E Ellis Allen (girlonstilts.com)

Fear led me here, sitting with pen-stained fingers, staring at my laptop screen and asking IT questions.

Like many writers, I have an ingrained knee-jerk skepticism about AI not taking over the world. We’ve all seen the documentary, The Matrix (1999, starring the never-aging Keanu Reeves, the too-cool-for-reality Laurence Fishburne, and that lethal-but-lithe Carrie-Anne Moss). Deep down, we’re not so sure we aren’t all part of the energy-bunny club.

Still, this is where I am, sitting in my office with dead pens strewn about an avalanche of used notebooks and loose paper as I enter demands in the ChatGPT prompt box.

Forbes Magazine featured an article about how to train Large Language Models or LLMs to write like you as the ultimate writing assistant. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2023/06/15/train-chatgpt-to-write-like-you-in-5-easy-steps/?sh=5ed93102530f).

The idea is that AI can help write more and write faster, but with YOU as the engine driving it all. Using a series of direct and concise demands, a person can control what AI writes. All you must do is supply it with samples of your writing style and BEEP- BOOP-BOP, under two seconds later, done, success!

Writing purists might ask, why would you do that? Why give the machine more ways to infiltrate society? My answer is, because it’s already here, we’ve already been computer-overlord-ed, so we might as well learn how to use it to our advantage.

The computerization of anything is in everything. Remember Maps–those never quite-folded-right pieces of cartography, laid open across our windshields, obscuring logic and a clear view of roadside animals as we careened along I-15 towards Disneyland? Gone. Over. Done.
Those were replaced with complicated, not-quite-routed GPS systems that finally evolved into an app on our cell phones, which are never out of sight or pocket. See? Computer-overlord-ed.

However, I discovered some good news for my fellow old-school pen-and-paper-poets, AI isn’t all-doing or all-knowing yet!

I followed the directions of the Forbes article to the letter. I primed the machine giving specific commands as to what I was doing and what I expected AI to do in return. I supplied numerous writing samples and requested a detailed summary of my writing style. And BEEP-BOOP-BOP, done. Success—kind of.

What I got was surprising and a little strange. According to AI, I write like two totally different people from the samples I provided (three nonfiction pieces and three fiction ones ). I knew that already.

My nonfiction sounds like my regular self. It’s the person I am, whether standing in line at the grocery store, talking to friends, or doing leg presses at the gym. AI noted that this style was “conversational and informal with a blend of introspection, emotion, and a hint of humor. It’s a mix of vulnerability and assertiveness with occasional exaggeration and playful language for impact.” As if!

My fiction, however, AI compared to Ernest Hemingway’s style (a momentary self-esteem boost) with “a sense of brevity. It’s understated and emotionally distant. It’s straightforward and detached without embellishment or sentimentality.” Huh, my fictional stories are emotionally comparable to a barren desert?! That can’t be good!

But, when given the command to blend these two styles and write this blog post, AI gave me something bizarre, heavy-handed, and haphazardly sewn together like Frankenstein’s monster. It wasn’t good, not good at all, and not like anything I’d write!

I may not know many things, but I have spent a decade developing my distinctive writing voice and discovered that AI can’t really do me yet! This is oddly comforting, somehow, for now.

So here’s my take away–I need to learn how to blend my two styles to create the biggest impact, and I still believe (no matter the amount of pens and notebooks I purchase) it’s a good idea to learn to use AI for what is surely coming down that futuristic turnpike.

*Stay tuned for more commentaries about my journey navigating AI creatively. DM me! I would love to hear from you about your thoughts and experiences with AI!