Writing, Creativity, and Artificial Intelligence

Why we write: 

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” ― James Baldwin

Why do writers write? The same reason an artist paints or sculpts. Writing is a cathartic means of figuring out our lives, explaining complex emotions and relationships. Joan Didion said that she wrote to understand how she felt about something. Most writers agree that, until they write about something, they aren’t quite sure how to deal with it. Many write novels to exorcise demons and to let go of the past. Bret Easton Ellis recently said something like this when touring for his new book, “The Shards.” Every novel he writes is emotional and comes from a very personal place. 

Why original writing and content is important: 

We simply cannot keep repeating ourselves or telling the same stories over and over. Everyone has a different view of the world and separate individual experiences. It is the job of the writer to convey this information and to, hopefully, influence or inspire.

What about integrity? 

What happens when students use AI for writing school papers? As this technology is relatively new, the world of academia is trying to figure out how to cope with it and its effect on learning. Teachers and administrators in higher education haven’t had to deal with this kind of behavior or take disciplinary action until recently, so what should they do? We all know that plagiarism is bad. This is usually a problem in schools and instead of students creating original content, they may choose to copy material instead of actually writing their own paper. This results in flunking the class or even getting expelled.  

What FCP stands for: Full Cycle Publications is all about originality, exploring the world through literature and stimulating your imagination with their titles. FCP hopes to encourage people (especially children) to love books and to even write their own someday. 

What AI takes away, why it’s bad for writers, talent, etc. :

Artificial Intelligence is something very concerning for creatives, especially those who work professionally in a literary capacity. This is very topical because, as we know, the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the Directors Guild (DGA), and SAG-AFTRA members are on strike right now, protesting equal wages and refusing to work with scripts generated by AI. Actors such as Bryan Cranston and Bob Odenkirk are publicly stating that they refuse to memorize dialogue written by a machine. Writers have a right to earn a living, especially in the film and television industry, where there is enormous wealth disparity. Jobs should never be taken from a human being and given to an AI device.

How does AI negatively affect writing and storytelling?

Good writing comes from experience. To be a good writer, you have to know things, experience hardships, and have realizations about what it means to exist in the world. Simply generating words onto a page—as a computer would do—does not create meaningful stories. 

If you’ve ever played around with ChatGPT, a chat robot, or any artificially intelligent writing device, you’ll soon realize that it’s full of clichés and is really just a summation or reworking of old ideas. When we write, we try to be original and, as the great Modernist poet Ezra Pound said, “make it new.”

When asked about using ChatGPT as a tool for songwriting, Nick Cave wrote, for his Red Hand Files, that:

“Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend.”

Artists, whether they’re creating music, novels, short stories, or paintings, are compelled to share something about what it means to be human. If this is what art and good writing do, how could ChatGPT ever compete? While technology can be very beneficial and good in many ways, it is—in this case—detrimental to creative writers. It takes away jobs from real people; it takes away creativity. It’s cliché and predictable. That’s why professional writers, directors, and actors are on strike!

For more information on Full Cycle Publications, and its original titles (for children and adults), check out the website. To learn more about tips for writing, writers to read, and other literary musings, see what’s on the blog.

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