THOUGHTS ON "AI"- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

by Judy Ann Davis

In the  IWSG (Insecure Writers Support Group) this month, the March 6th questions asked members what I am repeating here and which I consider pertinent questions for all writers:  Have you "played" with AI to write synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

Out of curiosity, I'd like to hear from everyone what are your thoughts. Here is a portion of my response:

Universities are already working closely to develop anti-AI software and advocating student dismissals from a class if it is being used when human creative input is required. AI will result in a great deal of lay-offs in numerous industries once it advances. 

Many people believe we will lose the "genius" of the human mind since AI books and works will flood an already flooded market. How many aspiring young writers or even present-day writers will give up or throw in the towel not wanting to compete with it?

Someone recently posted on Facebook a saying that sums Artificial Intelligence up for many people: Why should I bother reading something that nobody could be bothered to write?"                                 ~*~

What are your thoughts and insights as writers, artists, or someone who has explored AI's advancements?

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CREATIVITY HAS DISAPPOINTMENTS

By Judy Ann Davis

Musicians, writers, painters, scientists, and many more people share a skill that many call creativity. Where does it come from besides the activated frontal lobe of the brain? It’s a tough question that has been explored for years and has often been linked with mood disorders. Many artists, when their brains or hands are busy, have learned to channel depression into some type of creation.

First Steps

March 30, 1953, was the birthday of well-known painter, Vincent Van Gogh, who lived to be only 37 years old. At the age of 27, he abandoned his unsuccessful careers as an art dealer and a missionary and concentrated on his painting and drawing. When he began painting, he used peasants and farmers as models and then flowers, landscapes and himself because he was too poor to pay his subjects.

Noon Rest

In less than ten years of his life, he painted almost 900 paintings. One of his best known works, Starry Night, was painted in in an asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France where he voluntarily admitted himself there to recover from his 1888 nervous breakdown and his ear-cutting incident. The painting depicts the view from his bedroom window.

The Pink Peach Tree

Ironically, he sold only one painting in his life time. The Red Vineyard which went for 400 francs in Belgium seven months before his death. His most expensive painting Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for $148.6 million in 1990.

Why Vincent Van Gogh?  Because he’s just one of scores of visual artists, writers, musicians and other creative people, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Mark Rothko, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Irving Berlin, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway, who are known or believed to have suffered from mental illness. He was a prolific artist—not recognized until after his death. Yet, his paintings are marvelous. I particularly like many of his lesser known works.

I also mention Vincent Van Gogh because we celebrate Mental Health Month in May. We need to realize that mood disorders occur in all people in all walks of life, but more particularly in creative people. So, as a writer, if you’re feeling a little down and out with your current situation, please realize you are not alone. Everyone suffers mood disorders and feelings of failure, but the key to thwarting them is activity. So write gobble-gook, paint, ponder, hand wash the dishes, clean out a closet, try your hand at a knitting, take a walk, but stay active until those next brilliant thoughts pop up.

I have chosen some pictures by Vincent Van Gogh that are my favorites. Enjoy!

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HOW TO CONNECT

By Rain Trueax

Finding a way to communicate with readers is an ongoing issue for many writers. In 2013, I discovered videos of authors discussing their work. One particularly memorable one was by Mary Alice Monroe. It was lovely to watch her on the river as she discussed her book. 

Time is a River

Other videos were of writers sitting at their desks discussing inspiration for their latest book. I liked both types but it was the latter that made me think-- hey, I could do that. All it needed was a webcam or cell phone, and willingness to give it a try. In 2013, I made my first.

Creating a blog, [Videos and Discussions], I kept its title loose because it was in my mind that maybe I could find others who would share their videos there and by others, I was thinking not only writers but painters, photographers, potters, sculptors. I've seen videos of painters showing their work coming together and it's exciting to view process. Well, the sharing with others didn't transpire, and then I forgot about doing them for a few years until early this September when I'd been watching RV folks talking of their lives. Hey, I could do that and did my first new one since 2015. 

When we have something we dearly love doing, the topic isn't hard to find. Where I still use my webcam, it'd be easy now to use a cell phone and I might switch to that in the future if I do some outdoors. 

I think of mine, not as a lecture but chatting with a friend. To that end, I do not write out a script or outline. To find what I want to say, I begin by talking into the webcam for about four minutes-- these are not keepers. I usually do a couple while I figure out what works.

Since my desk is in the living room, I want lighting right for the webcam, which is above my monitor. Turning off and on some lights, I aim for stronger lighting on one side of the room. Next, comes getting me ready. I put on makeup, the kind that I only use when heading to town. Neutral colored tops seem to work best for me. When I looked back over the videos I've made, I realized I own a lot of tan tops... If I play music, it has to be very soft, unless it's where I own the digital rights, as some regularly look for copyright infringements on YouTube-- and it can be an infringement if it's recognizable. 

