As a professional writer, wow has writing changed in the past few years. The internet was already flooded with more information than one person could ever consume but AI has greatly cheapened our words. At least, the straightforward ones. I am of the camp that believes there is still something different, something odd at times but charming and human in the written word from a living being. (Yes this page was written by one of those pesky humans) But, as averse as I may be to the use of ai in creative writing, I must admit that it allows me, for better or worse, to turn off my brain in the moments when I need to draw up something technical and boring. When doing so, there are certain terms and turns of phrase that I have come to associate with AI generated writing and therefore often remove from my writing to avoid sounding too much like a robot. Is that contributing to the overall problem? In all honesty, yes. And once I decide whether it is a blessing that allows me to focus on more important things or a curse that keeps me from truly understanding and taking the time to focus in-depth on the content I am sharing with the world, well, then I will (I hope) push more towards one side. Until then, I am decidely and beneficially to myself, an ai user who will avoid such ai-isms as the ones outlined below. Assuming you haven’t skipped this entire paragraph like 90% of the people who can only read things in bulleted lists, let’s get into it:
1. The Infamous Em Dash-But You Already Knew This One
If you’ve been anywhere but under a rock these past few years, you know that ai has formed an everlasting friendship with the em dash. I’ve even read articles about writers deciding whether to remove it from their own writing so as not to be accused of ai generating their content. Whatever the cause, generative engines seem to love it, and humans with a brain have no doubt grown to hate it.
2. Writing That’s Not Just Repetitive, It’s Dull
The “not just this, but that” structure is something that bothers the heck out of me, mostly because I think ai loves to use it when it is just shockingly unnecessary. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to structure a comparison in your writing and I am not saying you shouldn’t do that, but if you’re trying to be conscious about how your writing may come across, this is one thing I would be on the lookout for.
3. Clarity
There are certain words that AI seems to love. Clarity is, for some reason, one of them. I do recognize that this may be part of how I have trained my GPT because everyone’s engines respond to how they interact with it but if the word clarity doesn’t show up in a chat, I am shocked simply because of how much the platforms I use seem to love it.
Use This Knowledge for Good
The written word deserves to be something raw and real. So much of our humanity is wrapped up in our ability to communicate with each other and while I know that AI is so easy to use, I worry for our minds, hearts, and souls at the end of the day. I am a hypocrite myself, I know, but I hope that if you take anything from this page, it is that there is so much more to be shared from your own existence. You are not a series of codes on a screen. You are a living, breathing, swirl of stardust that cannot be reduced to the void that is the AI internet of today. If you have any passion for writing and creating, please, actually create something. You don’t need AI to create lifeless art for you. You are what it takes to make something that no one else can create.
I write about whatever I can to try and have a voice in this world. Follow me on my journey or reach out through the form below.