(Or, HOW AI HAS MADE ME INCAPABLE OF DECIDING WHAT TO WRITE)
Hello imaginary people on the internet who I pretend care about the things I have to say. It is your old pal, Random Writer from the internet.
Today I want to talk about a phenomenon I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned once or twice somewhere out there in the wilds. Maybe even here on the blog. It’s a phenomenon known in the gaming world as Analysis Paralysis. (Whoa. That’s the title of this entry. It’s almost like I’m talking about this on purpose.)
Yeah. It’s one of those moods. Sorry.
In gaming, Analysis Paralysis is when you have so many options in front of you, you can’t decide what to do on your turn. If you do X, then your opponent might do Y and destroy you. If you do Z, you might run out of letters and have to go back to A. What do you do?
Thanks to the wonderful world of Artificial Intelligence, I am faced with a writing equivalent.
My good friend ChatGPT has been helping me figure out a whole mess of things lately. You may remember that he helped me figure out one of the two major issues I had with Hero Mom. I also have mentioned that he’s helped me come up with an outline for Axe to Grind. There’s also a middle grade book and a “coming-of-age” thing he’s helped me with.
March 19 was the 3-year anniversary of Comedy of Terrors. That means that, except for releasing an audio version that November, I have not had a book release in three years. This is a terrible pace if I hope to be any kind of imaginary success in the world of hobbyist publishing. So I pulled out an old story I think has a grain of potential and asked ChatGPT about it. I have some major issues with it, so I figured his advice would be invaluable. He had a lot to say, and things I thought would be mandatory are just taking up space and causing issues. There is information that must be given, but my method of delivery left a lot to be desired.
I want to reread the story with ChatGPT’s notes in mind to see if there’s something I can do with it after all.
Having said that, I now have five projects currently “open” that I want to do. It’s both a blessing, as there is no dearth of things to work on, and a curse. Which do I do first? Will one of those become my NaNoWriMo 2023 project and suffer the same fate as CoT2 (as in “come out so bad it can’t be salvaged”)? At this point nothing is certain.
I do not like Analysis Paralysis, in either games or writing. Then again, I guess it’s a better problem to have than the dreaded Writer’s Block — which I don’t specifically believe in as far as its official definition.
It’s the same net result. You don’t write anything with either one of them. But at least I got a sliver of progress on a thing, even if I don’t have the numbers to show for it.
(I’m saying that a lot lately.)
WRITING IN PUBLIC
Excuses aside, as of this moment, the day before this (hopefully) posts, the only countable words I have are the ones for this blog entry. That’s better than zero, but it’s still not great. I’ll have to get my butt in gear if I hope to get any of my goals accomplished for the year.
GAMING THINGS
We are still in a holding pattern as far as Pathfinder goes. We really want our player to get his character back up to our level so we can go back to playing.
Meanwhile, Trivia Murder Party, Blather Round, and What the Dub are the go-to games for our group. Lots of fun to be had by all.
MUSICAL SHARES
Today’s Musical Share is not any particular music but a feature on Spotify that I just discovered today:
DJ
You know how much I love AI, right? Well, this is an AI-powered feature that looks at your listening history and acts as a radio DJ, playing your favorite songs and new music it thinks you’ll like based on what you listen to a lot of.
(And as I type that, a song from Jorge Rivera-Herrans just came up. I talked about him in the last Musical Shares!)
What makes this superior to the various mixes that Spotify creates based on listening is that this feature is not dependent on a single genre. I’ve had as many as six “daily” mixes available to me, but I have to decide which genre I want to hear. It’ll do a k-pop, country, pop, musical, and I think there was even a classical mix one day… but it won’t mix the genres.
DJ does. It me with a country block, then k-pop, and now we’re in musicals (Epic was first, and now it’s playing a song from Anastasia). This is the best radio I’ve ever listened to… and it’s all powered by AI. This may be my new every-morning listen instead of the “radio” mixes I’ve created.
WRAPPING UP
Yeah, yeah, another month full of excuses. What can I say? I’m indecisive. And once I do decide things, the final product sucks. (Still looking at you, Seeing Red. I should listen to another chapter or two of that so I can get the danged AI audiobook released.)
I would like to say in closing that whatever your creative pursuits, I hope they are treating you well. If you’re suffering from Analysis Paralysis, take a step back and maybe listen to some music. Watch some movies. Read a book. (Someone else’s, not mine.) Do something that will let you come back to the decision with a new perspective. (That’s actually what made me talk to ChatGPT today about Best Enemies Forever. (Oops. I hadn’t meant to reveal that. It’s too bad I have no ability to delete things in the editing process for this blog. Hehe. I told you I was in one of those moods today.)
Long winded aside aside, remember how wonderful you are. You’re talented. You’re kind. You’re the best you can be at this moment in time. Put that into the universe, because the universe is better for having you in it.
I’ll talk to you next month.