I asked ChatGPT about me...

With great trepidation, I asked the AI if it was familiar with me:

Are you familiar with the author L. Penelope who also writes as Leslye Penelope?

After it said yes and listed off some of my books (including one book that I didn't write) I asked:

What style does L. Penelope write in?

"L. Penelope's writing style can be described as a blend of fantasy, romance, and adventure. Her books often feature strong and complex characters, vivid world-building, and richly imagined mythologies. She is known for creating immersive and compelling stories that explore themes of love, identity, and belonging, while also incorporating elements of magic, politics, and action. Her writing style is also characterized by a lyrical and poetic quality, with descriptions that are both vivid and atmospheric. Overall, L. Penelope's writing style is unique, and she has developed a dedicated following of fans who appreciate her originality and storytelling skills."

🥲 Okay, I admit, this stroked my ego, LOL. But I did find it accurate. I have no commentary about this other than that it's cool...

Human art with an impact

Nick Cave wrote that ChatGPT has no inner being. And Joanna Penn talks about doubling down on being human in an AI world. I've been thinking about that a lot as I learn more about what other writers have been and are planning to do with the technology. There are things that I think cross a line, at least for me, though of course I can't control anyone else. I've been thinking that my boundaries have to do with why I write and create in the first place.

I believe that writing is spirit work, that what I do requires a soul. But for the people buying outlines and synopses and character arcs online to write books from, and those generating all of the above from AI, they obviously feel differently. For those who plan to use this technology to publish hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of books, they feel differently because they write for different reasons.

I don't operate from a scarcity mindset, so while all this is concerning for many business reasons, I try not to be threatened by it. Because they can't do what I do. One of the reasons I write is to make an impact. Art that makes an impact changes lives. It changes hearts. That's what I want for my career.

All of this was underscored this evening when I watched the video "Hi Ren" by the musical artist Ren. (If you haven't yet seen it, I implore you to watch it.) I've followed him for quite a while now and this is the kind of art that is impactful. 10 million views in 4 months is impact. Dozens of reaction videos with people breaking down into tears is impact. The comments section is full of lives being changed by this art. This man baring his soul is changing lives.

This is what I think of as having an impact. Being vulnerable and sharing your human truth. Something AI can never do.

Interrogating the default

I've been using Canva's text to image to create the graphics for my weekly newsletter for writers, Footnotes. To no one's surprise, if I don't specify the race of the character I want illustrated, they come out white. Specifically, they come out as a white woman.

This week, I included an article about how some people will doubtlessly begin worshipping AI chatbots (*le sigh*) and this feels relavent too. Though most AI seem to be programmed to understand that racism is bad, they are still biased and default to white.

Maybe this will change one day...

Creativity is just connecting things

Listening to Andrew Huberman's podcast about the science of creativity yields some interesting thoughts. According to him, a creative act must be something novel that reveals something fundamental about the world or how we (humans) work.

It includes combining or recombining things in the world in a way that appears novel to us and other people. I posted an article in this week's Footnotes newsletter which mentioned how creativity is just connecting the dots, and the way to be more creative is to accumulate more dots and more practice connecting them.

Today's writing session brought that to the forefront. I've spent over a year on this book. I got the idea in October 2021, started drafting in April of 2022, and soon, in April 2023, I'll be turning in a draft for line edits.

This draft has been built up over again almost from scratch. I've salvaged maybe 10-20% of the original words. So going in to today's writing session, I had no idea what I was going to write. I had a basic framework that I'd arrived at yesterday via brainstorming, but I just set my hands on the keyboard with the timer on and started writing. I was connecting the dots, though. In the middle, I paused to research, to answer a question I had about one of the cultural bases of the story.

This book's magic system and worldbuilding pull a lot from West African culture, and so I needed to check something. In the few short hours of my writing session, I'd made some amazing discoveries about the story, which flesh out aspects that were in there that I didn't exactly know why they were there. It's fascinating how that works!

