Why Nick Cave is wrong about human creativity and generative AI

First of all, I don’t think that Nick Cave is entirely wrong. Laying aside how ChatGPT is just one of the many LLMs that are publicly available, and that using it as a stand-in for all of generative AI is like saying “AOL Online” when you mean “the internet,” he does make a fair point… Continue reading Why Nick Cave is wrong about human creativity and generative AI

More early thoughts on AI-assisted writing

It’s become something of a cliche that true writers write because they can’t not write, but as with so many other stereotypes and cliches, there’s a kernel of truth in it. I’ve been writing on and off since the 8th grade, and even during periods of my life when I wasn’t able to focus on… Continue reading More early thoughts on AI-assisted writing

Some early thoughts on AI-assisted writing

I remember the early days of indie publishing. Back in 2011, when self-publishing was still a dirty word (and Kindle Unlimited wasn’t yet a thing), there were a LOT of opinions about “indie vs. tradpub,” most of them heated opinions, and some of the arguments I witnessed at conventions like 2011 Worldcon Reno very nearly… Continue reading Some early thoughts on AI-assisted writing

Why I’m not worried about AI replacing writers

So machine learning artificial intelligence has really been blowing up this past month, probably because of ChatGPT and all of the fascinating things that people are doing with it. I’ve been getting into it myself, using it to help write or improve my book descriptions, and also experimenting with it for writing stories. At this… Continue reading Why I’m not worried about AI replacing writers

My first attempt to write a short story with Chat GPT

[TL;DR: I didn’t get past the prewriting stage, because the AI’s safeguards forbid it from writing honestly about certain themes. My goal was to feed it the first 2k words of a story fragment and see how it finished the story, but if the theme of the story itself is verbotten, I don’t see how… Continue reading My first attempt to write a short story with Chat GPT

In response to “A Crippling Realization”

I got a lot of feedback on my last blog post, and rather than respond to it one at a time, I thought it would be better to just write another blog post and respond to it here. First of all, thanks for all of the support. I really appreciate it. I’m not going through… Continue reading In response to “A Crippling Realization”

A Crippling Realization

I have come to realize something that is, in some ways, making it very difficult for me to keep writing. Not in the short or the medium term—I’m actually making quite good progress on my current novel WIP, and am optimistic about finishing my three unfinished trilogies in the next couple of years. But when… Continue reading A Crippling Realization

2020-01-23 Newsletter Author’s Note

This author’s note originally appeared in the January 23rd edition of my email newsletter. To sign up for my newsletter, click here. Every week, when I sit down to write the author’s note for this newsletter, I try to come up with something that you’ll find genuinely interesting or insightful. I don’t want to talk… Continue reading 2020-01-23 Newsletter Author’s Note

2019-09-19 Newsletter Author’s Note

This author’s note originally appeared in the September 19th edition of my author newsletter. To subscribe to my newsletter, click here. It’s September, which means (among other things) that it’s time to revisit my business plan and update it for the next year. Every January 1st, I print out a new and revised copy of… Continue reading 2019-09-19 Newsletter Author’s Note

Thoughts on Minimum Viable Product

So I read an article on Draft2Digital’s blog about Minimum Viable Product and what it means for writers, and it got me to thinking about what that means for books in general, and my own books in particular. From what I’ve managed to gather (and I could be totally wrong), the controversy in the indie… Continue reading Thoughts on Minimum Viable Product