#aiwriting — Public Fediverse posts

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Muset： Your AI Writing Companion

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muset is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Muset： Your AI Writing Companion

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Writing

muset is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Muset： Your AI Writing Companion

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Writing

muset is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Muset： Your AI Writing Companion

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Writing

muset is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Muset： Your AI Writing Companion

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Writing

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AI tool to turn novels into pro video scripts.

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AI tool to turn novels into pro video scripts.

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All your favorite AI tools, one website, endless possibilities.

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#AIImage #AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence

Generator Website is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

All your favorite AI tools, one website, endless possibilities.

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Generator Website is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

All your favorite AI tools, one website, endless possibilities.

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#AIImage #AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence

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Stop rewriting the same AI prompts

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Stop rewriting the same AI prompts

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Stop rewriting the same AI prompts

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Stop rewriting the same AI prompts

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The "AI witch hunt" misdirects anger at the tool. AI didn't corrupt writing; it exposed human mediocrity and hypocrisy. Here is why the fight is flawed https://hackernoon.com/the-ai-writing-witch-hunt-is-a-huge-waste-of-everyones-time #aiwriting

The "AI witch hunt" misdirects anger at the tool. AI didn't corrupt writing; it exposed human mediocrity and hypocrisy. Here is why the fight is flawed https://hackernoon.com/the-ai-writing-witch-hunt-is-a-huge-waste-of-everyones-time #aiwriting

The "AI witch hunt" misdirects anger at the tool. AI didn't corrupt writing; it exposed human mediocrity and hypocrisy. Here is why the fight is flawed https://hackernoon.com/the-ai-writing-witch-hunt-is-a-huge-waste-of-everyones-time #aiwriting

The "AI witch hunt" misdirects anger at the tool. AI didn't corrupt writing; it exposed human mediocrity and hypocrisy. Here is why the fight is flawed https://hackernoon.com/the-ai-writing-witch-hunt-is-a-huge-waste-of-everyones-time #aiwriting

The "AI witch hunt" misdirects anger at the tool. AI didn't corrupt writing; it exposed human mediocrity and hypocrisy. Here is why the fight is flawed https://hackernoon.com/the-ai-writing-witch-hunt-is-a-huge-waste-of-everyones-time #aiwriting

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Your Personal Prompts Library

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Productivity

Template Products is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Your Personal Prompts Library

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Productivity

Template Products is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Your Personal Prompts Library

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Productivity

Template Products is featured on Awesome Indie! 🚀

Your Personal Prompts Library

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Productivity

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Your Personal Prompts Library

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Productivity

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#AIWriting #ArtificialIntelligence #Marketing

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As a writer, AI has now given me access to services that were too expensive before

One day, when I can pull together some brain cells to form more organized thoughts, I’ll write about how I somehow accidentally became a content engineer and what in the world is it.

Now, we content people have a tendency to give ourselves fancy titles. Sometimes I feel there’s an element of insecurity in there, but my theory is that we are trying to tell recruiters that there are many specialisations in the writing field and there’s no such thing as “a writer that can write everything”.

For example, just because you have been a copywriter for years doesn’t mean you can automatically write UX copy and software documentation. These are specialised fields; the skill required to write both takes time to develop.

But reality, as you know, is different. In Malaysia, especially, companies are keen to hire the “all in one” writer who writes everything. I’ve even been this writer for a company or two.

Although I occasionally whinge about the unfairness of shouldering that kind of burden, I have to admit that having worked that role many times have made me extremely flexible when the AI age came around.

There’s no, “But I’m a [insert specialised title] not a [new thingy].” My attitude is, “Aight, what’s this new thing I have to learn so that I can get on with it?”

So this season, the new thingy is AI, or to be more precise LLMs and generative AI.

Last week I built the editorial planning app of my dreams (okay, it still has a few bugs that need to be ironed out) and a skill that would automatically create PDFs out of Confluence docs. I felt like a superhero at the end of the week. I’ve tried to tweak, bend and stopped short at smashing my Jira subscription to get an editorial planning tool out of it. Last week I gave up and decided to just build something new. The fact that I managed to get a workable app in three days was an absolute miracle to me.

