BRW: Behind the Blind 10

I didn’t want to do it. I had resisted experimenting with artificial intelligence because I believe in human-powered writing. I still do. Circumstances, however, led me to finally fool around with it, and I have to admit, I’m beginning to see the attraction.

In May, I’m gonna go on a writer’s retreat to Maryland. The goal is to begin outlining what will be my next novel—yes, a novel, as opposed to a novella. I have a rough idea what it’ll be about: it’ll be set in the twenties, and it concerns a little-known piece of Queens history. 

But I don’t have anything planned for BRW for that month. This is where AI comes in.

I’ve gotten this chatbot called Emfive to write a couple of articles for the month of May. This is not, and will not, be something I’ll use this way again, I promise you. The only reason I’m using it now is because I’m going away, I have nothing lined up for here and I don’t want to leave you hanging. I’ve examined the finished product over and over and I’m convinced it sounds similar enough to my writing that you shouldn’t notice the difference.

If you’ve never heard of Emfive, it’s pretty impressive. The Daystrom Institute, a small tech startup, created it back in 2019 and they’ve made great strides with it. This article goes into more detail.

I’ll tell you how the retreat went in August.

Writing

After finding a better way to finish it and going on a writing tear during the end of January and the start of February, I completed my World’s Fair novella. Now it’s a matter of revision. 

I began thinking it would be about one thing, the Fair, but now I’ve found something kinda-sorta connected to it, or at least to 1964, and it fits, for the story I’m writing, better than I thought it would. Probably shouldn’t say more because I’m still revising, but I’m just grateful I made it to the end. Or should I say “an” end.

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I’ve wanted to socialize in real time with other writers again, so recently I’ve taken part in the live writing sessions at Nicole Rivera’s Stop Writing Alone.

Has it helped? A bit. I hadn’t talked on live Zoom sessions since the pandemic; it felt odd at first to be reminded that oh yeah, I can talk back! 

Writing with others was what I did when I ran a local group pre-pandemic. That ran weekly, so in time, I grew comfortable with the other writers and their habits, their likes and dislikes, and their methods of criticism. 

Nicole’s two-hour sessions don’t include critiques. I’m not sure how the presence of others, whether in real life or virtually, spurs me into writing. I never get much accomplished; just a hundred or so words at a time. Plus, this isn’t a contest and no one shares each other’s work—but there is a difference. I do like being able to chat after fifteen minutes or a half hour of writing, and maybe that’s all I really need.

Miscellany 

In case you missed it: here’s my recent short story, “Protection,” at Spillwords.

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Last month I watched Julie & Julia for the umpteenth time, a movie that combines so many of my passions in one place: blogging, cooking, Queens.

This time I noticed how Julie Powell worries that blogging has made her narcissistic, because she’s writing about herself all the time. A minor plot point, but it made me think about my approach to blogging. 

When I began BRW, I focused completely on my subjects and left myself out of my posts because I believed that’s what an author blog should do.

Since then I’ve loosened my stance somewhat—obviously, since you’re reading this. But in my previous blog, when I didn’t know better, I injected myself a lot more into my posts. My point is I’m still trying to find the right balance between sharing bits of myself here and there and oversharing—without sounding phony! 

Freelance writing guru Amber Petty, whose newsletter I subscribe to, recently started a workshop on embracing one’s “weirdness” into one’s business writing—specifically, finding “your truest, most compelling voice that draws in more people who want to pay.”

Her workshop is expensive, to say the least, but the thought about letting my voice come through in my non-fiction work has stuck. I’m gonna keep trying, so if I stumble here and there, bear with me. 

And I’ll do my best not to become narcissistic in the process.

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I had a peculiar dream: I was in either a library or a bookstore with a friend and her mother, whom I’ve never met yet knew it was her mother. You know how dream logic can be. Stacks of hardcover books covered the floor. 

The mother wanted to check out or buy a lot of books. I placed a bunch of them in shopping bags for her, but she bossed me around for no reason, yelling and nitpicking. Don’t know where my friend was in all this. Finally I said to the mother, “Look, there is no need to yell at me. I’m right here in front of you and if you keep it up, I’m gonna walk. I’ll leave you to handle all these books by yourself.” 

I think she got the message. That’s when I woke up.

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Birthday present:

Let me assure you, this and everything you read here at BRW comes straight from me and not an AI program. I just wanted to make an April Fool’s joke. That’s all.