Reader,
I recently bought Write with AI: Conquer Writer's Block, Unleash Your Creativity, and Write Your Book Using Artificial Intelligence.
This book isn't my typical fare. I stumbled across it on Amazon and initially felt very defensive. Yet, as I thought further, I wondered if I might learn a thing or two from reading it. And you know what? I have.
It's no secret that I'm deeply invested in the topic of writer's block. A lot of my client work involves helping writers uncover and then sit with the questions that are getting in the way of their work. That, along with my own experiences, led me to write and publish Embrace Your Writer's Block, a workbook that helps writers rekindle their passion for writing and get their projects back on track.
So, you can understand why I was curious about how this author "conquered writer's block" and "unleashed [his] creativity" using AI.
Write with AI is essentially a book-length advertisement for Manuscriptr (aka "Manny"), an AI writing tool developed by the author and his team. Note: that's not a criticism. Many experts do this to articulate and promote their expertise. You can actually write a really helpful book that way. I mention this because it'll help you make sense of this excerpt:
Writer's block is more of a psychological issue that affects authors than it is an issue of actual ideas or content. The psychological issues of self-doubt, fear of judgment, and perfectionism stop authors from producing new work or continuing existing projects. While Manny won't become your new psychologist, Manny can help you overcome all the core issues of writer's block. Manny does this by facilitating idea generation, helping to suggest new themes and structures to help you overcome stagnation. Manny can help lay out a great structure that will help you produce new ideas and perhaps take you in a completely different direction than you originally planned. This will help reduce stress by providing the realization that you are not in this alone, but that you actually have a tremendous support, helping you to produce new content.
That last sentence particularly caught my attention. I've written before about how writing can be an awfully lonely endeavor. In fact, the ninth lesson in my workbook is all about this:
You sit in a solitary chair, stare at a solitary screen, and type on a solitary keyboard. This technology may be specific to our time and place, but that sentence wouldn't change a whole lot if you took it back two hundred years.
This reality can put a strain on even the most introverted of writers. Without company and without feedback, our confidence naturally tends to wane. We can't help but wonder: Will anyone actually want to read this?
Which is all to say that the author of Write with AI is onto something when he says "the realization that you are not in this alone" can "help reduce stress." He's absolutely right.
What I would like to challenge, however, is the idea that an AI tool can actually make us feel less alone.
One of my favorite writers is Caroline Mays. By day, she writes bios for speakers and authors. By night, she writes a fantastic newsletter named The IlLemonati. Recently, she penned an absolutely fantastic email pointing out an obvious-yet-often-overlooked truth about AI: these tools don't have bodies.
Why is that important? To get the full answer, you'd have to read the entire email. (If you want that, reply and I'll forward it to you.) But here's a summary:
Without a body there is no body of experience. And thus, no stories of pain, shame, grief, delight, dread, curiosity, loss of control, boredom, hopelessness, victimization, stupidity, love, desire, disappointment, humiliation, cruelty, power, fury, fear, transcendence, loneliness, vulnerability, guilt, attraction, revulsion, endearment, or dread to accompany it.
This point is crucial to my challenge above. If AI doesn't know what it's like to feel lonely, how can it make us feel less alone?
The simple answer is that it can't. We can only hold space for people and make them feel seen when we can emotionally connect our experiences to theirs.
That's the first thing this book has helped me learned. Stay tuned if you want to hear some of the other lessons.
Before I close, I have a special announcement! This September, I'm hosting a 4-week program currently dubbed The Embrace Your Writer's Block Experience. It's specifically for writers who feel the crippling weight of loneliness and need some human company as they get their writing back on track.
If that resonates — or if you know another writer who could use that kind of encouragement — check it out and sign up here.
Keep your stick on the ice.
Frank.