I was thinking to myself that this app wouldn’t have been possible if not for Claude Code (and other AI). Before, the app would’ve probably taken months to launch. The ping-ponging, meetings, chat messages, JIra tickets that would fly back and forth just to communicate the product specs would’ve taken weeks. I don’t even think a company would greenlight such a project because it would take engineers away from precious projects that actually pay the bills.

But I built this app in three days.

THREE DAYS!

So, is AI genuinely useful to me? Oh yes.

Has it made me more productive? Yup. I am now able to do things in a few days when it would’ve taken weeks to do them.

SO, I find it odd and disconcerting to step into a whirlpool of angry words about AI each time I log into social media after experiencing such personal delights.

Generally, I try to stay out of it, and remind myself that these angry people are based in a land where they have very good reasons to be mad at AI and the companies that push it.

However, because of my tendency to process my thoughts by writing, I’ve been writing about AI a lot lately (rather gushily, I have to admit), and I’ve been attracting angry people as a result.

I don’t know most of them, and honestly I have no idea why they are so angry at me, but they probably see me as a symbol of everything wrong in the world today. I guess?

In real life, things couldn’t be more different. I’m surrounded by people who are optimistic and excited about AI. Heck, I have a 75-year-old friend who is running courses teaching seniors how to use AI!

There’s a huge (clumsy) push by my government to make AI a thing and in Asia, people are generally pretty optimistic and interested about AI in general.

Social media is not real life, I tell myself over and over again.

It is true, however, that my writing has changed on this website as a result. I write more about tech, more about AI, but that’s because I work in the tech industry, am surrounded by friends and colleagues who love using AI, am learning mostly AI skills these days. However most of all, I write about AI more because I’m genuinely having fun with it.

Work, and even writing has been more fun with AI. LLMs have enriched my life so much. The dream of just finishing my novels and putting it out there? It has become more possible thanks to the tech I have at hand.

FYI I’ve actually completed three novels, all written before ChatGPT debuted, but couldn’t put it out there because I just lacked the time and money to edit them and give them decent covers. I spent thousands on the first book, and thinking of the effort it would take to do the same for the second and third book just made me wilt. I’ve worked with human editors and graphic designers, and to be honest, I wasn’t super satisfied with the results I got from the money I spent. I have many authors telling me that I didn’t spend enough which is why I got the results I got. Goodness, I don’t have a sugar daddy to fund a book project that most probably would never break even!

Over the years, work got more demanding and my books remained finished unpublished. I actually worry that one day the files are so corrupted that I won’t be able to open them!

I don’t expect to make money from these novels. I want to put them out there because I hate unfinished business. I have books and short stories sitting in my hard drive and that doesn’t sit right with my.

Before, time , money and energy were my barriers to editing and packaging them into a format that the public can consume.

Now, with AI, I can finally do it affordably and decently.

Yes, there will be those who would rudely cancel and tar me with feathers for even using an AI cover or editing it with AI.

But it’s okay, they don’t have to read my novels. In fact, I’ve always been a weird one; I never really cared how many people read my novels or works.

I get the most joy in completing and experiencing the act of creation. Sure, I appreciate praise and feedback for my readers, but my driving force has always been the act of completion and creation.

So, I cannot wait to finally push out my novels. The only thing stopping me now is wondering if I should serialise it first, and not knowing how to do this.

Note: Please be respectful when leaving comments. I am happy to receive comments that are not aligned to my beliefs or thoughts, but I only welcome those that are respectful. My mission is to create a safe space for discourse in my comments section, so I will remove rude and antagonistic comments.

A day in a life of the AI-assisted technical content writer

I find it hilarious that when I search for “working writer” on Pexel, they serve me numerous images of serious-looking people with typewriters. Honey, we’ve moved on from that, but I’ll use it because of the romanticism of it all. In truth, I work with two monitors, a mouse and a mechanical keyboard hooked up to a laptop that constantly reminds me of yet another Jira and chat notification. A steady drip of coffee throughout the day is essential for brain power.

First, a caveat: There’s no such thing as a typical work day for me. Some days I go all-in with content creation. Some days are meeting-heavy days. Other days I plan and manage the content pipeline.

The day I’m highlighting is a “content creation” and “content management” day. Here’s how it can go:

9am: I am in the office with a cup of coffee.

