content up on other platforms from now on.

Medium was a lifeline for a while. In a few months I’ll have been on there for two years and for the majority of that time it has surpassed my expectations. It’s paid me for my writing, rewarded me for my words, made me feel appreciated and valued. But then AI came along and ruined it all. These days Medium is fast becoming another platform I need but actively loathe going on.

All right, it’s not that bad yet. I’m getting good at spotting, blocking and reporting the huge amount of spammers, scammers and bots that now stalk it, but it’s still depressing, not to mention time consuming to have to do this. Reads, views and earnings are down for everyone. People are leaving in droves. It’s becoming impossible to determine what is human written and what is AI generated and Medium didn’t seem to be doing anything to discourage the barrage of AI slop, until today that is. I’ve just edited this blog post and luckily before I published it, because Medium have just emailed its subscribers updating them on their approach to AI slop, spammers and scammers.

I felt a huge sense of relief reading the email. They do seem to be very much aware of the frustrations we’ve been having, even down to the generic ‘nice’ or ‘good’ or ‘follow me’ comments we get on our articles from people who have not read them. The rules for Medium are clearly presented as follows, and anyone who breaks them is being suspended and/or removed. Yay!

  • creating multiple accounts to engage with yourself and generate earnings
  • using responses solely to drive attention to your stories with the intention of creating reciprocal earnings
  • writing responses, clapping, following, or highlighting solely to generate earnings
  • using AI-generated content to earn money for stories and responses in the Partner Program

I don’t know where writers go from here. I sometimes feel like our time is running short. Why will anyone hire a real human writer if they can get AI to do the job for them? Stories, poems, essays, articles, copy, ghost-writing, you name it, AI can do it.

And it was already hard enough for writers, both trad published and indie. Hard and getting harder. So, what do we do? Where do we go?

Well, we don’t give up, that’s for sure. We seek out better places. For me, that means returning humbly to the safety of my blog. I am now adding my blog link to every piece I publish on Medium and since joining Bluesky, I am also cross-posting my blog pieces to there. My blog is mine and I control it. That’s something to value these days and I predict the humble blog will see a rise in popularity and usage in the next few years as writers turn away from the enshittification of social media platforms.

I’m on Substack but need to up my game. I’m still working out how best to use it, because although it is tempting to repost Medium and blog pieces there, this seems a bit dull. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll use it to serialise my next book? I’m not sure. At the moment I’m just using it for my newsletter and I’ve only posted two so far, so there is work to be done.

Bluesky so far is mostly a breath of fresh air. We’ll see though. I’ll definitely be posting there more often and if it takes off along with Substack, then I predict I’ll use Instagram and Facebook far less.

That’s my way of handling it anyway. We can’t give up, that’s for sure. Though I truly felt like it when I was told by one of the kids in my writing clubs this week that their teacher had been showing them how to use AI to write stories. They all thought this was wonderful while I was horrified. They couldn’t understand my horror so I changed the subject. They’re too young for me to rant at but I wanted to ask them what they thought would happen to me teaching them writing, if they could use AI to do the same thing? I’d be out of a job, surely?

I also wanted to ask them if they didn’t see it as cheating, because I do. We’ve got this far without AI churning out stories and poems for us. Why are we so quick to hand our imagination over to huge nameless companies? And yes I know that tools such as Grammarly and even the spell check function on Word are technically AI, but, and you can fight me on this, using a tool to check your spelling and grammar, is not the same as using a tool to form a sentence or a paragraph for you.

It frustrates me. Writing should be hard! It should take your blood sweat and tears! It should enrage and frustrate you because once you get through that and figure it out for yourself, it will excite and thrill you. Can you say the same thing about AI? I doubt it. When you are praised for a piece of writing, can you really take the credit? Can you really feel proud?

Pride. Imagination. Working through those humps and blocks. Thrashing out ideas. Rearranging sentences. Cutting out repetitive words. Are we really going to let AI do the hard work for us?

Well, I’m not.

I’m a writer and I write and I will continue to do so even if things continue to get harder.

What are your thoughts on all this? I’d love to know so feel free to drop a comment…

Sick Of Social Media

I’m sick of social media
it makes me feel sick
dehydrated, disconnected
draining my empathy
til all that I can see
is how I don’t want to be
so please don’t message me
don’t chase me up
don’t hound me down
don’t send me a reel
or assume my time is yours to steal
don’t leave me a voice-note
don’t tell me how to vote
don’t message me a random link
and expect me to click it
don’t pretend to know anyone
don’t pretend you are having fun
don’t say things to strangers online
that would get you battered in real life
don’t send thoughts and prayers
don’t pretend that you care
or that your sympathy isn’t reserved
for some countries more than others
don’t ask me to follow you
don’t assume I want to know you
don’t offer me a service
or expect me to want this
don’t assume I am interested
or that your life has me invested
I’m sick of social media
it is making me sick
dehydrated, disconnected
blunting my sympathy
til all that I can see
is who I don’t want to be