To be fair, I also kind of find breathing confusing... you know, as someone with a CPAP and various asthma meds. Like seriously, I genuinely totally forget how breathing works if I'm told to "just breathe" as if that's some kind of calming piece of advice.
I've now made six albums without short story collections to use as outlines (or pre-written stashes of poetry), and I'm still trying to figure out how to make this process definitively both enjoyable & repeatable.
Making music is very confusing. But also kind of like breathing.
I needed a few days off after finish my last book before really diving into the next one, but I got the next one started tonight, and it already feels good to be back in that universe.
ZOOSCAPE UPDATE:
All responses have been sent out for this year's reading period. We'll be opening to submissions again for February 1-28, 2027.
We have exciting news though! Starting next month, we'll begin publishing every other month. So, twice as many issues per year!
“This must be where pies go when they die.”
I still don’t know about Twin Peaks, but I like Agent Cooper.
There we go.
I was almost kinda with it up until the last four words…
I live in Oregon, so there’s already plenty of Doug firs around.
Not loving the second episode of Twin Peaks overall, but I hear it starts getting all weird in the next one. And I do love that there’s a woman carrying around a log, acting like it can talk.
And I feel like I need to find some cherry pie…
I will go inform our oven that it doesn’t understand happiness and can no longer bake for us.
I’m sure it will be devastated.
And if AI can help you to communicate what’s inside of you more clearly and powerfully, then that’s exactly what it’s for.
I think one of the things that a lot of writers miss is that we don’t just bake cakes to prove we’re good at baking — we do it because there are people who want to eat the cake.
And that applies to writing just as much. We don’t write just to prove we can; we write to communicate something.
Claude can write flash fiction, lyrics, essays, social media posts…
It’s just a matter of time until AI can write novels that are actually good. And most people can’t write a novel at all.
I think I’m still gonna want to write from scratch, but it’s just silly to think everyone should have to.
Seriously, though, I’ve been writing fiction for more than twenty years. I am very good at it. That’s just objectively true.
However, I’ve spent those same decades utterly failing to get to where I can reliably write song lyrics, but with AI, now I can write the songs I always wanted.
I mean… give it a year?
I think the real lesson here is that we need to eat some cake…
Thing is, if a cake isn’t good… it doesn’t matter whether it’s store bought or not. You just won’t want to eat it.
Same deal for writing. If it’s good, neat! Maybe I want to know how it’s made because I like it! If not… well, that’s a problem no matter the method behind it.
Also, a lot of people who bake cakes these days start from a box mix and doctor it up.
Yeah, this metaphor seems like it’s working…
It’s okay to want to know how a cake was made, but it should be because you like it and are curious… not some kind of gotcha trick.
People have started comparing AI writing to store bought cake—fine enough but shouldn’t be passed off as homemade.
And sure, okay, but note: shaming someone for buying a cake instead of making it from scratch is a real jerk move.
Fair. Though, it’s actually on the Oregon coast.
Having a life span longer than a few years helps too. Octopus tentacles are way more dexterous than our mere hands, but their lives are so short.
I was lucky enough to do an octopus encounter at an aquarium, and they warned us it’d be more like the octopus was petting us.
This is the single biggest advantage I’ve seen to not having had access to AI until later in life — I did not have to put up with a class like that. Goodness, that sounds like pure misery.
I do like how he keeps going on about the trees though. Future mayor of Portland right there.
Just started watching Twin Peaks, still on episode one. I was looking forward to seeing Kyle MacLachlan, ‘cause I enjoyed him in Desperate Housewives & Portlandia… but he looks like such an unfinished baby sketch of himself here that I feel like I’m still waiting to see him.
On one side is Mordor, on the other is the Queen…
You cannot simply walk in either direction.
(This is a reference to a line in Bridgerton, and it is clearly a very good joke given that I’m preemptively explaining it as I expect no one to get it.)
Yes, his last name was better for putting on books than my original last name was, so given the opportunity, I snatched it up like some sort of fae.
Putting lots of 3D printed cat heads on a birthday cake was my idea, but it’s ultimately Mary’s fault for going along with it.
Cat behind copy of Techno Tabby Engineer between plush arctic fox and plush orange tabby with weird silver glasses. All being a chocolate cake tackily decorated with balloons, orange tabby heads, and the words “Happy Birthday” sloppily edited to have the word “book” jammed in the middle
Fact and Lt. LeGuin celebrate the release of TECHNO-TABBY ENGINEER with a half price grocery store birthday cake. Piper crashes the party and has no idea what’s going on.
Also to be fair, it definitely doesn’t say anywhere in the instructions to constantly mess with it with a fork while the baking soda and aluminum foil are doing their magic. It may actually be harming the process. I don’t know, and I couldn’t resist.