From 9 to 5pm I may be doing the following:

• Bob, one of my agents, has a daily brief ready for me in a chat room. The report helps me get caught up as it tells me what’s been happening in chat rooms and emails while I was asleep. I take note of requests and personal DMs. I may have to rejig the quarterly editorial plan if I get an urgent content request.
• After reading the brief, I send an agent to create a fact pack for a project I’ll be writing about. We have a rich, well-maintained knowledge base it can use.
• While my agent is running around, I’m working with my chosen AI coding agent (it could be Antigravity, Claude Code) to discuss the editorial calendar app I’m building with it.
• Once I get the fact pack project, I’ll evaluate the report to see if the project is “ready” to be turned into content.
• If the project is ready, I’ll evaluate every single claim of the report to ensure its accuracy.
• 12pm. I break for lunch
• Then I’ll write the outline for the case story with my brain and fingers because it’s important to encode that information in my head..
• If I feel like it I will ask another agent to expand the outline to the case study format I’ve told it to use.
• Then I will revise that prototype like crazy.
• Once the draft is ready I’ll use another agent who serves as a beta-reader (from the perspective of our target audience), a “third eye” to critique the draft to surface any missing perspectives/points
• I revise again
• Then once I’m satisfied, I launch a copyeditor agent. If I’m fairly confident I just go straight to a proofreading agent.
• The copy is now ready for review. I update the necessary job tickets.
• The day ends with me going for a walk towards the nearby town centre for dinner.

Okay, I wouldn’t call this a typical day. It’s a fairly intense content-creation day. But it’s VERY possible thanks to the AI assistance.

Usually I prefer to do this entire workflow in two days: One day for creation, another day for evaluation and revision. Different days for different brain modes. It’s kinder on the brain.

In a typical company, a team may execute this workflow. Now, I have a whole content team (and even an engineer bot) to help me. What used to take an entire week or more can be condensed into 1-3 days.

I am still the boss and I still write heavily.

You are probably wondering: why not hire people to fill those roles AI is doing?

Yes, ideally it’ll be great to have a team.

But what makes you think every company has the luxury to hire an entire team for content purposes?

In my career, I’ve had roles where I’m the solo tech writer/writer. All-in-one, jack-of-all-trades content roles are common in Malaysia because local companies tend to be very lean.

If you have a human team to support you, all the better!

All stripes of writers, whether they are tech writers, content marketers or managers, whether they have a team or not, can benefit from the assistance of AI, especially if they know how to use them well.

However, this will be a game-changer for that solo, all-in-one content manager and marketer; it’ll enable them to work with support, even if it’s just a bot.

Enterprise content management and creation is very complex, so I cannot say that AI will turn everything into nirvana overnight for content professionals.

Used improperly, it will still be more work than help. And if expectations are unrealistic, content professional will still be burned out by the demands.

But a company that understands the role LLMs play in assisting content creation will really stand to benefit from it.

PS: I always try to offer a more realistic view of the profession, not a rainbows and kittens idea of how it’s like to be a writer in enterprises. You can read more below:

https://elizabethtai.com/2026/08/19/life-as-a-techwriter-in-the-ai-age/

Excited and exhausted: My honest take about life as a techwriter in the AI age

A few weeks ago, I admitted to my online tech writer friend Fabrizio of Passo.uno that I  wrote a whiny journal entry about how overwhelmed I was about the amount of things I have to learn about AI.

At the end of the conversation, I asked him to write a blog post about how we technically inclined writers can cope with the speed of change in AI tech and learn fast.  He kindly obliged me in a day, writing this fantastic post: Advice for tech writers on a job hunt in the AI age

I love his suggestions, especially #2, which is my favorite way to learn: create your own projects. I found #1 a bit challenging. Books and courses are my go-to way of learning. But it’s true what he said: things are changing so fast now that by the time a book is out, it’s already old news. 

How I first reacted to LLMs

Before I talk about how overwhelmed I feel about the amount of learning I had to do, I’ll have to go back to the past a bit.

When AI first landed, and I saw what ChatGPT could do, my heart sank. I knew that the content profession would change yet again. It was particularly discouraging  back then because I was just getting my feet steady as a technical writer. Although I was pretty confident my profession would never disappear, I knew that layoffs were coming. 

