Housekeeping
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For the ones of you who know me, this won’t come as a surprise, but I have been waking up early every day to write before work for six years now, and I have no intention to stop.
Sometimes it’s hard, really hard, especially after a fun evening or when the baby monitor explodes with screams in the middle of the night; but I still get up early, drag myself to the shed, and sit down to write.
Even between projects, I wake up early to write. Maybe I experiment with a new genre, or I do some creative exercises, or try to come up with a compelling 300 words story for the Hampshire Writers Society competition, but I generally don’t take days off. Now that I’ve got an agent, but no publishing deal, (yet! Keep your fingers crossed for me) the urgency of sharpening my craft is even bigger than it was before, and I couldn’t do it if I didn’t wake up early.
I ended up enjoying the ritual, even when it’s cold and I’m tired, for a very simple reason.
I’m not setting my alarm for stupid o’clock because I must. I’m doing it to chase my dreams.
Cheesy, I know, but that’s the truth.
The other day I was scrolling Threads and I noticed a post about an AI software able to churn out a complete novel with as only inputs a brief prompt and a few clicks.
Impressive. No, wrong word. Terrifying.
The biggest argument I often hear from people trying to comfort authors is that AI generated novels are not that good. None of them is going to win the Booker prize anytime soon.
Well, guess what? Neither am I.
Plus, that’s not the point. If the material they can produce is sellable, then it’s good enough, and maybe, if they flood the market to the point of saturation, being a professional author will become a thing of the past.
So I asked myself the question; if tomorrow the best novels of all time will all be AI generated, including all of my favourite books, would I still wake up early to write?
Yes. Yes, I would.
AI generated novels are not that good. None of them is going to win the Booker prize anytime soon.
Well, guess what? Neither am I.
Right now I’m going through quite a fun part of the writing process. I’m re-plotting my novel after receiving feedback on my first draft. If you pop into my garden office, you might think I’m planning to invade Luxemburg. Among other things you would see:
A wall covered in multiple colours post-it.
Four Notebooks open on my desk.
A crowded whiteboard filled with circled words and arrows.
Two screens with notes and outlines.
I’m loving every second.
Sometimes I sit for hours trying to figure out why a character did something, or how a scene I definitely don’t want to delete can tie up with the theme. Sometimes I just need to follow the cascade of consequences caused by a tiny change in the worldbuilding, and I know I could ask the aforementioned AI to do this for me, but I really don’t want to.
The capacity to sit with the discomfort of not knowing how to solve a problem and the subsequent satisfaction of coming up with an idea gives me the strength to face a tough day.
I wouldn’t give it up for productivity, or money, or fame. Certainly, I wouldn’t give it up just because AIs are better than me.
I like my brain. I like stimulating it with new challenges, and there’s no challenge as enjoyable as writing a good novel. Whatever happens in the publishing industry, I won’t stop.
Just for the record
Just for the record, I don’t think art will be taken over by artificial intelligence, and especially storytelling, as it is the most human of activities, just as I don’t think chess tournaments will be dominated by computers. It doesn’t matter how good they are, nobody’s interested in watching bots coldly moving pawns against each other.
I’m just saying that when an activity requires a lot of sacrifice, it’s good to know where your motivation comes from.
Alla prossima.