It ignores the fact that writing is the hard part, and that the struggle for language or structure is a precious and necessary part of forming a real idea. In a way, these AI writing tools feel like the reverse of my first writing job: rather than requiring pure work with no meaningful end product, the tools promise the production of a meaningful... See more

The real question, then: is writing a product or an art ? Obviously, it can be either, and is often both; it’s probably most like a vast product-art spectrum, with most writing falling somewhere in the middle.

This phenomenal article in The Verge follows the inner conflict of a writer who started using Sudowrite to help pump out several of her self-published fantasy novels per year: “ It’s just words , she thought. It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?”

This is a great question, not a stupid one; she... See more

I just think the job of the artist is in part to resist the demands of the product-side (optimizing their work for the market, maximizing profit, constantly increasing production, prioritizing efficiency at the expense of creativity) as often as they can, for the sake of their own artistic, intellectual, and spiritual health.

I think of writing a lot like walking. It’s rarely the most popular, the most effective, or the most efficient way of getting to your destination. I don’t always want to do it, and it’s not always technically enjoyable; sometimes it’s boring or slow, sometimes it’s tiring and pointless, sometimes it’s cold or wet or windy and I’m retracing the same... See more