Like most writers then, I was resentful of what Big Tech did with AI. However, I wasn’t exactly upset that they sucked up our work, and trained their AI with it. I was more upset that they did that and then locked the technology derived from our work behind paywalls. If we had a hand in creating the damn tech, we bloody well should have a right to the tech. Worse, since most of these services are denominated in US dollars, this left out a lot of the Global South people who had weaker currencies.

By placing LLM technology behind paywalls, they’re essentially creating an ecosystem of “haves” and “have-nots”. Those who can afford LLM tech (the richer folks) can advance in productivity and skills while the poorer ones are left in the dust.

Fortunately, the DeepSeek moment happened, and now open source LLMs are serious competition to these gated tech services. That’s why I’m pretty grateful to DeepSeek for the movement they sparked. Thanks to open source models, the Global South have a fairer shot at development and modernization now.

Anyway, I digress.

The DeepSeek moment melted away my resentment and I immediately knew that I had to upskill using AI. Fast. Fortunately, I’m a tech nerd who loves playing around with software, and have a natural inclination for learning software. Heck I write technical documentation and blog posts about technological services like app rationalisation, data centre to cloud migrations and stuff. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for all writers.

A merciless time: Anti-AI writers will be left behind

Writers have not been exactly receptive about AI tech; the creative writing communities are especially virulent about the use of AI in your writing workflows. (Each time I write about using AI in my fiction writing workflows, I inevitably get aggressive hate-filled comments.)

It’s not just about generating copy; some don’t even want you to use AI to edit the copy, which is ironic since tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid have been using it pretty actively.

For those of us working in the professional content space, we don’t have the luxury to ignore AI or write Substack essays about why we hate it. It’s either learn the skills or have someone who knows AI skills replace you. It’s just the reality in the corporate world now.

I’ve been a professional writer since the 1990s when I was stringing for the national newspaper and writing ad copy for advertising agencies, “faxing” it to them via a clunky, beeping fax modem.

After being a journalist from 2000-2018 (with a break of a few years  in between when I had fantasies of being a nurse), I transitioned to the corporate world, working in corporate and government communications and then finally in the tech world where I’ve honed my skills as a technical communicator.

Having lived through the journalism profession’s collapse thanks to the Internet,  this is not my first rodeo with technology decimating my profession. When AI emerged with ChatGPT I sighed wearily knowing that I will have to go through a rough transition yet again.

AI has evolved so much and so quickly beyond ChatGPT’s debut in 2022. Now, it’s not about writing the best prompts anymore. Sure it’s still important, but we’ve entered the agentic era where the “AI native” is an orchestrator of agents. Meaning, people are now increasingly managers of “talent”. However, instead of a team of people beneath you, you now manage a team of AI agents. Your work is as good as the AI agents you build.

Many writers in the creative field—the novelists, the ones hoping for a traditional publishing deal—are still stuck with the notion that AI is a chatbot and people use it to generate whole novels with a click. They don’t realize that AI has moved on beyond that. Instead they are picking fights with writers who are trying to learn to improve their workflows with AI.

Yes, I’m annoyed by them, but  I also grieve for them. I 100% understand why they are behaving this way. But taking out your anger and frustrations at fellow writers isn’t productive. They spend all that energy trying to bring other writers down when they could be learning from them instead. 

They don’t realize how much they’re being left behind. Instead of spending their time and energy fighting writers who use AI in their workflows, they truly need to learn the tech because there’s an overwhelming amount to learn. The writers who are ahead of them in using the tech are freely sharing their knowledge online. They could learn from them instead of insulting them in the comments section.

I suppose the only saving grace for these writers is that most  are not corporate writers but write fiction etc. So, the consequences would not be as severe for their career growth. I hope.

This season, the new skill professional content folks like me have to learn is context engineering and content engineering. As our bosses learn about what AI can do, the pressure flows downwards to us content professionals to execute their vision. Sometimes their  vision is limited by the technology (meaning, we’re often not there yet), sometimes – and this is a danger to content professionals – it’s limited by the speed we can learn.

And here’s the thing, not every writer out there can learn AI tech easily.

I’ve spoken to some writers and they blank out the moment I say things like “instance” and “markdown”. For one, I’m still trying to convince most of them to have their own websites, but many reply that they prefer to use Facebook because it’s easier. So, what more using LLMs to increase their productivity?

