In Today’s Journal
* I Fix Flats
* Guest Posts Welcome
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
I Fix Flats
An AI-Generated Opportunity for Ghostwriters
A guest post by Dan Baldwin
You’ve seen those side-of-the-road square white placards with crudely-scrawled words in red: “Flats Fixed.”
Savvy “authors” who “wrote” their book using AI-generation are now seeing red with the discovery that the book they’re so proud of is not a real book. Instead it’s a dry, flat, tedious assembly of words and phrases very unlikely to produce the emotional impact needed to inspire or motivate readers.
“Authors” who only want to see their name on a book don’t care if the work is dreck. They’re happy to say, “Look what I did” at the high school reunion.
Serious “authors” who realize that their work can’t move people to learn, buy, invest, vote for, or support the cause face the realization that the fast and easy way to “write” provided by AI is an equally fast and easy path to failure.
If the work is to be salvaged so it can achieve the author’s goals, somebody needs to fix the flat. Ghostwriters have a brand-new income stream thanks to the guaranteed dreck produced by AI.
Only a human writer can provide the emotional power, the humor, the twists and turns of a plot, the out-of-the-blue surprises, and the energy to motivate other people to action.
That’s us, folks.
I don’t know about you, my fellow ghostwriters, but I’m posting a sign on the internet highway to attract those “authors” who realize they need the help of a human writer.
That’s me. I fix flats.
*
Thanks, Dan. This seems like a good time to mention again…
Guest Posts Welcome
If there’s a writing or publishing topic you know well, consider sharing that knowledge with others by writing a guest post for TNDJ.
Note: I will not entertain posts that encourage the fear-based myths of fiction writing: outlining/plotting, rewriting X number of times, etc. etc. ad nauseam.
Why? Because writers can find that stuff literally anywhere else on the internet, at conferences, in critique and writing groups, etc. But anything else is welcome.
You don’t have to write about writing into the dark either. You can write about
- what works for you in your genre,
- how you schedule your time,
- your typical day as a writer,
- where you get ideas,
- what you recommend for publishing (and why), and
- any number of other topics.
If you’re in doubt about whether your topic would make a good guest post for TNDJ, I welcome queries at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Any editing I do on your post will be necessary and light.
Also, I’d be happy to link to your website, Amazon or Facebook (etc.) page, to books you want to promote, and so on. (Please provide the URLs. I can turn them into links.)
Of Interest
Cover Done Right (For comparison of the two covers)
On the Beatles and Lord Byron This is actor James Woods’ free blog, but this one spoke well to writing and writers.
Writing for Yourself Instead of Others… (podcast, about 40 minutes)
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 510
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 510
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………………. XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for February.…………………. 19870
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 39460
2026 consumable words………………… 39460
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29