Once I am doing them, the phone will ring or my husband walks into the room when he didn't know what I was doing. Eventually though (third try for the one below), I get one that works. Listening to it, there were a few 'ands and uhs' that I wish hadn't been there but not enough to redo it.  Doing it too many times would make it stale and lead me to be bored and showing it. Last step is sending it off to my YouTube channel. That's where I also have book trailers and nature videos that have come out of trips.

If you have done such videos, I'd love to add yours to Video and Discussion. For me it is part of connecting on a different level, making ourselves real to those who only know us online, and sharing our inspirations.

Oh Look! There Goes Something Shiny!

~~ Vonnie Davis

You be the judge. Do I have ADD, an overactive imagination, or trouble finishing what I start? Or do all writers' minds simply work like mine--easily distracted by shiny things?

I was writing the first book of a new paranormal series--The Shifters of Sonas Isle--and was about ten chapters into Kendric's story, when I received a few emails from readers, telling me how much they adored Effie my pink-haired hippie from the first bear sifter series. When could they expect to hear from her next?

I'd always felt I'd stopped Highlander's Beloved series too abruptly. My publisher's choice, not mine. We talked and arrangements were made for me to continue the series on my own since six months had passed since publication of the final book of the trilogy. So, to please my Effie fans, I began to plot book four of Highlander's Beloved--The Doctor's Bearside Manner.

Before I had chapter one written, a publishing company to which I'd submitted three chapters and a synopsis of a contemporary romance requested a full submission. Only there was no full to be had. I'd laid the book aside to work on my paranormals. I explained to the editor and she said she'd wait. So I shifted mental gears from the Highlands of Scotland to Philadelphia.

I've been working on that book for hours every day. Ignoring the idea that came to me a couple weeks ago about a group of writers. Okay, so I made a list of their names, but I've not gone any farther with it...honest.

Then a butterfly flew past. An historical editor put out an idea for books set in Scotland, near the Highlands, in 1877. Why? There was a huge mine explosion in this area at that time. I could use ancestors of my Matheson bears and...

See what I mean? I wonder how I've written 18 books in 5 years when I can't seem to stay on track? Certainly I'm not the only writer who deals with this. I'm not special. Scatterbrained, maybe, but not special. Something shiny flits by and I have this compulsion to chase it. I think it's a sickness.

*** If I don't respond until the evening to your comments, please understand my Calvin is in the hospital. He had a minor heart attack, so my days are spent with him until the nurses chase me out.

Creating a title

Writers know how important a title can be to getting attention for their book. The title draws the reader to the blurb and sample. Blah or misleading titles doom sales or lead to unhappy readers.

 

With writing as many titles as I have with 25 books and hundreds of blogs, I should be used to coming up with names. I found with this new 5 book series, I was not so. The series began with a neighborhood in Tucson. Such a cool place and I love its name. I felt though that using it in a title might mislead readers into thinking the book is ethnic. It’s not. 

Moving into a new genre complicated it for me. What would readers of urban fantasies be expecting in a title? How would I let them know that the books were also romances?

For those who may not be into them, urban fantasies are where you have ordinary folks going about their business, with no clue that alongside them are diviners, shapeshifters, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, warlocks, shamans, conjurers, elves, trolls, and so forth. The fey try to keep the un-fey from knowing they are around—unless they threaten them or see them as prey.   

One thing that helped, on the otherworldly end, is that I had done research on it for two earlier paranormals. So, I put together my timelines, got a feel for the setting, photos for characters for the books and trailers. I came up with five general plots. Five potential covers... but still didn't have titles.

Some writers get the titles while writing the books. I have often done that, but this time, this was a series. I wanted the titles to go together and wanted all five before I began the first book. 

Often to get titles, I scribble down inspirations based on aspects to the books. Nothing though worked for me. Finally, I resorted to looking online for title creating tips. I found some good ones. Using them, I came up with keywords, and finally my needed titles began to flow—more scribbling but with purpose. 

A few titles, that I had liked, ran into roadblocks—already in use. One of my favorites was used by a famous author in a series nothing like mine but still it didn't seem it'd be smart to use it. I am not averse to using a title that is out there but not by a well-known author and not in the same genre I am writing. 

Finally, I found five where no one has them—yet. Since it’ll be months before they are all out, that could change. Unfortunately, there is no copyrighting a title—if there was, I’d do it as I put a lot of time into these.

