Tell Stories
‘Just the facts’ is just another kind of story.
Yesterday, I put a piece of writing in my writing critique group chat.
And this morning I got feedback that while it was a great idea, “some parts sound like it was written by Ai.”
Now that kind of candid would normally piss me off, but this time it didn’t for 2 reasons.
Isn’t it great to have a critique group where people are willing to give you candid feedback, it’s a treasure really.
It was written by AI.
I mean, I worked on the idea for hours and I hand wrote the whole thing, but then I gave it to the AI, for grammar and spelling, and the smart ass asked if it could have a stab, so I let it.
And when I read it, I wasn’t convinced that it’s version was better, so I asked it:
Why is your version better?
And that’s not the right kind of question to ask an AI, because it did give me reasons to why it thought it’s versions was better. And I believed it, kinda. But I also put it in the critique group and got the candid feedback.
And I went to dig up my original versions that I wrote at midnight, and in the light of day you know what? My man made 2 finger typed, piece 100% made by this human, also sounded like it was written by an AI.
It’s a good thing I didn’t put that original piece forth to the critique group it might very well have gotten the same feedback, and I’m not sure how I would have responded to that.
Anyway, I rewrote it.
And I wrote it as if I was writing it just for the person who was giving me the feedback.
It’s not like some opus or anything, it’s just, a note about how I’m setting aside 5-days a month, to use this space for a creative challenge, where we tackle things that are a bit tougher than what you can do in 10 minutes, if you’re interested you can read about it here.
TEN MINUTE ARTIST PROMPT
Draw Clouds
Use reference. Look out the window or go outside or use photographs, then imagine you were lying on the grass looking up with a loved one at the clouds, tell them what you saw.
Share your drawing in notes and tag Ten Minute Artist: Daily Creative Joy
What’s the story of your art?
Drop your thoughts in the comment section below and if you found this prompt valuable, why not pass it along to an artist friend, peer, or student who might appreciate these insights too?
If you would like to support my work you can:
buy my books, get a subscription to this newsletter, shop at my moms stationery shop, or try Typeshare for free : I use Typeshare like as a Cabin in the Woods, a quite place to write short pieces that I can schedule across social media like Threads, X, LinkedIn and Bluesky. Try it for free with my link
PS: In a few day’s I’m kicking off a new book project, with more than a dozen books under my belt, I’m looking to approach this one very differently, I’m going to take the learnings from the mistakes I made in those first dozen books, the things that worked and try some new things, particularly this new mindset.
It’s a challenge to myself to raise my personal standards, to ask myself if I was paid 10 or 20x more for this same project, how would I do it differently. This is the inspiration for the first Ten Minute Artist: 5-Day Creative Challenge
AI causes more damage than good to any creative pursuit. Grammerly was always causing me to second guess myself. Typos are human! You don't need AI. :)
Have I told you how much I love your little illustrations in these newsletters/posts/(what the heck do we call these things?)? I have seven or eight to do lists with something along the lines of 'make some cool little black and white illustrations in my style - like Adam does! - for my substacks', or 'make mini Adam-style illos for Substacks' etc. One day, I will actually tick that task off the list. 😊