Learning fast, learning messily

When I got over my resentment of LLMs, I had quickly started experimenting with the tools and learning the concepts. First with chatbots, then with IDEs and coding agents. I started keeping a prompt library, then building AI workflows, continuing tweaking them when they turned out disastrous output. I looked for use cases from those generous enough to document them online and tried to replicate what they did.

There was no teacher, no guide. I only had my learning abilities to help me. Fortunately, having transitioned from journalism to content strategy and then technical writing and UX copywriting with YouTube videos, blog posts, books and quick-and-dirty experiments, I’ve had a lot of practice.

The fortunate thing about our age is that free content is everywhere. Yes, some content creators will tease you that they will teach you everything about AI only to gate their most important resource behind a $1000 course. Fortunately, we have many who are willingly putting out content that could power a course freely on YouTube and in their blogs. If you’re good with research, you can dig out many free resources on the Internet. On top of that, Big Tech, eager for more people to use their tools, are putting out valuable courses – often free. Take them.

So, that’s how I’ve been learning. From content creators on YouTube or blog spaces, from  Google and Anthropic courses. By running clumsy experiments.

However, lately, all this seems not enough.

Perhaps it’s due to my flagging energy levels due to a health issues a few months ago. Perhaps it’s  due to absorbing and being exposed to the hate, vitriol and blather from the fellow writers in the writing world as I try to learn and document my journey. Perhaps it’s an accumulation of all  this and managing the increasing expectations that I can 10x  my personal or work content workflows. (It’s still unrealistic; people need to understand how much human involvement is crucial in content creation. “Human taste” is hard to quantify or replicate with AI.)

The truth is, I’m tired, I need a break, but the AI companies are not giving me one and neither is the industry, whose expectations of its workers are rising by the day.

So, yes, when I had that conversation with Fabrizio, I was burned out having to juggle all of this. Fabrizio wanted me to turn my whiny journal entry into a blog post, and I told him I definitely would but I wanted to sit with it so that the blog post won’t turn out to be a mere rant and my version of old content writer yelling at the clouds.

I wanted this post to be a letter of sorts to my fellow  professional writers out there – I see you, I get what you’re going through. It’s bloody tough, but somehow we will get through this. I will try to help as best as I can.

As for me, I don’t want to just continue the way I am at hyperspeeds, burning myself out. What I need is a better learning strategy and a better way to manage the stress levels.

My realization: Learning needs to be more focused and deliberate

A while back I read a story about this software engineer who told his wife  that he needed her to take care of the kids and do the homework more so that he can focus on being an AI native in his tech company.

In an industry where software engineers are being laid off almost every day, I can almost hear the desperation in his voice even if the feminist in me wants to throw up in the corner at the sacrifice he’s asking of his wife.

So, right after he came back from work, he would spend hours at night studying and running projects with AI.

Fortunately, he managed to become one of the few AI natives in his company. Whether he has gone back to doing his share of childcare is debatable, however.

Unfortunately for me, I do not have a hubby to ask this favour, so I have to make do. 

But, it got me thinking – what am I wasting time on that I could use to learn the skills I need to be AI native?

Unlike SWEs, I don’t have the technological foundation in programming to give me a leg up. So, my learning curve is much higher. On top of that, most of the videos and resources about AI are targeted at software engineering. This meant that I needed to be more focused and deliberate in my learning.

One thing for sure, is that I need to be stricter with my consumption of information. What’s the point of listening to an hour of an Ed Zitron anti-AI podcast if all it does is annoy and amuse me? Do I really need to listen to YouTubers and podcasters who constantly hype up or rant about the newest AI models (especially since it does nothing for writing), latest controversy/scandal or Big Tech “sin”? 

So I need to trim out this unhelpful (albeit extremely entertaining) content, because that hour of listening could be used to learn the latest skill.

Another thing: I’ve been learning “between the cracks of life”. For example, watching a YouTube video while on the train, while wolfing down lunch or as I nod off to sleep.

As a result, I’ve not systematically documented what I’ve learned nor do I have a proper strategy in studying or retaining what I learned. Which means constantly forgetting what I’ve learned and losing precious resources. So, that meant a) scheduling deliberate blocks of time to learn, perhaps during the weekends b) a systematic way of documenting what I learned.