It's been happening for the past few weeks though, as I approach the blank page and scenes that need to be completely reconstructed from the ground up, I've been getting these gifts. Ideas and snatches of inspiration. Terms to search which lead to fantastic and unpredictable results. All of which fit the theme and the world and the characters I've been creating.

So, putting in the work up front for months or years can lead to moments when all that work coalesces into a flood of inspiration, and all you need to do is catch and harness it. Creativity at work!

As to whether it's novel or reveals something fundamental about the world or us as people, I think it has to. I think, by nature, the creative act does that, even if the creator had no intention or no idea of the revelation at the outset.

Tuesday Thoughts

Sometimes writing is breaking your own heart. But those are the times when the thing you're making gets closer to the image you had of it in the begining, the one that started you on this journey in the first place.

After writing a really powerful, moving scene, one that has wrenched my emotions all around, I feel tired. Like I need a nap. I've used not only my brain but my heart and bled all over the page in an effort to find truth. That's why I write.

You have to give the world some of yourself. You have to leave something behind in order to find your purpose. My books are infused with my DNA. I may not have contributed a human life to this planet, but I’ve left my mark. I have created.

Changing the way you view marketing

This post: "Seth Godin: embrace the idea of a smallest viable audience" is really excellent. I've long disliked marketing, hating the idea of needing to sell to people, but if I want people to read my books, it's necessary. But the ideas here are really making me rethink how I look at marketing. Some quotes:

"I define marketing as anything we do that changes the culture for the better... Marketers make change happen. If you can make someone better, if you can open a door for someone, if you can shine a light, that's the act of marketing. Because what you do is bring an idea, product or service to someone who needs it

"..marketing is first of all about communication and connection, not about selling things."

'If you can bring someone belonging, connection, peace of mind, status or one of the other most desired emotions, you have done something worthwhile. The thing you sell is simply a road to achieve those emotions."

So I hate selling to people, but I love sharing things that will help them. I need to reframe my marketing in that way.

“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes at 9:00 every morning.”

—William Faulkner

Counterintuitive advice to read terrible books and learn from them. I do rthink I should try to analyze the books I DNF more as opposed to just trying to forget them.

A recipe for creativity! I'm seriously considering a version of this...

Fantastic article with great examples!

They can be painful, but pain can be good...

Episode 192 show notes

Show notes for episode 192

Mentioned:

- Atlanta episode "The Goof Who Sat by the Door"

- Book Exploder with George Saunders - https://bookexploder.com/episodes/george-saunders

- Black Adam

- Vampire Academy on Peacock

Episode 190 show notes

Show notes for episode 190

Mentioned:

- The Soul of Good Character Design -  https://youtu.be/SM3IQFgP-d8

- The "Done" Planner: Combating the Dark Side of the Traditional To Do List - https://roniloren.com/blog/2018/9/17/the-done-planner-combating-the-dark-side-of-the-traditional-to-do-list

- NPR Codeswitch "Black reality in a world of fantasy" - https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/1128226741/tochi-onyebuchi-leslye-penelope-black-science-fiction-fantasy

- Washingtonian magazine - "'The Monsters We Defy' Is a Historical Ghost Novel Set in DC" - https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/10/12/the-monsters-we-defy-dc-novel/

BookTok is raging against the machine!

A long one, but it has charts!

Episode 189 show notes

Show notes for episode 189

Mentioned: 

- Capclave - https://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave22/

- Freewrite Alpha - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freewrite-alpha-distraction-free-writing-anywhere#/

-  My Freewrite reviews on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPWpOldzxmoFtoJMjg6iSUuxU1kDichvn

- Kindle Scribe - https://amzn.to/3CeFBzc

- Remarkable - https://remarkable.com/

- Does pursuing success make authors unhappy? - https://erinbowman.substack.com/p/does-pursuing-success-make-authors

- And Neil Gaiman on why stories matter - https://at.tumblr.com/neil-gaiman/hey-mr-gaiman-i-keep-seeing-this-a-was-just/v6lggtv5s7yt

I now want to write a Fantasy of Manners...