'The weight of all this shouldn’t be loaded onto authors’ – Sara this almost brought me to tears!! I didn’t realise how true this is until I saw the words. I’ve been feeling exhausted by it all this week; I seem to be having conversations about it left and right and I even don’t want to be; I open Zoom or Acrobat or even a message from a friend and it’s all pushing AI at me. It’s EVERYWHERE. My life is such that AI is not really something I have need to use, but I cannot seem to escape it. AI's increasing ubiquity is not something I’ve personally sought out and yet it feels like something that I alone need to figure out how to accept or find peace with etc, and it’s a personal failing that I can’t / don’t want to.
You’re so right, we need to hear from agents and publishers. It seems to be a conversation of responsibility limited to authors, and largely authors who are uneasy about it. Why any writer would want to use genAI as part of the process is beyond me – writing can be hard, that is the whole point – but I feel like it’s … unsympathetic? Luddite-y? … of me to think this. I say this as a writer currently stalled, and have been for a while, at the 2/3rds point of a manuscript because I know I need to up the stakes or change the character’s thinking, but I’m stumped. I talk it out with friends, I write copious notes, I talk to myself aloud on walks, I cry, I read, I analyse other books, I decide I’m done / not good enough / have bitten off more than I can chew and I cry some more … and this takes time because this is writing. It sucks – a lot of the time writing sucks – but I do it BECAUSE of the challenge and the unparalleled, almost magical, sense of achievement when it inevitably comes together. (I put ‘inevitably’ in there as a reminder to myself that IT WILL.) But I wonder am I being that old guy clinging to his bullock dray when the internal combustion engine was invented?
I wonder, too, about AI detection software when surely a good conversation with a writer would clear up any doubts. You could ask me about any sentence or scene or character decision in anything I’ve written and I could list its iterations, how it’s changed, why I wrote it, etc.
Hi Kim, so much sympathy about the exhaustion, it’s relentless. And we’re all constantly warned about the AI revolution but in the dark as to what it actually means and how it might affect us - which tends to let all the fears in. I’m really glad this resonated with you, and hope it helps you to push back gently and keep doing your thing. The grapple with the WIP is all too real too - I’ve been there a lot this year as well. I do think some of my stall is also about the kind of world/industry I’m writing the books for too - and I wonder if it’s the same for you - when there’s so much uncertainty it’s hard to stay focused on something so precious and personal and then think about releasing it into the world. I don’t know yet how that’s going to pan out for me either, so just to say that, as always, I’m walking beside you my friend x
Thank you Sara, and yes you’re spot on the WIP stall is multi-faceted; it’s increasingly difficult to explore the story from a place of the innocence / delight / curiosity of earlier novels when there’s all that uncertainty pushing itself into the foreground. What a time, huh?! Thanks for the support and I am sending you the same. xx
It seems to me the other party missing from the AI conversation are readers. Has anyone actually polled readers or book buyers in any meaningful way to see if they would read or purchase books produced with / by AI? Maybe it’s a bit like food labelling. Give everyone involved the info and let them decide. (As a slightly related thought, I have often wondered why Australian authored / produced books don’t have the same label as other Australian made / grown products. Most people are happy to support local. I am sure book buyers wouldn’t be any different, given the information.)
Love the local author book idea! I do feel like the business misses a lot of tricks like this that would all help authors - so we have to keep pushing!
I really appreciate you taking the time to create such a thorough and instructive post on AI, Sarah. It's so much easier, as you say, to pull the covers over our heads, and I've been guilty of doing that. You write with much wisdom. Safe travels.
Thanks so much for this. I wouldn’t feel any guilt about keeping the cover over your head whenever you need to - I think I’ll be doing the same - we can just peek out now and again!
'The weight of all this shouldn’t be loaded onto authors’ – Sara this almost brought me to tears!! I didn’t realise how true this is until I saw the words. I’ve been feeling exhausted by it all this week; I seem to be having conversations about it left and right and I even don’t want to be; I open Zoom or Acrobat or even a message from a friend and it’s all pushing AI at me. It’s EVERYWHERE. My life is such that AI is not really something I have need to use, but I cannot seem to escape it. AI's increasing ubiquity is not something I’ve personally sought out and yet it feels like something that I alone need to figure out how to accept or find peace with etc, and it’s a personal failing that I can’t / don’t want to.
You’re so right, we need to hear from agents and publishers. It seems to be a conversation of responsibility limited to authors, and largely authors who are uneasy about it. Why any writer would want to use genAI as part of the process is beyond me – writing can be hard, that is the whole point – but I feel like it’s … unsympathetic? Luddite-y? … of me to think this. I say this as a writer currently stalled, and have been for a while, at the 2/3rds point of a manuscript because I know I need to up the stakes or change the character’s thinking, but I’m stumped. I talk it out with friends, I write copious notes, I talk to myself aloud on walks, I cry, I read, I analyse other books, I decide I’m done / not good enough / have bitten off more than I can chew and I cry some more … and this takes time because this is writing. It sucks – a lot of the time writing sucks – but I do it BECAUSE of the challenge and the unparalleled, almost magical, sense of achievement when it inevitably comes together. (I put ‘inevitably’ in there as a reminder to myself that IT WILL.) But I wonder am I being that old guy clinging to his bullock dray when the internal combustion engine was invented?
I wonder, too, about AI detection software when surely a good conversation with a writer would clear up any doubts. You could ask me about any sentence or scene or character decision in anything I’ve written and I could list its iterations, how it’s changed, why I wrote it, etc.
Thank you as always for such insight. xx
Hi Kim, so much sympathy about the exhaustion, it’s relentless. And we’re all constantly warned about the AI revolution but in the dark as to what it actually means and how it might affect us - which tends to let all the fears in. I’m really glad this resonated with you, and hope it helps you to push back gently and keep doing your thing. The grapple with the WIP is all too real too - I’ve been there a lot this year as well. I do think some of my stall is also about the kind of world/industry I’m writing the books for too - and I wonder if it’s the same for you - when there’s so much uncertainty it’s hard to stay focused on something so precious and personal and then think about releasing it into the world. I don’t know yet how that’s going to pan out for me either, so just to say that, as always, I’m walking beside you my friend x
Thank you Sara, and yes you’re spot on the WIP stall is multi-faceted; it’s increasingly difficult to explore the story from a place of the innocence / delight / curiosity of earlier novels when there’s all that uncertainty pushing itself into the foreground. What a time, huh?! Thanks for the support and I am sending you the same. xx
It seems to me the other party missing from the AI conversation are readers. Has anyone actually polled readers or book buyers in any meaningful way to see if they would read or purchase books produced with / by AI? Maybe it’s a bit like food labelling. Give everyone involved the info and let them decide. (As a slightly related thought, I have often wondered why Australian authored / produced books don’t have the same label as other Australian made / grown products. Most people are happy to support local. I am sure book buyers wouldn’t be any different, given the information.)
Love the local author book idea! I do feel like the business misses a lot of tricks like this that would all help authors - so we have to keep pushing!
So many good points here. Thank you.
Thanks my friend ❤️
Wish I could catch you this weekend but suddenly find myself moving house 🫠
Grateful as ever for your sane and nuanced take on current events xx
Thanks Emma xx
I really appreciate you taking the time to create such a thorough and instructive post on AI, Sarah. It's so much easier, as you say, to pull the covers over our heads, and I've been guilty of doing that. You write with much wisdom. Safe travels.
Thanks so much for this. I wouldn’t feel any guilt about keeping the cover over your head whenever you need to - I think I’ll be doing the same - we can just peek out now and again!