Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.
Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the March 6 posting of the IWSG are Kristina Kelly, Miffie Seideman, Jean Davis, and Liza @ Middle Passages!
March 6: Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?
__________________________________________
I have not played with AI at all so far, and I don't really have any interest in it. I've got processes in place that are working for me right now.
For one thing, I've got doubts about the ethical implications and I think I'll wait for all that to settle.
 |
| image source |
Other writers I know are developing whole new skill sets surrounding prompt writing to get the system to give them something they can use…and, well, I don't want to. At least not right now.
I don't have the spoons. I have plenty of other things to deal with right now.
For a third thing, I haven't seen anything yet to convince me that the end product is up to my standards.
I suppose I could take it as a draft and revise it to my liking, but I could also do that with my own crappy first draft instead of one written by a machine.
But the most important thing is that I enjoy writing--even the parts I complain about, like synopsis writing. Passing parts of it off just wouldn't bring me the same feelings of accomplishment as doing it myself.
There are things I take on, at least in part, because they are difficult and not just anyone can do them. One could argue that was some portion of my "why" in teaching. Sure, I had a heart to help, but I also got a bit of a charge out of doing something that many people could not. (Of course, too many years of that = burnout, so there's a balance).
 |
| image source |
If I just glom off the bits I think are hard and ask a machine to do my work for me? That feels like cheating, and if the end result is successful, I get no share in the credit. I wouldn't feel like I owned it anymore.
I want to be proud of myself, to feel like I really accomplished something in my writing life. So that means I'll have to do it myself. No shade meant at those who find that using AI feeds their practice--gets them past blank page paralysis, or whatever else they need. There are ethical ways to use these tools, the same as any others. But it's not for me.
It's just a line in the sand, which means you can smooth it out with your foot and step over any time you want. But I'm okay on this side of the line for now. How about you?
I like what you said about writing—that you enjoy it, even the parts you complain about. I feel the same way. I don't want AI anywhere near my work.
ReplyDeleteLove the spoons graphic, by the way.
Thanks for reading. I can't take credit for the graphic, but I loved it, too.
DeleteKeep the humans in writing. Long live the resistance. ;)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteAccomplishment is a great feeling! You really hit me with the new skill set thought. We have to constantly learn new skills, new platforms. Right now, AI prompting including for artwork is this odd trial and error of finding the right combination of words to force the programming to give a result we want. I'd rather spend my trial and error time crafting the right set of words for the poem I'm working on.
ReplyDeleteSame. If I'm gonna fumble around either way, I'll do it organically.
Delete"Passing parts of it off just wouldn't bring me the same feelings of accomplishment as doing it myself." Absolutely agree with this! I also think that we learn and digest our story during first drafts. New ideas and plots twists can jump out at us. This are organically ours. I can't imagine reading a "first draft" that a computer wrote, and feeling detached from it. Good luck with your writing!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I agree that revising a computer's first draft wouldn't feel the same as revising my own.
DeleteI think it's a personal choice whether to try Al for non-creative writing tasks. I use it at work all the time but heavily correct and edit what Al writes.
ReplyDeleteA lot of folks I work with like it, too, for non-fiction content. But the problem we run into is that it's just plain inaccurate and fact-checking takes longer than writing it yourself does.
DeleteProud of yourself and your efforts - well said!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI'm completely with you, Samantha! I always loved that JFK quote. It resonates deeply in my soul. Enjoy IWSG Day!
ReplyDeleteThat one has always spoken to me, too.
DeleteThis isn't the first post where 'cheating' was mentioned. It really is cheating if you're not doing it yourself.
ReplyDeleteThat's how it feels to me, too.
DeleteThat's the thing. There is this line (in my mind at least) and if I cross it it's cheating. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
Exactly. I reserve the right to adjust the line as things grow and change, but I'll stay on this side for now.
DeleteBut the line is blurry. Is it cheating to use a tool to check grammar and spelling? Is it cheating to use the line revision suggestions? Where do you draw the line?
ReplyDeleteAgreed. That's what makes this messy. Personally, I'm better with running something I wrote through analysis and seeing if I want to use the suggestions than with having the AI make something for me that I then work on.
DeleteI feel similar to you. I don't have the energy to bother right now and I feel I'd spend just as much time thinking up prompts as I would if I just wrote something to edit. Maybe one day, I'll play around, but it's not important for me currently.
ReplyDeleteRight. I could see a day when I find it useful. That just isn't today.
DeleteAfter a busy weekend and with another one planned for the end of this month, I am feeling the need to conserve all the spoons I can for the next few weeks, if that's possible.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog post. I love doing research for my writing, so I think of AI as research and then I filter down through all of those AI notes to find the golden nuggets I can use. Much like looking up websites and books for facts. But that would be for my nonfiction books and essays. When it comes to creative writing, AI is not even summoned once.
ReplyDeleteI guess so far, I don't trust AI for research results. The experiments I've seen in my day job, show that it'll give blatantly false information on some topics (which makes sense, since it pulls information from the internet, which definitely offers false information on many topics alongside the accurate information).
Delete