TLDR: Using ChatGPT has transformed my life as a writer. Chronic pain had, until recently, stopped me from writing, but now I am back writing again ... and more books (and other content) are on the way.
I just got beaten up on an online group when I shared examples of how I've been using ChatGPT to write stuff.
🤯🥊
Oh boy, did I get a walloping. One person told me:
“Our differences are not just based on “differing experiences.” We have significant value, philosophical, and definitional differences about what it means to be a unique human creator and writer.”
Someone else accused me of plagiarism (presumably because the AI thingies have used robots to scrape words off all sorts of websites).
Which, for a professional writer, felt like being poked in the eye.
I had no idea how much this topic triggered (some) people.
I stepped away from the chat.
This is gonna sound like hyperbole, but it's true:
chatGPT has changed my life.
It's changed my life in the same way that getting an artificial hip changed my Dad's life.
- One month, he could barely walk, and used to get home from his work each day and lie on the floor, in agony.
- A month after the operation he could walk (and work) again. And go fishing with me and my kids.
That's the kind of transformation I've experienced with chatGPT.
It's not just how clever it is, but I hurt so much when I type for long periods - we are talking crippling pain here - and I had stopped writing.
Now, I talk to chatGPT, I don't need to type nearly so much.
- We have big long chats. It sums up my thinking. We spar.
- It helps me write my first, second, and third drafts.
- I edit the arse off them by hand, but I do that in bursts and it doesn't hurt so much.
I believe that my thinking and writing makes the world a better place.
I love that chatGPT (and perplexity, and Claude) have helped me get my mojo back.
All things being equal ... more books will come.
If you have a minute, I'd love to know how it's helping you (or not) ...
But please don't poke me in the eye!
Clarke