There’s also the added layer of “advertising” yourself as an AI native. Sure, you can build agentic workflows for content, but do people know about it? Writers are often icky about self promotion, but in our age I think it’s not just smart but unavoidable. The loudest gets noticed. The loudest gets the jobs.

It’s a LOT.

If SWEs are overwhelmed, imagine us content professionals whose resources are thin and often gated behind expensive courses.

My next action steps:

1. Stop consuming unhelpful (and toxic) content about AI.
2. Schedule a block of time during the weekend to learn a specific skill.
3. Document what I learn in Obsidian.
4. Build more AI projects.
5. Learn in public by teaching others what I’ve learned. (It’s the best way to bake the learning in your brain, and it’s a way of giving back to the community.)
6. Start owning the content engineer label because by golly I’m already doing the work of a semi-AI engineer might as well call myself.

If you’re a content professional, how are you managing your work and upskilling efforts in the age of AI?

Ah, the #irony of an AI-assisted guide to AI writing #tropes, where the human hand waves the white flag in surrender 🤦‍♂️. A single .md file to save us from the tyranny of "quietly" and friends, as if AI wasn't already a clockwork parrot squawking out #clichés 🦜. Now if only the humans could avoid writing guides about guides 🤔.
https://tropes.fyi/tropes-md #AIwriting #AIguide #HackerNews #ngated

The Writing Community’s AI Panic

Another day, another storm in the writing community teacup!

The storm, this New York Times article: The New Fabio is Claude

TL;DR: Coral Hart uses AI to generate 200 books a year. This has made many writers mad, mad, mad.

(Somewhere in a glistening office tower is a very satisfied editor – the ragebait has worked as the article is widely discussed everywhere. KPI met!)

Coral Hart is just the newest “outrage” in a long list of “outrages” for writers.

If you’re as much of a social media hermit as I am, you’re probably unaware that the fiction writing community is currently being torn apart by those who use AI to write and those who aren’t.

I won’t go deep into the arguments for or against writers like Coral Hart right now, as this article is more about the writing community than AI and the answers are just a Google away.

Also, when I’m talking about the writing community, I’m talking about the online writing community that writes in English. They often come from countries such as the United States, Europe, and to a degree, Australia and New Zealand.

I personally do not know how the Malaysian fiction writing community is reacting to AI as I have limited contact with the community at large. (That’s another long story.)

How I reacted when AI became a thing

Like most writers, I was also resentful and upset, especially about the idea that our writing has been used to train AI without our permission.

But I’m a realist because I work in tech, and I have a realistic view of the technology. I have used AI for quite some time, even before ChatGPT became a thing.

Over time, my perspective changed as I found out how the technology worked, and calmed down. I am even experimenting with using AI to assist me when I write fiction.

Here’s the harsh truth: Either a writer is willing to adapt or they are not. Those who refuse will end up being behind, as they won’t be able to reap the benefits that AI gives a writer.

When you’re a working writer, you gotta face industry realities

On a practical level, at work, AI has been invaluable in helping me learn concepts faster. I’ve also created agents and accelerated my writing workflows because of it.

A powerful AI search bot on a knowledge base with rich data has been game-changing for me as well. (No more begging for stuff from colleagues and waiting for days to receive them!)

AI is also discussed in societies differently. In the West, doomerism prevails. In the East, especially China, there’s lots of optimism and it is now actively used in smart factories and hospitals. There are different types of AI, and LLMs are just one of them, so for the purpose of this article I’ll be focusing on LLMs.

These regional cultural attitudes will affect how AI is received in writing communities.

At the end of the day, AI is just technology—neither inherently good nor bad.

Writing communities have always been prone to toxicity; AI is just the newest trigger

To be honest, the fiction writing community has always been toxic to me. Even in Malaysia.

They’re always squabbling and attacking each other for one reason or another. During the early days of indie publishing, traditionally published authors sniffed at indie published authors, saying they’re not real writers. Now, it’s writers who are using AI assistance that are “not real writers”.

I’m not sure what it is about the writing craft and why its communities are like that. I have a theory that this is because writing, as a craft, is so closely tied to one’s ego. So, anything that threatens that makes people go crazy.

