Finding Balance Amidst Life's Challenges

A Writing Update

Hey there, everyone!

I have to admit, I've been a bit slack lately with the posts and short stories. Life has been, well like life.

Recently, I experienced a profound loss as someone very close to me passed away. Dealing with the grief and the emotions that come with it has been a significant challenge, and I still trying to process everything.

On top of that, I managed to tear a muscle in my shoulder, which left me a bit immobilized and frustrated. And if that wasn't enough, I also had the joy of dealing with a flat tire just as the bills were rolling in.

I should start writing country music instead.

Now, about my last update post, I mentioned easing up on the image prompt short stories... well, you know how it goes. Sometimes inspiration strikes, and you simply have to scoop it out of your head and throw it at the keyboard. So, despite my intention to take a break, I couldn't resist diving into one more image prompt story. They're like little creative challenges that keep my writing muscles flexed.

Now, let's talk about my WIP novel. It's progressing, albeit slowly. I've set a goal to have it ready for GenreCon Brisbane, in February 2024. It's a big deadline, but I'm determined to meet it. Besides, even if I don't achieve the networking goals I have in mind, having a finished manuscript will be a great accomplishment in itself.

In the meantime, I have a couple of short stories that I'm considering expanding into novellas. I believe there's more to explore within those narratives, and I think it will be a good challenge. Once they're polished and ready, I plan to shill them online. Become familiar with the process of self-publishing, marketing etc. But that’s Future Andrew’s problem.

Anyway, Here’s the Thing

A lot of people have been calling out “creative” A.I. (and rightly so), and I found the recent video from A Critical Dragon an interesting exercise in demonstrating that delves a bit deeper into the issue.

From A Critical Dragon’s Youtube:

A lot is being said about Chat GPT replacing authors, but from the various outputs I have seen I am really not convinced that it will any time in the near future. However, could AI replace editors? These Large Language Models and AI assistants already auto-correct, flag grammar and spelling errors, and suggest new phrasings, so can they replace editors? In this video I took three very short samples from some authors' work and asked Chat GPT 'Can you edit the following passage?'.

Thank you for your understanding and support. Let's keep moving forward together, one word at a time.