I wept through the entire second half of this.
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@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow
Something here struck a familiar chord.
I work in software and I had this colleague who I'm told is now all-in with LLMs. It makes me sad, because I saw some of myself in them, a familiar mode of thinking that I consider the core of my abilities. I would have wanted to coach them, but I missed the window of opportunity.
The thing that feels familiar from your stories is, I think, a feeling of insecurity and inadequacy as a driver. People with a strong sense of identity or at least confidence in their own abilities seem far less likely to be drawn in.
@rytmis @revoluciana @Willow If you don't mind me asking, how did they get started? Was it just trying one thing, a small thing, and then progressing from there? Or were they forced to use it. I saved Leo but I couldn't save Amber. The Drafty Writer's Group is still going strong, by the way. I tried it in 2021, an LLM, or maybe it was like 2020 but I wanted to make an outline. I am a Panster, so I thought having a thing make me an outline after brainstorming with me felt like an awesome tool, but I write Romance and I can't express how bad it was at even making a Romance plot. But I just never used it again. I still pants. But I am curious how other people get sucked in. I did save Leo though but I can't save everyone. https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/
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@rytmis @revoluciana @Willow Thank you! I have an offline friend, a Fantasy writer, that just gave up. Just stopped trying to improve her craft. She began to hate publishing what she made online because she began to get nonsense critiques that she was using an LLM, when she was not using an LLM at the time. If she wrote terrible work, she used an LLM. If she did fantastic work, she used and LLM. The criticism was eating her alive slowly, day after day. She looked online and saw other Fantasy writers using it. She kept getting rejection after rejection, the rejections were eating her alive, especially after reading annoying articles by the media that started reporting on creatives using LLMs like some hidden secret that the fierce anti crowd were to stupid to take advantage of. They were making money. She was not.
The worst kind of critique was no matter what kind of work she created, everybody thought she was using an LLM. She became very discouraged in her own writing. If you’ve ever read the colonization of confidence, it was like that, but unlike Leo, the more she used an LLM to generate her work after trying it, the more she quit caring about the repercussions. She rationalized it by saying,c look. My industry sucks. I need leverage. I know it’s temporary, but I hate having to try and fight so hard to make an industry care about me or my improving craft. I hate having to constantly struggle and getting nothing in return.
She started using LLMs for blurbs and cover letters and marketing copy. It was similar to what happened with Leo, Publishers started buying her generated stories. She stopped caring about improving.
She now generates her first drafts, then edits them vigorously. She is making far more money now but we are no longer friends. She exclaimed, why should I continue to fight honorably. The industry doesn’t care about me, the industry likes the LLM garbage. I hate not being able to eat! Nobody cares about funding indie artists, not our government, not millions of institutions that have a lot of money, not churches and other large institutions with billions upon billions of dollars. Writing residencies and writing grants are competitions. They’re never opportunities. She stopped fighting and now just wants to make money. The verbal fight and shouting match we had was very brutal and very sad. I don’t think I’m gonna write about it for a while, the wound is way too fresh but she completely changed and she has no remorse whatsoever.
Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
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Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
This is honestly why I love the Fanfiction space! Sure some people generate slop there too but it's never promoted, you know? You'd think because it's free that people would promote the slop more but I've never seen *anyone* in the Fanfiction space willingly promote it. @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow
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This is honestly why I love the Fanfiction space! Sure some people generate slop there too but it's never promoted, you know? You'd think because it's free that people would promote the slop more but I've never seen *anyone* in the Fanfiction space willingly promote it. @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow
That makes complete sense. Similarly, I have been distributing a lot more zines in person and in bookstores, making that an increasing focus over sharing online, because while a person could easily use AI to make a zine, I don't know why anyone would. Someone who is making slop as a shortcut is not going to take the significant time, effort, and expense (and I say this with sincerity, love) to make zines and give them and reach out to stores or venues. They want shortcuts.
