Month: February 2023

In today’s Journal * All About “Of Interest” * Of Interest * My Own Writing * The Numbers All About “Of Interest” Soon I’ll be back with Part 1 of a 3 or 4 or more part series with the working title “Writing Technique (or Not): A Graphic Illustration.” But for today, I found three items for “Of Interest” that were so important I didn’t want them competing for your attention with a usual Journal entry. Here they are, and I’ll talk with you again soon: Of Interest First up, Atticus, a writing and formatting tool that rivals (and beats) … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * You Can’t Make This Shup * In Case You Wondered * A Final Cautionary Note on AI * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Human writing can be so beautiful. There is beauty in the human prose that computers can never and should never co-opt.” Chloe Xiang, a CompSci student who built an app that can detect ChatGPT-generated text You Can’t Make This Shup New report finds a number of data brokers—companies that sell aggregated data typically pulled from sources including mobile apps and websites—offering personally identifiable mental health information for … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A particularly insightful quote * You Can’t Make This Shup * Pre-WITD? * Post-AIcolypse * Of Interest Quote of the Day “You don’t concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results.” Chuck Yeager A particularly insightful quote— “I think a lot of people forget what got them to the NFL. We’ve already defied the odds. Chances are, you shouldn’t have been there statistically. … If I want to [have a new career] I have to put in the time and effort. You have to become obsessed all over again.” Tony Gonzales, retired … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Pacing Again * Setting * Of Interest Quote of the Day “While there are some benefits to using AI art as an indie author, it’s essential to consider how ethical it is.” Miles Oliver at The Independent Publishing Magazine Pacing Again Yesterday I talked here a little about Pacing as I used it in my short story, “Keep Calm & Carry On.” I mentioned that one reader emailed to say, “I don’t think I breathed for two minutes.” Another reader left a comment on the story as it was presented on … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * You Can’t Make This Shup * Nothing Short of Incredible * Story of the Week * A Note on Pacing * On Censorship * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[AI is a l]ot more complex than anything going on on the surface. Not defending, just saying that this is the early days and the dust has not settled by a long ways. Just stay tuned and watch. And as things settle in certain AI areas, I will talk about it [on my website].” Dean Wesley Smith in response to my … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Semi-Regular Feature * You Can’t Make This Shup * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “If you’re interested in AI and creativity, I have articles, interviews, and resources at https://thecreativepenn.com/future.” Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn “Of the three wingback chairs in my library, only one is upholstered in human skin. There’s a reason for that.” Charles Claymore “Charlie” Task in Confessions of a Professional Psychopath A New Semi-Regular Feature Because I’m a cynic at heart, which I define as a grouchy old guy who believes in humans even when … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * AI: Um, Why? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “A curious person … isn’t impressed by people who assume the very things that need to be proven.” Tom Woods (from http://tomwoods.com/newsletterthankyou/) “You fall out of your mother’s womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.” Quentin Crisp “Gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.” James Dean “Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?” James Thurber “Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Social Media * Writing Across the Genres * Some Genre Tidbits * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “In math, you could get 100 percent. It was very fair. That’s what I liked about math. You could figure it out, and the teacher couldn’t have a stupid opinion about it.” Norm MacDonald “You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do—and they don’t.” Ray Bradbury, from an email from Tom Woods Social Media I publish … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * About Characters * Writing Again, A Little * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Nobody has pronouns. You can’t ‘have’ a pronoun anymore than you can have a preposition or an adverb. The concept doesn’t make any sense. Pronouns are not things you can own. They aren’t pets or accessories. They are parts of speech. That’s it. You don’t get to customize them.” Matt Walsh Thanks to Robert J. Sadler for the tip. Note: Because I’m always looking for more sources of information, I looked up Matt Walsh’s blog. I do … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Personas vs. Pseudonyms * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When you bad mouth your own work, all I hear is ‘I am stupid, I am stupid….’” Dean Wesley Smith “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” Albert Einstein Somehow this feels pertinent to writing fiction Personas vs. Pseudonyms I haven’t talked about this for awhile. I was reminded when I saw that a fairly new addition to the Journal family writes under a pseudonym. I used to write under three main … Read more