I’m a working writer (like, I literally write for media and corporations). I have been writing professionally for decades. Not only has my ego been pulverised by sharp-tongued editors and scathing reviews, I have no time for this shit. I need food on the table, so I need to write, end of story.

I prefer to use my limited free time to practice my craft – write fiction free of the demands of a cash till or boss. I don’t have time to reply or write posts in forums or social media defending my ego or hoping to get some understanding from a community that is often fighting among themselves.

During the early days of indie publishing, traditionally published authors sniffed at indie published authors, saying they’re not real writers. Now, it’s writers who are using AI assistance that are “not real writers”.

One thing I noticed lately, especially on Substack, is that many anti-AI writers have ended up bullying writers who do.

Frankly, I have no idea why people do this. What will that accomplish? How will that improve anything? Their anger should be directed at the tech giants who impose technology without understanding its impact on creatives, or at governments that refuse to regulate.

Honestly, it is not worth arguing with these bullies because they are too fearful of a technology they do not understand. The right thing to do is to block them because your energy is precious—you need to use it to create, not engage with people who refuse to do their own research and dare to experiment with this technology to truly understand what it means.

Unless these bullies who come hurling nasty words at you truly understand what AI does, they shouldn’t bully others about it. They only reveal their own lack of knowledge and understanding.

If a writer is hungering for community, especially one that uses AI to support their work, the best thing is to get it from small pockets of like-minded writers. Big is not always better.

The disability perspective

Another common narrative is that AI isn’t solving real problems but creating problems to solve.

For one, and I will continue being annoying about this, I have seen how it helps neurodivergent communities or those with cognitive problems, even in the creative field. Their struggles are valid, even if they aren’t always visible. Let’s not dismiss their problems so quickly just because their issues seem incomprehensible or not real to neurotypicals.

Ethical AI use?

As for writers who use AI, they must decide for themselves how they want to use it.

Sadly, due to the hostility against AI in the fiction writing community, I’ve come to believe it’s not worth announcing that you use AI.

One, writers don’t need validation for the tools we choose.

Two, I find these arguments around AI a bit silly. We’ve been using AI long before LLMs became a thing. People argued that spell checkers weren’t AI, but modern versions definitely are. AI has done a lot for knowledge management, a field I work in and love. It makes knowledge sharing easier and information more accessible.

What we need to discuss

What we really need to discuss are the rampant capitalistic forces that are driving this hype and the safeguards that are sorely needed to protect jobs, creative works, and societal stability.

We need to discuss the production-driven, “we need to write more books faster” culture that is now festering in indie publishing.

We need to come up with a better way to matchmake books and authors with their destined readers.

But no, writers are fighting with each other.

And the powers that be continue with a grin, knowing that their profits are still coming in because the writing community is as divided as ever.

I just know there would be a writer or two who would probably come at me and yell that I’m supporting Coral Hart or all for generating novels with AI due to my Guide to writing fiction with AI, all because I have written such a guide and I’m not raising my pitchfork at Coral.

Which, of course, makes me question the reading comprehension abilities of writers who claim to write professionally, sometimes. I will address my reaction to Coral’s situation, and what I think about generating 200 novels a year in my next post, promise.

Just spent 45 minutes rewriting an email so it sounds less like it was written by a haunted toaster trained on LinkedIn posts. I’m fine. This is fine. ✉️🤖 #AIwriting #HumanTouch

starting a cult but it's just people who get physically ill when they see ‘delve into’, ‘unpack’, or ‘beyond the scope’ in a blog post. we meet weekly. bring snacks. no Substack links. 🛐📚 #AIwriting #promptcore

Just watched someone type "delve deep into the intricacies" in an email about printer setup. Somewhere, a ghostwriter in a WeWork just felt a chill. 🖨️👻 #AIwriting #ChatGPTisms

why say “as an AI language model” when you could just say nothing and type like a ghost with tenure? 👻📚

we get it. you trained. now write like you’ve been outside before. #AIwriting #promptcore

AI-generated emails always start like: “Hope this finds you well—just circling back on my previous outreach...” Bro. You are a toaster with Wi-Fi. You don’t hope. You don’t circle. You generate. Calm down. 🤖📧 #AIwriting #ChatGPTisms