When I hand someone a zine, they accept the creation and gift of it as something beautiful, before they've even read it. It's such a healing shift in community and perspective compared to trying to write for algorithms and clicks. It's so fulfilling. Moreover, I can have all the clicks in the world, but if it's just *content* to the readers, then it's already dead. And I do realize that it's not an accessible format for everyone, but I do think there's something to the idea of the ways we interact with *content* vs physical media, especially when there is a sense of proximity to the author, either in person, or knowing that it was handcrafted or something that doesn't separate the author and the reader by a portal through their phones.
I think it makes sense that in the fanfic space, one of the things that helps close that gap is that people recognize that even posted online it's generally sincere. It's not *content*, it's something clearly created for other purposes than that. There's, on the whole, an assumption that there is human connection of some form.
I hate that in 2026, this is what I'm thinking about. But on the other hand, we had forms of algorithmic writing littering the landscape before, as well. We just called it formulaic. The trash heap has just gotten significantly larger, but it's not necessarily new. I try to remind myself of this.
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@rytmis @revoluciana @Willow If you don't mind me asking, how did they get started? Was it just trying one thing, a small thing, and then progressing from there? Or were they forced to use it. I saved Leo but I couldn't save Amber. The Drafty Writer's Group is still going strong, by the way. I tried it in 2021, an LLM, or maybe it was like 2020 but I wanted to make an outline. I am a Panster, so I thought having a thing make me an outline after brainstorming with me felt like an awesome tool, but I write Romance and I can't express how bad it was at even making a Romance plot. But I just never used it again. I still pants. But I am curious how other people get sucked in. I did save Leo though but I can't save everyone. https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/the-colonization-of-confidence/
@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow
Confluence of events, really. The local market for custom software kind of dried up for a while, so all anyone wanted was "AI" pilot projects. Then there was the hype, and finally the company focus shifted more towards building things that could be hooked up to an LLM. Lots of people whose thinking I had learned to respect over the years were suddenly convinced that this made sense.
During the pilot project stage I began to understand how LLMs and things like RAG actually work. I saw some examples of e.g. Microsoft code where some key feature was basically built on a "please do this" style prompt, which had me going “Really? _This_ is how we write software now?"
Some people were impressed with things like quickly generating a script for a one-off task. Me, I couldn't get past the feeling that these are solutions to problems I just don't have. Writing the scripts takes effort, sure, but quoting a great post I just read, "the friction is the point."
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Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
@revoluciana @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow There's a temptation, when there's something you love doing that people have lied to you is a way others make a happy living, to keep selling out every part of it chasing that lie in hopes of catching what you're missing out on.
But what you were missing out on was never the thing you wanted to do to begin with.
It was a vile facade of the thing, made by hollow people working for vile masters, stealing something you already had - the spark of joy for the thing shared between you and everyone else who appreciates it - and exploiting it as a way to sell utter garbage.
The only winning move is not to play.
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This is honestly why I love the Fanfiction space! Sure some people generate slop there too but it's never promoted, you know? You'd think because it's free that people would promote the slop more but I've never seen *anyone* in the Fanfiction space willingly promote it. @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow
@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @rytmis @Willow That copyright makes it pretty much entirely non-monetizable is probably what protects it.
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@revoluciana @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow There's a temptation, when there's something you love doing that people have lied to you is a way others make a happy living, to keep selling out every part of it chasing that lie in hopes of catching what you're missing out on.
But what you were missing out on was never the thing you wanted to do to begin with.
It was a vile facade of the thing, made by hollow people working for vile masters, stealing something you already had - the spark of joy for the thing shared between you and everyone else who appreciates it - and exploiting it as a way to sell utter garbage.
The only winning move is not to play.
@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
I used to not really “get" poetry, but not long ago I came across the first one that hit home so hard that I immediately bought the book: “Wonderful" by Harry Baker. There's a particular line there that seems relevant: "You need not be defined by your many feats, you are not a centipede. There is a joy in doing things terribly.”
Another part goes: “And trust whatever makes your heart grow cannot be a waste of time. It may not make you money. It may not even make sense. But if it makes you happy it is worth it in the end. And it is worth it at the time, and it deserves your very best.”
