Time for Writers to Get Weird
Dear friends,
Unfortunately, it looks like AI is set to make a lot of writers redundant in the not-so-distant future. Writers of popular genres, like romance, sci-fi, and horror are likely first on the chopping block not because there isn't artistry in these genres, but because AI will be able to replicate formulas pretty easily in not too long. If you are a writer of popular formulaic fiction, you might want to try the following before it’s too late:
GET FUCKING WEIRD
That idea that you think is too out there? That you think is too hard to follow? That you think makes your work less marketable? We’re gonna need those! Because in addition to writing formulaic fiction, AI is going to be able to scrape best-seller lists and best-sellers for what’s hot, what’s trending. It’s going to be your duty to disrupt that in your work, not follow it.
Here is one thing I know about AI. It fucking sucks at writing experimental fiction. Using experimental techniques in your writing may be one of the last hold-outs for us writers. AI can’t do it. It doesn’t have a sense of humor, it doesn’t understand how to make experimental without pontificating about WHY it’s doing it, and it doesn’t understand why you would do something, well, WEIRD. It just doesn’t account for those things.
Start swerving. Start making abrupt turns that AI wouldn’t be able to. Make your writing poetic, make your writing break form, break the fourth wall, read a lot of the stuff that was getting published back when experimental was in and build off it. Make shit that a machine can’t. And, most importantly, do with all the feeling that a machine could never replicate.
It’s time, if you haven’t already, to forget all about the market. AI will figure the market out before you can. It’s time to start digging deep and making the things that only YOU could make, and making them fucking WEIRD.
And gods bless those of you who’ve been doing it all along.