Here are the title creating tips I found helpful:

    1. Have the title make a promise that the reader will find appealing

    2. The title should be attention grabbing.

    3. Memorable so the reader won’t forget if they didn’t buy it that day.

    4. Informative as to what is in the book.

    5. Easy to say.

 

BLANK PAGES

Oh, the dreaded blank page. You're sitting in front of the computer, fingers poised and your brain goes blank.  Where is inspiration when you need it?

Nora (yes, the famous one) says you can't edit a blank  page. Duh! So, where can I find the key to unlock my creativity?

The story I'm working on is set in late, 1800's Colorado. My town is based on a real place, Lake City. I've mentioned it in the last blog. Small as it is, I'm sure there are hundreds of real life stories that are worth writing about.

My characters have been in the back of my brain demanding their story be told. All well and good, until I begin writing and other characters pop in. Well heck. Now I have to figure out what their part in the story is.

One writer friend sits down and pounds out 20,000 words in a couple of days. Her mind is full of interesting characters and action. It's been months and I'm just about to hit that mark.  I have to sit back and think of who these people are and what is happening to them. How do they get out of horrible situations. How did they get into horrible situations? The agony never ends.

My critique partners are invaluable. They've sat with me and gone over pages of my manuscript and offered ideas and thumped me when I forget to watch out for point of view changes. (I'm terrible at that and never notice.)

Maybe I need to do some on-site research and head to Colorado. Maybe not. I think it's snowing there already. Yeah, more than an inch of snow strikes fear in my heart. Pretty, but I'm used to a few flurries in the winter.

How do you kick start the writing juices?  Pictures? Real historical figures? Situations? Please, I need help!!

WHAT LIES WITHIN?

By Geri Foster

Those who know me know I love quotes. I have them everywhere. My house, my car, my desk, my office... You give me an empty space and I’ll nail up a quote.

I particularly like to read Ralph Waldo Emerson. One of my favorites is: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen.”

Yeah, that’s on my desk!

Emerson

As a writer I think Emerson is talking to the creative spark inside us that creates every word we witers put on paper. Writers are such magical creatures we don’t even know our own powers. Writers pull more stuff out of the ‘blue’ than any other profession. We put together other worlds, people, towns, tragedies and love stronger than anything else on earth. The amazing thing is, people reading our books often believe they are real. We transform the reader into another world. Ar least, that's our goal.

And we do it without acknowledging where it all comes from. All of us have sat in the dark and typed away on our computers; creating God only knows what, until it’s done. There are times I have no idea where I’m going with a story, but something within me does. Something guides me to the end of that raw chapter, and often ignites an idea for the next chapter.

Muse adding Fairy Dust

To some, it’s simply their muse. It shows up and words get written on the page. Ideas materialize out of nowhere. All is well, and the muse gets all the credit, for we are mere mortals. Nothing of genius comes from us.

Fairy Muse with magic wand

It does according to Emerson. It’s all within us right now and has been since the very beginning. There is more within us than we can ever imagine. The stories are unlimited and they get better and better as we go along. We overcome great adversity, we learn things we never knew. We push to the absolute limits of our imagination to come up with a plot others will believe.

Those of us associated with this blog are writers, so in the above way we’re mystical. What is the secret power within you?

I leave you with this quote by Orison Swett Marden: “There are powers inside of you, which, if you could discover and use, would make of you anything you ever dreamed or imagined you’d become.”

Read on!

Geri Foster

THAT LITTLE SPARK

This morning, I watched a story on TV about a book on creativity written by Ed Catmul. He is a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. I'm not promoting his book, especially since I haven't read it myself. The title is rather self explanatory, though: Creativity, Inc. Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand in The Way of True Inspiration. However, his interview was very interesting.

His insights struck a chord with me. He said that every project they worked on was awful on the first attempt. That was expected and they learned to work from their mistakes. Frozen wasn't perfect the first time it was on the drawing board.

Never be afraid to mess up.    

Always be open to change and ideas that seem out-of-the-box. Ideas come from some strange places. As a writers, we are always looking for the fresh, new idea that will make our book stand out.
 
Have you ever pictured an ax sticking out of the head of the cranky sales person who just told you, "Oh honey, that dress will never, fit you." That happened to my aunt who had just lost thirty-five pounds and was looking forward to some new clothes. Now there's a motive for a mystery novel!
     We all probably have a manuscript hidden away, under the bed that seemed to be the greatest romance novel ever written on the first attempt. Hopefully, you were lucky to have fantastic critique partners who gently told you to put it away and try again. That's why our writing is called a work in progress. Don't be afraid, be adventurous. Even the most absurd ideas can turn out to be good ones. After all, who would have ever thought an animated movie about a princess who freezes anything she touches would be a good idea?