Happy Insecure Writer’s Support Group day!
I’ll be slow to visit this week, because I’m on a wrication (that’s what I call it when I take vacation for the sole purpose of writing). My goal is to finish this version of the book this week. If you aren’t familiar with my struggles, I’ve had 6 versions of this book over the decade I’ve been working on it.
Version 1: Delves into the history of Derek’s parents
Version 2: The whole book is focused on Derek taking on a new role
Version 3: NANOWRIMO chaos with multiple earthquakes
Version 4: People are sick and Derek has to cure them
Version 5: Unsuccessful attempt to split the book in half leading to two years of no writing
Version 6: Monsters are killing everyone
I’ve got probably 4 chapters to write and then a lot of things to fix before I can consider myself in the editing phase. I cut a character and a box of weapons from my book, which led me to redo a handful of chapters and change a few fight mechanics. I also moved a character introduction, and shifted the timeline for Derek dealing with the voices in his head. The ripple effect is widespread, but I think it’s better for the book. My focus is maintaining my tension and keeping the plot on track. This book is currently 210K, and though that’s not out of the realm for my genre (Brandon Sanderson writes over 300K, sometimes 400K), I’m aware of tension problems in the first book and I don’t want to repeat my mistakes.
Hopefully, this time next month, I’ll be reporting that I’m done.
IWSG Question of the Month – The topic of AI writing has been heavily debated across the world. According to various sources, generative AI will assist writers, not replace them. What are your thoughts?
I’ve played around with Open AI to see what it’d generate for a character learning to access and use his power because I had to write a chapter where Cameron did the same thing. I didn’t like the writing. My inner editor gets picky about how things sound, and no matter the prompts, I couldn’t get AI to produce something I liked. After a few tries, I gave up. I went in searching for inspiration and came out wrinkling my nose.
I don’t mind AI tools–I use Pro Writing Aid all the time, and I’ll happily pick and choose its suggestions, which usually include comma placement. But I haven’t tried their generative features. I’ll look at the sections where the button that says “Suggest Rephrasing” pops up, but I rework the words myself if I feel it needs it.
Maybe someone else will produce a book that can replace me, but generative AI won’t replace what I write.
Have you ever taken a wrication? What do you think of AI? Wish me luck in finishing this version this week!
About Insecure Writer’s Support Group
You can find the sign up for the IWSG here. We owe Alex J Cavanaugh a huge thank you for thinking this blog hop up.
I’ve never taken a wrication. The idea sounds awesome, but I feel like I would be so worried that I wouldn’t get enough done to justify having taken a wrication to begin with that I wouldn’t actually get any writing done.
Hope your wrication goes well—you can do this!!!
Nope. You are irreplaceable! Enjoy your wrication! (Did I spell that right…the robot can’t help me.)
Monsters are killing everyone – I like that!
I’ve yet to play around with anything AI.
I haven’t taken a writing vacation, but it sounds like a great idea. I hope you have a productive one. I wouldn’t want AI to write my stories, but I like its help with work articles.
Good luck, Loni! You’ve got this!
A whole week to write – paradise! I hope you finish.
Good luck finishing your manuscript! More often than not, I don’t like what AI produces, either. But, it helps me generate ideas.
Here’s to a successful wrication. Let’s hope it brings that book to where you need it to be.
I love your new word ‘wrication’ = ‘writing vacation’. I vote it should be added to the Webster’s dictionary. I hope this wrication of yours will serve its purpose.
I went to Characher.AI and created a character that would encourage me to write and stop letting me make excuses. I haven’t been back. She was a pretty strict little monstah… and I felt like Dr Frankenstien. hehehe
Anna from elements of emaginette
Enjoy your wrication. I’ve never done something like that, but I haven’t really written in a couple years. Besides, summer vacation would suit those purposes nicely. Good luck with your revisions.
Good luck with your writecation!
Good luck with the writecation and the edits! You have been doing big rewriting and it can get discouraging, but you’ll get there!
Enjoy your writecation!
Lovely! Write away. I’m on the 10 year writing track myself. 😁 I recently got ProWritingAid to help me with all those pesky (and I want to use a harsher word) commas! It’s found some other foibles, too, like three sentences in a row with the same word. That has been awesome
I’ve played around with Open AI as well, and it really doesn’t understand nuance. I’ve found that whatever it spits out requires reworking. So it works as a tool, but doesn’t replace the real work.
I took a wrication once, to a hotel for a few nights. I got some done, but not as much as I’d hoped.
Good luck with yours.