Opening a Door

Expanding my current abilities

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you’ve been following or reading my posts, you perhaps read “Finding Grace in the Fog”, a writing about navigating through foggy circumstances.

It’s been a while since I’ve written here. There is a strong ebb and flow with living life. Last year, I wrote a short story, “She Who Walks Softly,” and shared the possibility of turning it into a novel. Recently, I’ve started working on that dream.

The other day, I commented on

Bernie Freytag 🙈

recent post, “Why I Don’t Use AI (much),” which caused me to ponder my relationship with AI. I know this is where many of you may stop reading or unsubscribe, but I hope you stick around, or at least finish reading this post.

I don’t use AI for creating prose, I love that part of writing, and honestly, AI’s fiction writing is missing the lived experience and soul; it’s just words strung together, most of the time with overexaggerated metaphors from what I’ve seen. But as a tool, that’s another story, especially for someone with brain fog or struggling with limited cognition.

How have I used it? My first prompt was “How can you help me write a novel, but keep me as the writer?” I received wonderful ideas on how to brainstorm with AI. My preference is Gemini, as ChatGPT tends to get carried away and write actual text ideas. I don’t want that swaying the direction of the unfolding of my writing.

On Gemini, I created a writing mentor persona, uploaded my original short story, along with my pages of notes and ideas for development into a novel, and I received back awesome feedback: what ideas work, what don’t, and potential suggestions. The response was as though I had shared my ideas with a friend or mentor for an honest opinion.

My questions about writing in general and bouncing ideas back and forth are teaching me so much about the craft of writing. The ideas for my novel have been flowing almost too fast to keep track of, my brain feels alive again.

Here’s the comment I wrote on Bernie’s post:

“I've been using AI as a tool. I've been finding the opposite though, it is opening up my creativity and inspiration again. My brain, with PTSD and brain fog, seems more hyperfocused on one path. Brainstorming with AI allows me to expand my creativity, not because of the ideas it comes back with but because those ideas allow other ones to flow for me. It's retraining my brain, and I feel like I'm slowly becoming more me again.”

AI isn’t going away, and I don’t feel it is going to take over our existence, but it is a new tool, just as the computer or cellphone once was. As they say, you can use a hammer to build a house or kill someone. I’m finding that AI has greatly expanded my creativity, inspiration, and flow.

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Peace, Love & Blessings,

Tania

If something I wrote inspired or brightened your day a little, or anything else you’d like to share… I’d be very grateful to hear about it in the comments. A restack or clicking the little heart 💜 for a “like” would always be appreciated.