To write a book is an adventure. It’s a calling, taking you out of the safety of your daily life. Normal people don’t do this. It is a quest.
Writing to Communicate
People read to connect with a story. Or they read to learn. They talk about the story with friends because it connects with them. They see themselves in the text. Or they’ve learnt something important from reading it.
Rarely has someone sat down with a friend over coffee and gushed over complicated sentences they couldn’t understand.
Wonder Boys & Writer's Block
The creative process is so fascinating. Over the last twenty years or so, I’ve collected a lot of different strategies and techniques to tap into the creative process. These come from reading books and interviews, talking with other writers and artists, watching documentaries, and searching out strategies that worked for my favourite writers and artist.
AI Policy in Ghostwriting
The only time AI is The Answer is when you’re talking about Philadelphia basketball.
The rise of AI and LLM in creative fields is, at least at the moment, concerning. It takes the human element out of what should be about human expression. And in other applications, like the military, the application of this technology dangerously takes away the human element of decision making.
It also seems to me that AI is a misnomer at this point in mid-2024. The technology has been burdened with that name and all the promises that comes with that title but without the ability to deliver.
I have talked with clients who have used AI through ChatGPT, Jasper and others for blog posts, social media content, and even video scripts. The general consensus is that they wouldn’t use it for a finished product. They strictly use it for idea generation.
My own stance is that I do not use these tools when writing. The only part of my ghostwriting process where AI is used is in transcribing interviews.
It baffles me as to why you would want people to spend time and energy in reading your book if you didn’t put that energy into it. Nick Cave, via Stephen Fry, put that more eloquently.
When I’m ghostwriting your manuscript, it will all be written by me.
The Wright Brothers
I have this picture of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight on the wall of my studio.
The brothers struggled for years to get an aircraft to take off, to be controlled, to be powered. They changed designs, drew inspiration from other discoveries, and they crashed often. Orville broke his leg and four ribs. They failed multiple times. After another crash, Wilbur said that flight wouldn’t be able to be achieved for a thousand years.