Demos, Journaling, Genre, and Rules
A Mixed Bag This Week (Gets it off my chest, though)
A slightly later-than-normal newsletter this week. Sometimes, life takes a swipe at you, and you just have to roll with it.
You probably know by now that I’m an AI-positive creator; the first section of this week’s post is a small rant. Feel free to skip it to get into the meat of this week’s scribblings.
Underwhelming Demos
If you want to be underwhelmed (although I’m not sure why anybody would like that), watch the latest demo of OpenAI’s Operator. After around twenty-five minutes of drivel, when I was expecting to be at least slightly impressed. Nope, not a chance.
This seems to have become a common theme for all the big AI players. Being first matters more to them than providing value to users. I won’t rant about all the various presentations and demonstrations released over the last few months. If you are interested, do a quick search on YouTube.
Can you imagine if writers thought they could get away with this rubbish? How to kill your reputation 101.
On the face of it, AI agents could be a great boon for us creatives. For example, I can see how we could use them for deep research tasks. Imagine giving your agentic assistant a subject to go away and research; come to that, we could have several research tasks operating at the same time.
I know it’s early days, and OpenAI caveated the release with a warning that this is a beta version. However, I don’t see the point of wasting my and the presenter’s time with so-called demos like this. Oh well, mini-rant over.
Journaling Woes
I read an interesting post this morning on Substack from The Writer; I’m so envious of those who religiously journal every single day. I’ve tried and still try now and again, but I can never keep it up; something else always needs my attention.
After I had commented on the post, the author, J. Kevin Tumlinson, kindly replied with a link to his post from October 2023, 3 Things. Kevin found inspiration from a Tony Robbins podcast; this is the gist of what he remembers Tony Robbins said:
“Ideas are easy. Everyone has ideas. And everyone can generate ideas that help them achieve their goals. Here’s what I want you to do: For the next 30 days, I want you to commit to writing down three ideas, every morning, that you think would help you achieve your goal. Don’t edit yourself. Don’t worry if the ideas are possible or even if they’re any good. Write down three ideas every day for 30 days, and at the end of that month you’ll have 90 ideas. One of those is sure to be good. Probably most of them will be good. And now you have things you can try, to get moving toward your goals.”
So, that’s what I’m going to do. For the next 30 days, I’ll write down the first three ideas that come into my head. I won’t edit or rethink them; only at the end of the month will I look back and see where it takes me.
Thanks, Kevin.
Searching For My Genre
I’ve read many books and short stories over many more years than I care to remember. For many of those years, the genres that attracted me the most were Science Fiction and the sub-genre Space Opera. But I’ve been searching for that special something for the last chunk of my life. The Genre that I want to write myself, I haven’t found it yet, but I’m hopeful.
Recently, I’ve enjoyed The Stand by Stephen King, The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker, and The Noise by James Patterson, co-written with J. D. Barker. ChatGPT tells me the genres of each of the three are:
The Stand: Post-apocalyptic Horror with Dark Fantasy and Epic Thriller elements.
The Fourth Monkey: Psychological Thriller and Serial Killer Crime with elements of Suspense and Mystery.
The Noise: Psychological Thriller with strong Science Fiction and Horror elements.
I’m gravitating towards Psychological Thrillers and Horror if this interpretation is accurate.
But why is this important to me? Why can’t I just sit back and enjoy the reading without thinking about the genre?
My current book project has nothing in common with the books I’m reading these days; I believe that unless I enjoy writing as much as I enjoy reading, I’ll never be able to produce a novel I would be happy to publish. What to do?
Finish What You Started
I was going to drop the book project for another idea late last year; then, I asked for advice on whether this would be a good idea. Joanna Penn was kind enough to give me a gentle kick and pointed me in the direction of Dean Wesley Smith’s book, Heinlein’s Rules.(While writing this, I realized I had meant to buy this book but had forgotten. So, I just ordered it. Should be here mid-week.)
Here is an excerpt from Dean Wesley Smith’s page (follow the link above), where Robert A. Heinlein lists his “Business habits.”
You must write.
You must finish what you start.
You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
You must put it on the market.
You must keep it on the market until sold.
Heinlein went on:
“The above five rules really have more to do with how to write speculative fiction than anything said above them. But they are amazingly hard to follow – which is why there are so few professional writers and so many aspirants, and which is why I am not afraid to give away the racket!…”
I’m going to concentrate on the first two rules for now. Rule 1, “You must write,” is easy; I must write to keep myself sane. Rule 2, “You must finish what you start,” is where I am now.
I started writing the book, but nobody forced me to do it, so I’ll damn well finish it.
Final Thoughts
I’ll keep this brief, as I must publish it before my deadline. This week’s post was fairly disjointed, but I’m happy I managed to get a few things off my chest.
I’ve been thinking about my struggle with journaling, and it occurred to me that this newsletter is a sort of journal. It isn’t a daily journal, but once a week isn’t all that bad, is it?
Anyway, until next week. Take good care of yourselves, and have a great creative week.
All the best, Mike.