I appreciate you putting this out there. I'm feeling pressure to adopt ai into my everyday work, it's mostly to reduce admin but, there's a push to increase 'creative content' and I'm feeling resistant.
With regards to your own writing, I felt the change. You'd mentioned ai, and used generated images within the posts themselves but, I began questioning how much of the small moments were your own creation. It's nothing I could put my finger on but, I did feel some lack of edge creep in to the words. Like perhaps the lens slipped out of focus, just a little. I intake thought it was perhaps your struggle to keep up with the work load. And maybe, in a way, it was.
For what it's worth, I think your a much better writer without ai. If I had to wait three weeks between posts to get your non ai writing back, I'd happily wait.
I appreciate this thoughtful reply. If you keep reading, any time you spot something that lands falsely to you, I’d love you to call me out. I am trying to evolve my style into something more ornamented and mythic, and that’s been going on in parallel with more use of LLMs in the writing itself, so I wonder how much is one and how much is the other!
Re: 3 weeks between posts — it’s very kind of you to say, but the numbers strongly suggest that most people do not feel that way (or at least, they don’t act that way). The longer I wait between posts, the fewer people pick it back up. That is the nature of serial content, I fear.
Thank you for your honesty. I agree with District Dice that your earlier AI-free writing was better. There's a floweriness that LLMs provide that misses the target. This is particularly obvious in some of the examples you give where you've edited the text Claude provided.
I'd be happier without the Midjourney etc. images too, but you make the choices, and that in part at least is a very human act.
Interesting — I am actually aiming for a bit more floweriness/ornamentation in my writing, chasing after writers like Robert E. Howard, Tolkien and Bujold. The LLM helps with that sometimes, and sometimes it does a shoddy job, and I’m sure I let some of the shoddiness through sometimes, but hopefully less and less over time.
And I make most of the choices. The readers and the dice make some too, which is another way I try to keep the machine from taking over fully. ;-)
You’re one of the longest-standing stalwarts of this project, and I really appreciate your candor here. I hope you’ll keep reading, and, if you really catch something in the writing you hate, do let me know — there’s a strong chance it was me, and not Claude, but either way I can learn from the experience.
I will definitely keep reading. I want to know how it all turns out!
I do appreciate your candor too. You have put a lot of work and thought into the Stonetop game and write-ups, and laying out the process by which the sausage is made is fascinating. The fiction and the game mechanic discussions pair very well, and do a good job of showing the work of a GM to the readers.
Appreciate your honesty. It certainly makes a difference that you have written so much to feed Claude context, that plot is decided by yourself etc
In regards to art, for me, it's not just about the feeling. Yes I do think it's what makes humans great. Art is playing with ones own thoughts and creativity. It's more than just copying things. It's the individuality, the imperfections that make it what it is. But what I really think as well is this:
Art is dedication. Someone putting in the work and getting better. I admire people that want to be great at what they do. An actor becoming better and better. An artist drawing for hours a day. An author like Brandon Sanderson writing eleven books before breaking out. A football player like Ronaldo living and breathing the sport.
It's human work I am reading. Someone giving it their all.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Agreed re: dedication, it’s a key piece of making good stuff with LLMs. If you don’t put in the effort, you end up with slop. But of course, putting in the work doesn’t guarantee good work, whether you're using an LLM or not — the only way you know if you’ve made something any good is if people feel things about it.
Well not quite agreed. Yes you put in work but at the same time not. It isn't you who is writing. You notice that it's not quite where you want it to be but it's not your writing skills that make it there. Nor are you improving your skill by making mistakes. It's a tool to put out content.
I guess I'm not all that concerned about whether what I'm doing constitutes 'writing,' as long as the result is something I'm interested in and I think others will be, too.
I appreciate you putting this out there. I'm feeling pressure to adopt ai into my everyday work, it's mostly to reduce admin but, there's a push to increase 'creative content' and I'm feeling resistant.
With regards to your own writing, I felt the change. You'd mentioned ai, and used generated images within the posts themselves but, I began questioning how much of the small moments were your own creation. It's nothing I could put my finger on but, I did feel some lack of edge creep in to the words. Like perhaps the lens slipped out of focus, just a little. I intake thought it was perhaps your struggle to keep up with the work load. And maybe, in a way, it was.
For what it's worth, I think your a much better writer without ai. If I had to wait three weeks between posts to get your non ai writing back, I'd happily wait.
*initially
At least we know you wrote this yourself ;-)
I appreciate this thoughtful reply. If you keep reading, any time you spot something that lands falsely to you, I’d love you to call me out. I am trying to evolve my style into something more ornamented and mythic, and that’s been going on in parallel with more use of LLMs in the writing itself, so I wonder how much is one and how much is the other!
Re: 3 weeks between posts — it’s very kind of you to say, but the numbers strongly suggest that most people do not feel that way (or at least, they don’t act that way). The longer I wait between posts, the fewer people pick it back up. That is the nature of serial content, I fear.
Thank you for your honesty. I agree with District Dice that your earlier AI-free writing was better. There's a floweriness that LLMs provide that misses the target. This is particularly obvious in some of the examples you give where you've edited the text Claude provided.
I'd be happier without the Midjourney etc. images too, but you make the choices, and that in part at least is a very human act.
Interesting — I am actually aiming for a bit more floweriness/ornamentation in my writing, chasing after writers like Robert E. Howard, Tolkien and Bujold. The LLM helps with that sometimes, and sometimes it does a shoddy job, and I’m sure I let some of the shoddiness through sometimes, but hopefully less and less over time.
And I make most of the choices. The readers and the dice make some too, which is another way I try to keep the machine from taking over fully. ;-)
You’re one of the longest-standing stalwarts of this project, and I really appreciate your candor here. I hope you’ll keep reading, and, if you really catch something in the writing you hate, do let me know — there’s a strong chance it was me, and not Claude, but either way I can learn from the experience.
I will definitely keep reading. I want to know how it all turns out!
I do appreciate your candor too. You have put a lot of work and thought into the Stonetop game and write-ups, and laying out the process by which the sausage is made is fascinating. The fiction and the game mechanic discussions pair very well, and do a good job of showing the work of a GM to the readers.
Appreciate your honesty. It certainly makes a difference that you have written so much to feed Claude context, that plot is decided by yourself etc
In regards to art, for me, it's not just about the feeling. Yes I do think it's what makes humans great. Art is playing with ones own thoughts and creativity. It's more than just copying things. It's the individuality, the imperfections that make it what it is. But what I really think as well is this:
Art is dedication. Someone putting in the work and getting better. I admire people that want to be great at what they do. An actor becoming better and better. An artist drawing for hours a day. An author like Brandon Sanderson writing eleven books before breaking out. A football player like Ronaldo living and breathing the sport.
It's human work I am reading. Someone giving it their all.
Without that it's purpose is production
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Agreed re: dedication, it’s a key piece of making good stuff with LLMs. If you don’t put in the effort, you end up with slop. But of course, putting in the work doesn’t guarantee good work, whether you're using an LLM or not — the only way you know if you’ve made something any good is if people feel things about it.
Well not quite agreed. Yes you put in work but at the same time not. It isn't you who is writing. You notice that it's not quite where you want it to be but it's not your writing skills that make it there. Nor are you improving your skill by making mistakes. It's a tool to put out content.
I guess I'm not all that concerned about whether what I'm doing constitutes 'writing,' as long as the result is something I'm interested in and I think others will be, too.