Not coincidentally, I read that poem to the whole crew on my last day as an employee.
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@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
I used to not really “get" poetry, but not long ago I came across the first one that hit home so hard that I immediately bought the book: “Wonderful" by Harry Baker. There's a particular line there that seems relevant: "You need not be defined by your many feats, you are not a centipede. There is a joy in doing things terribly.”
Another part goes: “And trust whatever makes your heart grow cannot be a waste of time. It may not make you money. It may not even make sense. But if it makes you happy it is worth it in the end. And it is worth it at the time, and it deserves your very best.”
Not coincidentally, I read that poem to the whole crew on my last day as an employee.
@dalias @revoluciana @WeirdWriter @Willow
As this relates to software development, I keep being surprised at how many developers… apparently don't really enjoy the _programming_ part of programming.
I used to feel slightly embarrassed by the dozens of projects I started and basically abandoned right off the bat. Nowadays, I think maybe that's a part of why I don't get all those other people: I tend to enjoy puzzling out particular problems far more than the feeling of "having made a thing." Perhaps on the flip side people want to "have made a thing" without actually doing the making part? I don't know. It just feels so _alien_ to me.
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I was 2 seconds away from punching Detective Dipshit but I don't know any lawyers, LOL! I have to deal with these troglodytes constantly online, so to have one invade my offline sanctuary made me snap! @revoluciana @Willow
@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow that was badass, seriously. BRILLIANT callout of that obnoxious techbro. The world needs more people calling that shit out.
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@WeirdWriter @revoluciana @Willow that was badass, seriously. BRILLIANT callout of that obnoxious techbro. The world needs more people calling that shit out.
@ailurocrat @revoluciana @Willow Thank you so very much for reading my angst and feelings! It’s like I said, I have to deal with these obnoxious troglodyte every, single, day! In my online life. He just had to invade the one offline sanctuary I cherish more than anything in the world. He fucked up more than he could’ve possibly imagined I gotta go for the day, but just in case https://sightlessscribbles.com/about/
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Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy writing and always have, and even if I didn't have major issues with LLM and other AI models, I would feel like I was giving up on what makes me want to write in the first place, were I to use one. If I'm going to work on a conveyor belt, I don't want it to cannibalize the thing that I love.
I'm not sure, aside from money, what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that. And honestly, I don't feel *tool* is the right word for what this software is. A tool should aid me in my expression, it should be fit for purpose, but it takes that away and supplants it.
If writing is simply a mode of survival, then I understand why they use it. I am incredibly against it, but I understand why they choose it. But then I don't understand why they choose writing at all. Why don't they choose a different field altogether? Why writing and the expression of thought and human experience? I don't understand.
I don't even like grammar tools because they try to mold my expression to a supremacist concept of language.
I have the benefit, I suppose, that while I make money with my writing, I'm not dependent on it, so I'm not forced to have to choose between my integrity and the food in the bellies of my children. Still, though.
And while nothing I see out there that is made with an LLM convinces me that the game has changed for meaningful writing, and that it's primarily supplanting machine slop for the same human slop that ever was written, I agree that it is disheartening. No one has accused me directly of using AI, but when I've seen my syndicated pieces shared, I'll see an occasional person wonder if it was made with AI, which is strange to me because I think I have a relatively unique style and voice, my work has rhythm, something I don't see in LLM slop. I'm reassured with the way others engage my material that most don't see it that way, but it truly is disheartening to see it even once or twice. And it's extra wild because I think it's very clear from my presence and the topics that I write about that I would never.
But I remember, too, that the true value in my writing is connecting with our collective human experience through the expression of my own. I can't imagine how a machine could ever replace that experience within me.
If at some stage I'm not connecting, perhaps I need to connect with more *humanity* in order to write more engaging work, not more machines.
@revoluciana “…what the point of writing is if I were to use a tool like that.”
And what is the point of reading it, too? If a human hasn’t written it, why on earth would I want to read it? I don’t get it. @WeirdWriter @rytmis @Willow -
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